Wik peoples
Collectively, the Wik people are an aggregate of small groups occupying territory on Cape York Peninsula's west coast between Watson and Holroyd Rivers, extending as far as Rokeby. The inland Wik-Mungkan are the dominant group in a cluster of around ten closely related entities.
When Queensland-born anthropologist Ursula McConnel undertook the first ethnographic study of the Wik people, her fieldwork focused on groups gathered at the Archer River Mission (now Aurukun).
Wik country is slotted between the Winda Winda and Mbeiwum to the north, the Kaantju to the east, and the Thaayorre and Bakanh to the south. It extended inland between fifty and eighty kilometres from the coast, with the Watson, Archer, Kendall, Holroyd and Edward River catchments included. McConnel's 1930 classification differentiated between the following groups:
- Wik-Mungkan territory extended from the Holdroyd to the Archer, touching the Watson in the north and the Edward in the south. It covered around 8,300 square kilometres without extending to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Closely related coastal groups occupying a coastal strip of land between three and sixteen kilometres wide include;
- The Wik-Kalkan (a.k.a. Wik-Natera, Wik-ngatara, Wik Alkän, Wikkalkin, Wik-nätara, Algan, Ngadara) along the coast between the Archer River and Cape Keerweer.
- The Wiknantjara (a.k.a. Ngandjara, Wik-Ngencherra, Wik-Natjerra) were on the coast between the Edward and Kendall Rivers, including the mouths of the Holroyd River.
- The Wiknatanja (a.k.a. Wik-Ngartona, Wik-Natan, Wik-ngatona, bush-rat people) at the mouths of the Kendall River.
- The Wikmean, inland from Cape Keerweer.
- The Mimungkum (a.k.a. Mimuqkum), speaking a dialect of Wikmunkan inland to the south of Cape Keerweer and on the Kendall River in an area locally known as “Ti-Tree.” The Wik- form of their name has not been reported, though Wikmumin could apply.
- The Wikepa (a.k.a. Wikeppa), near Cape Keerweer.
- The Wikapatja, around the mangrove islands of the Archer River delta.
- The Wikampama on the Middle Archer River and north to the Watson River.
- The Wikmumin (a.k.a. Kokiala, Kokala) from roughly the same area could represent a separate group, possibly the Mimungkum.
By the time McConnel wrote, most groups had been reduced to detribalised remnants gathered at Aurukun.
Following the Australian High Court's 1992 Mabo decision that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had a form of "native title", Wik Peoples v Queensland subsequently found that native title could coexist with a pastoral lease.
Links to add:
Watson River
Holroyd River
Rokeby
Ursula McConnel
Archer River Mission
now Aurukun
Winda Winda
Mbeiwum
Archer River
Kendall River
Edward River
Wik-Kalkan
Cape Keerweer.
Wiknantjara
Wiknatanja
Wikmean,
Mimungkum
Ti-Tree.
Wikepa
Wikapatja
Wikampama
Wikmumin
Australian High Court
Mabo decision
