Gunwinggu

The Gunwinggu, now usually spelt Kunwinjku, are an Aboriginal people of western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, east of Darwin; they call themselves Bininj, meaning the people. Their heartland lay in the hilly country south of Goulburn Island and the headwaters of the East Alligator River, including the Gumader swamps near Junction Bay.

Their speech is the dominant dialect of Bininj Kunwok, a chain of dialects stretching from Kakadu to the Liverpool River, and each clan also keeps a ritual language, kundangwok, for the djang spirits.

Before any European reached the area, Macassan trepang fishermen from Sulawesi had traded on these coasts for centuries, leaving dozens of loan words, including balanda for a European, from the Macassan word for Hollander, and their praus appear in the rock art of the Mann River.