Nganyaywanan

The Nganyaywanan are the Anēwan, also written Anaiwan, an Aboriginal people of the New England Tableland of northern New South Wales. Their lands of some 8,300 square kilometres ran from Moree, Guyra and Ben Lomond to Uralla, Walcha and the Moonbi Range. They were organised in clans such as the Himberrong, with a four-section marriage system.

Their language, also called Nganyaywana, struck early recorders as a linguistic isolate, so different did it look from neighbouring Gamilaraay. Later study showed the oddity was caused by the loss of initial consonants, a change that made the words for goanna and bull ant identical. Their dialects included Himberrong and Inuwon.

The explorer Allan Cunningham crossed the New England Tableland in 1827, the first European to enter their country. Within a few years squatters were driving sheep and cattle onto the highland pastures.