Balanggarra

Balanggarra is the self-identification of the Yeidji, also called Gwini or Kwini, in the Kimberley of Western Australia. Their country extended from Cambridge Gulf along the Forrest River toward the Milligan Range and Steere Hills, covering about a thousand square miles. Rivers, coastal creeks, rocky ranges and savanna woodland gave access to several kinds of country.

The names Gwini and Kujini describe people from an inland or coastal perspective. Neighbours included the Wilawila, Wenamba, Wirngir and Arnga. Yiiji, the local language, belongs to the Wunambal group. Families moved through this country with water, food and ceremonial obligations in mind, using river crossings and coastal paths rather than permanent roads.

From the eighteenth century, oral histories and archaeology record meetings with Makassan traders who came for trepang and other marine products. These visits reached the northern coast through established routes. Balanggarra identity thus joins Kimberley river and range country with Gulf passage and wider maritime exchange. European pastoral settlement and dispossession came later, but the older routes remained embedded in country.