Gunwinggu

Gunwinggu is an older spelling of Kunwinjku, a name used in accounts of the Aboriginal peoples and languages of western Arnhem Land. The regional language centre distinguishes Kunwinjku from the other varieties within the wider Bininj Kunwok dialect chain. That chain extends across the Arnhem Land plateau and several river districts; it should not be interpreted as a single centrally governed territory.

For the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the adjacent Arnhem Land coast belonged to a wider network of contact with Sulawesi. From at least about 1700, Makasar crews made seasonal voyages to collect trepang for the Chinese market. They camped ashore to process the catch and returned with the monsoon. This was regional maritime contact, and not every inland Kunwinjku community took part.