View source for Koara

{{Short description|Indigenous people in Western Australia}}
{{For|the fish known by the Māoris as 'koaro' and often misspelled as 'koara'|Climbing galaxias}}
{{see also|Koara language}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
The '''Koara people''', more recently spelt ''Kuwarra'', are an [[Aboriginal Australian]] people living in the Kuwarra [[Western Desert cultural bloc|Western Desert]] region of [[Western Australia]]. In its fullest extent it would constitute portions of land in the [[Pilbara]], [[Mid West (Western Australia)|Mid West]], and [[Goldfields-Esperance]] regions of Western Australia.
Most of the present-day Kuwarra may be found in [[Meekatharra, Western Australia|Meekatharra]], [[Cue, Western Australia|Cue]] and [[Wiluna, Western Australia|Wiluna]] areas, which are in the Mid West region.{{sfn|Liberman|1980|pp=122–123}}
==Country==
[[Norman Tindale]] calculated that the Koara tribal lands embraced roughly {{convert|18,100|mi2|km2}}, extending westwards from [[Mount Morgans, Western Australia|Mount Morgans]] and [[Leonora, Western Australia|Leonora]] west to [[Mount Ida, Western Australia|Mount Ida]], taking in the areas of [[Lake Barlee]], and [[Sandstone, Western Australia|Sandstone]], and its northwestern boundary was west of Sandstone. The northern limits ran to [[Gidgee Gold Mine|Gidgee]], [[Sir Samuel, Western Australia|Mount Sir Samuel]] and [[Lake Darlot]]. The eastern frontier lay around Mount Zephyr.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=245}}{{sfn|Walis|1996}} Their western lands were contiguous with those of the [[Watjarri]] and [[Badimaya]], and on the east and northeast by those of the traditional [[Ngaanyatjarra]], [[Martu people]] and [[Mantjintjarra Ngalia|Mantjiltjarra]].{{sfn|Liberman|1980|p=126}}
==History of contact==
Estimates of the pre-contact Kuwarra population range from 250 to several hundred. By 1980, Aboriginals with Kuwarra descent numbered a mere 60 people.{{sfn|Liberman|1980|p=122}} The dispersion and [[detribalization]] of Aboriginal tribes in this area followed in the wake of three successive waves of immigration, beginning with the [[Western Australian gold rushes|Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie gold rushes]], and concluding with the discovery of uranium deposits and the development of Laverton and [[Agnew, Western Australia|Agnew]], in the 1960s and 70s.{{sfn|Liberman|1980|pp=122–123}}
The indigenous people living in and around the [[Yeelirrie Station|Yeelirrie district]] had their continuity and transmission of cultural across generations severely compromised by the [[Stolen Generations|government practice of seizing their half-caste children to be raised elsewhere]], so that the latter would 'grow up' unaffected by their traditional identities. One technique devised by people like the Kuwarra who had [[half-caste]] children in their family camps was to rub the offspring with charcoal ash{{efn|This was not just a Kuwarra trick but a general practice among tribes subject to child-kidnapèping by white authorities. The [[Wardaman people|Wardaman]] [[Bill Yidumduma Harney]] recounted how, after his sister Dulcie was stolen by 'welfare' officials, his mother kept rubbing him with charcoal and colouring his hair with [[Blackcurrant|blackcurrant plum juice]]{{sfn|Probyn-Rapsey|2013|p=62}} }} from burnt [[sandalwood]], to make them pass as of pure tribal descent. At times, if a pastoralist vouchsafed that they worked on his property, they could escape the meshes of the round-up law. Such forced removals persisted down to the late 1970s.{{sfn|Liberman|1980|pp=123–124}}
Those who managed to find employment on pastoral stations were often taken on as [[indentured labour]]ers and were paid a pittance. A law was passed forbidding any white, other than station owners, to approach groups of Aboriginals at a distance under
five [[Chain (unit)|chains(100 metres]]. To escape bondage under such conditions, some endeavoured, when WW2 broke out, to enlist in the army, but pastoralists could overturn this by arguing they were needed on the property. Their nomadic movements were drastically disrupted, again, when a 1940 law ruled that no native person could cross over below the [[Latitude|20th parallel of latitude]] unless he could obtain a signed medical certificate and written permission from the government minister.{{sfn|Liberman|1980|p=124}}
Kuwarra could, like other Westralian Aboriginals, obtain citizenship according to a law passed in 1944, which was on the books until its repeal in 1971. However, obtaining such citizenship carried with it a provision, that the new 'Australian' ex-Aboriginal person solemnly undertake to no longer associate with Aboriginals, with the sole exception of members of their immediate families.{{sfn|Liberman|1980|p=124}}
==Alternative names==
* ''Go:ara, Goara''
* ''Guwara''
* ''Konindja ([[exonym]] used by eastern tribes)
* ''Konindjara''{{efn|'They eschewed terms—''Konindjara'' applied by people to the east, and ''Waula'', which merely means “those of the north,” applied to them by southern neighbors. In western Wadjari parlance ''konin'' means “poor fellow” and has a likely implication that the persons so spoken of were ones seeking refuge from some place in dry country. Among the Pintubi, who speak one of the Western Desert dialects related to the widespread Pitjandjara language (sometimes called Aluritja languages), the term ''koara'' as a meaning of “friendly” and may be used in a general sense for people of other tribes with whom they are at ease. Thus at the time this note was made in the mid-1930s, the Pitjandjara who lived south of the Koara, beyond the Lake Amadeus region in the Petermann Ranges, whom they knew as ''Partutu'', were a Koara people. Their name for them evidently was also a generalized one since in Western Desert languages dry saltlake areas are called ''partutu'', sometimes contracted to ''po:ti''.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=143}}}}
* ''Waula'' ("northerners" for the [[Waljen]]){{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=245}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
===Citations===
{{Reflist|20em}}
==Sources==
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{Cite web| title = AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia
| date = 14 May 2024
| publisher = [[AIATSIS]]
| url = https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/aiatsis-map-indigenous-australia
| ref = {{harvid|AIATSIS}}
}}
*{{Cite web| title = Tindale Tribal Boundaries
| publisher = [[Department of Aboriginal Affairs (Western Australia)|Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Western Australia]]
| url = https://www.daa.wa.gov.au/globalassets/pdf-files/maps/state/tindale_daa.pdf
| date = September 2016
| ref = {{harvid|TTB|2016}}
}}
*{{Cite web| title = Koara native title claim WC95/1: current land tenure
| edition = Provisional draft, claimed interests
| year = 1996
| publisher = WALIS Land Claims Mapping Unit | location = Midland, W.A.
| medium = [cartographic material]
| url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/15061714
| via = [[Trove]]
| access-date = 19 August 2017
| ref = {{harvid|Walis|1996}}
}}
*{{Cite journal | title = The Decline of the Kuwarra People of Australia's Western Desert: A Case Study of Legally Secured Domination
| last = Liberman | first = Kenneth
| journal = [[Ethnohistory (journal)|Ethnohistory]]
| volume = 27 | issue = 2 | pages = 119–133
| date = Spring 1980
| doi = 10.2307/481223 | jstor = 481223
}}
*{{Cite book| title = Made to Matter: White Fathers, Stolen Generations
| last = Probyn-Rapsey | first = Fiona
| year = 2013
| publisher = [[Sydney University Press]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FvI9OC1XWy8C&pg=PA44
| isbn = 978-1-920-89997-4
}}
*{{Cite book| chapter = Koara (WA)
| last = Tindale | first = Norman Barnett
| author-link = Norman Tindale
| year = 1974
| title = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names
| publisher = [[Australian National University Press]]
| chapter-url = http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/koara.htm
| archive-date = 20 March 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200320020206/http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/koara.htm
| isbn = 978-0-708-10741-6
}}
{{refend}}
{{Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia]]
[[Category:Pilbara]]
[[Category:Mid West (Western Australia)]]
[[Category:Goldfields–Esperance]]