Noongar, also spelled Nyungar or Nyoongar, is the largest Aboriginal group from the state of Western Australia . The term is also used to refer to the language of this people, which includes several different dialects. There are about 30,000 Noongar people living in and around the region.
Archaeologists believe that Noongar people have lived in southwestern Australia for more than 45,000 years. Historically, the Noongar people lived by hunting and by gathering food from plants. Fishing was common among groups that lived near the coast and rivers. Noongar people refer to their territory as their boodja, or country. Among Australia’s Indigenous (native) peoples, the concept of country (often spelled with a capital C) refers to much more than the land and its plants and animals. Country also expresses the idea that a group of people has an ancestral and spiritual connection to the region. Noongar country covers about 77,000 square miles (200,000 square kilometers), an area slightly smaller than the state of Victoria. The different Noongar dialect groups are historically associated with different parts of the region.
Strained relations with Noongar peoples developed after the arrival of European settlers in the early 1800’s and the establishment of the British colony of Western Australia. In the Pinjarra Massacre of 1834, the forces of Governor Sir James Stirling killed at least 15 members of the Bindjareb Noongar people along the Murray River. From 1927 to 1954, Aboriginal peoples were prohibited from entering parts of Western Australia’s capital, Perth, without a document known as a native pass.
Like other Aboriginal peoples of Australia, Noongar people have faced discrimination and loss of their land. Despite these challenges, Noongar people have maintained a strong and enduring relationship with the land in southwest Australia. Noongar identity draws on their spiritual ties to and knowledge of the land, their language, and the relations among family members. Customs such as art, dance, storytelling, and religious ceremonies also strengthen individual and community bonds.
Since the 1990’s, Noongar people have worked to obtain native title recognition from the government of Western Australia. Native title refers to property rights stemming from Indigenous use of and relation to the land. In 2003, the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, representing the Noongar people, filed a legal claim for native title. In 2015, Noongar people accepted the South West Native Title Settlement. In this decision, the Noongar people agreed to give up their claims to native title over large tracts of lands in southwestern Western Australia. In exchange, they received land, compensation, and other benefits. The settlement includes the Noongar Recognition Bill. The bill, which includes a passage written in Noongar, was introduced into the Parliament of Western Australia in 2015 and passed in 2016. It is the first legislation in the state to formally recognize an Aboriginal group as the traditional owners of the land. After several court challenges were settled, the six Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA’s) that made up the settlement were officially registered in 2021 and went into effect.
