Wangai, Wongai or Wankai is the name given by themselves to the 26 Aboriginal groups of the Goldfields of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. It comes from the word meaning "Speaker". The people of this grouping made use of the resources of the following biogeographic

Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...

 regions

Ecoregions in Australia

Ecoregions in Australia are geographically distinct plant and animal communities, defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature based on geology, soils, climate, and predominant vegetation....

:

• Coolgardie
• South East Murchison
• Nullarbor
  Nullarbor Plain
  The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about...
  
  
• Western half of the Great Victoria Desert
  Great Victoria Desert
  The Great Victoria Desert is a barren and sparsely populated desert area of southern Australia.-Location and description:The Great Victoria is the biggest desert in Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles and salt lakes...
  
  .

Today their Native Title land rights interests are represented by the Goldfields Aboriginal Land and Sea Council Corporation. Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL), 1997 give the Wangai language the statistical code 8503.

Wangai people played an important role in the discovery of Gold, and in supporting early prospectors with information about locally available gnamma holes (water sources). They also assisted with early so-called Afghan camel-drivers, instrumental in providing outback gold mining communities with provisions. As with Jack Akbar and his wife Lallie, there were a number of Muslim-Aboriginal marriages that resulted from this work

Many former sheep stations have passed into Wangai ownership, and traditional art has grown to become a major income to Wangai communities.

It is estimated that there are about 200-300 first-language Wangai speaking people (from the Pintini people) along the northern edge of the Nullarbor Plain

Nullarbor Plain

The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about...

 around Hughes.

The Wangai Wongatha-Wonganarra Aboriginal Corporation (WWAC) has been working in association between Curtin University, Aboriginal people of Laverton and the transient European community of about 1,600 people largely working in the mining industry.

In Literature

The novel The Jimberi Track, by Max Brown

Max Brown (novelist)

-Early career:Max Brown was born in Invercargill, New Zealand and educated in Melbourne, Australia. He worked as a journalist in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, as well as in country towns in N.S.W. and W.A...

 tells the story of the trials and tribulations of a group of Wangai tribespeople as they attempt to deal with the encroachment of white settlement, particularly in the form of mining communities, on their lands.

See also

• Indigenous Australians
  Indigenous Australians
  Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
  
  
• Aboriginal History of Western Australia
  Aboriginal history of Western Australia
  The history of the indigenous inhabitants of Western Australia has been dated for tens of thousands of years before European contact.-Western Australian Aboriginal history:...
  
  
• Australian outback literature of the 20th century
  Australian outback literature of the 20th century
  This article refers to the works of poets and novelists and specialized writers who have written about the Australian outback from first-hand experience. This is a wide and important field of study, particularly as it frequently addresses race relations in Australia, often from a non-political...