Mpakwithi

DISCLAIMER:

The locations of the language varieties of Cape York Peninsula shown on this map are not intended for Land Claim use, and are an approximate guide only. Individual language project locations are based on information from publicly available documents.  

This map is a dynamic draft. Pama Language Centre welcomes additions and corrections to the draft map and to information about the language varieties listed.

The location of the name Mpakwithi on the map reflects the geographic distribution described by Crowley (1981) based on descriptions made by his consultant, Donald Fletcher.  

Mpakwithi return to Tent Pole Creek, 2018

Mpalkwithi return to Tent Pole Creek 2018

Susan Kennedy – Therra Kaffry

Xavier Barker, Victoria Kennedy, Susan Kennedy, Songs on Country 2017

Susan Kennedy, Illustration workshop 2017

The Mpakwithi First Nation were a people described by Thomson (1934) and Sharp (1939) as being a sub-group of the Anguthimri clan which was divided into North, South, East and West clusters which were exogamous.

All Anguthimri (those languages which uses ‘Angu’ for the first person singular, followed by proprietive ‘-thimri’) were described as living in the area of Port Musgrave (North), Albatross Bay(South), the Gulf of Carpenteria (East) and the Wenlock River (West). This is not representative of land ownership but of areas where Anguthimri speakers were known to range.

The Mpakwithi’s remaining elders now live in New Mapoon (3 sisters) and Weipa (their first cousin). They are leading the culturo-linguistic revival of Mpakwithi. The revival is built on reconstruction and standardisation of the language described by Crowley (1981) in his salvage grammar sketch.

Following the massacres led by Frank Jardine and Lachlan Kennedy during the 1860’s, members of many decimated tribes, including Mpakwithi, settled at the Old Mapoon mission on the traditional lands of the Tjugundji Nation. In 1963 the Director of Native Affairs ordered police to remove the residents of Old Mapoon and burn their community to the ground to make way for a mining lease. The Mpakwithi and other residents of Old Mapoon were relocated to New Mapoon, near Bamaga, at the northernmost tip of Cape York Peninsula, where they now live. Susan Kennedy and her sisters Victoria Kennedy and Agnes Mark are reviving their Mpakwithi language. Susan’s grandfather Donald Fletcher was the last fluent speaker of Mpakwithi. He learned his language by escaping from the mission dormitory to spend time with free Mpakwithi elders in the bush.

AUSTLANG referenceY186
AUSTLANG reference name
OTHER REFERENCE CODE(S)
LANGUAGE VARIETY NAME, PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONMpakwithi
LANGUAGE VARIETY NAME, PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION
LANGUAGE VARIETY COMPLEXAnguthimri
LANGUAGE STATUSReawakening (EGIDS 9)
PRACTICAL ORTHOGRAPHIESMPAKWITHI 2017 ORTHOGRAPHY
Developed by linguists Xavier Barker and Jan Goetesson with Mpakwithi Elders Agnes Mark, Victoria Kennedy and Susan Kennedy in 2017.
DICTIONARY WATCH THIS SPACE
FIND A TRANSLATOR Xavier Barker (xbarker@pamalanguagecentre.org.au, 0433 994 182)
CONNECT WITH SPEECH COMMUNITY