Aboriginal cultures of Western Australia

The eastern border of Western Australia was not decided upon with any regards to the cultural or language groups which it cut through. Instead, it was intended to run along the 129th meridian east. This means that many of the linguistic and cultural groupings of Aboriginal peoples found in WA are not limited by it.

With 191 languages being documented within its borders, over an area that would make it the tenth largest country in the world (2,523,924 km2), it has historically held a diverse range of traditional Australian Aboriginal cultures.

Bioregions and culture groups
Broadly speaking, it has been found that traditional Aboriginal cultures can be linked to major drainage basins and to the IBRA system of Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia.

Thus the Noongar people, occupying the South Western Coastal Division Number VI, circumcising cultures of the Yamatji people are associated with the Indian Ocean Division Number VII, the Kimberley peoples with the Timor Sea Division Number VIII and the Desert Groups of the Interior are associated with the Western Plateau Division Number VIII. Within these broad areas of cultural similarity smaller traditional cultures were closely adapted to the requirements of a bioregion, as it was from these sites that Aboriginal people drew their sustenance. Thus for example, the Binjareb people took their name from Binjar, a Noongar word meaning wetland and made extensive use of these and the surrounding tuart banksia woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain. Throughout Western Australia, Aboriginal people were not just passive recipients of the bounty of these natural environments, but actively took a role in the creation and maintenance of these biogeographic regions, through hunting practices, firestick farming, fish trapping and other means that broadly maintained the flora and fauna of their region.

Kinship groups found in Western Australia
This section gives an overview of Australian Aboriginal kinship groupings within Western Australia, with boundaries based on Norman Tindale's 1974 map, as published in Western Australia: An Atlas of Human Endeavour (1979) by the Government of Western Australia.


 * Noongar - occupying the area of the South West Agricultural Division of Western Australia - affected from 1827 onwards, and today represented by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. It includes five cultural groups:
 * Perth type: Matrilineal moieties and totemic clans. Patrilineal local descent groups.  Includes Amangu, Yued, Whadjuk, Binjareb, Wardandi, Ganeang and Wiilman.
 * Nyakinyaki type: Alternate generational levels similar to Western Desert type, with patrilineal local descent groups. Includes Ballardong and Nyakinyaki.
 * Bibelmen type: Patrilineal moieties and patrilineal local descent groups. Includes Bibulman and Mineng.
 * Wudjari type: similar to Nyakinyaki except they have named patrilineal totemic local descent groups.
 * Nyunga type: similar to Wangai with two endogamous named divisions (Bee-eater and King fisher), in which marriage took place within one's own division but children were in the opposite, modified from the Western Desert system. Includes Nyunga.


 * Yamatji - occupying the Murchison, Gascoyne - affected from the 1840s onwards, represented today by the Yamatji Bana Baaba Marlpa Land and Sea Council.


 * Nganda type: Patrilineal totemic local descent groups, no moieties or sections. Includes Nganda and Nandu.
 * Inggadi-Badimaia gtype: Sections not well defined, Patrilineal totemic local clans grouped into larger divisions. Includes Inggada, Dadei, Malgada, Ngugan, Widi, Badimaia, Wadjari, and Goara.
 * Djalenji-Maia type: Sections correlated with kin terms, Matrilineal descent groups. Includes Noala, Djalenji, Yinigudira, Baiyungu, Maia, Malgaru, Dargari, Buduna, Guwari, Warianga, Djiwali, Djururu, Nyanu, Bandjima, Inawongga, Gurama, Binigura and Guwari.
 * Nyangamada type: Sections with indirect matrilineal descent, with patrilineal local descent groups. Includes Bailgu, Indjibandji, Mardudunera, Yaburara, Ngaluma, Gareira, Nyamal, Ngala, and Nyangamada.


 * Wankai - occupying the Goldfields and Nullarbor regions of Western Australia affected from the 1880s onwards, represented today by the Goldfields Land and Sea Aboriginal Council Corporation.
 * Galamaia-Gelago type: Like Nyunga, but practising circumcision. Includes Galamaia, Ngurlu, Maduwongga, and Gelago.
 * Mirning type: Patrilineal local totemic descent groups, No moieties or sections. Similar to the Western Desert type.  Includes Ngadjunmaia, Mirning.


 * Kimberley peoples - in the Kimberley region - speaking a variety of languages and affected from the 1870s onwards, represented today by the Kimberley Land Council.


 * Garadjeri type: As for Nyangamada. Includes Garadjeri, Mangala, Yaoro, Djungun, Ngombal, Djaberadjabera, and Nyulnyul.
 * Bardi type. Patrilineal local descent groups, no moieties or sections. Includes Warwar, Nimanburu, Ongarang, Djaul Djaui.
 * Ungarinyin type: Patrilineal. Includes Umedi, Wungemi, Worora, Wunumbul


 * Ngaanyatjarra - occupying the Central Desert region - and being much less affected than the other Aboriginal groups of Western Australia.

Impact of colonisation
Aboriginal traditional cultures have been greatly impacted since the colonisation of Australia began. During the late 19th and early 20th century it was assumed that Aboriginal Australians were a dying race and would eventually disappear.

While Aboriginal populations in Western Australia did decline until the 1930s, they have since increased. Today, all Aboriginal cultures have been impacted by degrees of marginalisation and exclusion from participation in the dominant culture of Australia. This has resulted in higher than average rates of infant mortality, and lower life expectancy, education and rates of employment.

191 Aboriginal languages have been documented in WA, but as of 2016 only 31 were spoken.