Wardandi


The Wardandi are an indigenous Noongar people of Western Australia.

Name

There are at least three theories about the meaning of the tribal ethnonym. One informant suggested it reflected a word for "crow", a theory that sits poorly with early word lists that state that the Wardandi word for that bird is kwa:kum. A second view argues for the sense of "seacoast people"; one source in support of this cites a word variously given as werdandie/wartine with the meaning "the sea". A third hypothesis has it that the name is derived from the word for "no".

Country

Wardandi traditional country covers an estimated. Predominantly coastal, it encompasses Busselton and the areas from Bunbury to Cape Leeuwin and Geographe Bay. Inland it reaches the area around Nannup.

Alternative names