Letter to Fitzherbert, 13/9/31 and Vocabularies

Abstract

This letter describes the informant Wingarri and his language Wongaii wongga, the effects of cannibalism on the laws of the Bibbulmun groups, the decline and extinction of the Bibbulmun since white settlement and the impossibility of translating Christian texts into any of the languages or dialects DB has collected. She mentions Dunan wongga, a unique dialect near Capel River that no other people appear to understand. DB discusses the pronunciation of the vocabulary she has collected, and further, the social organisation and breakdown of the marriage laws she has observed and written about in reports now hard to source. Her 2 stolen inmas were returned but she continues with the Coventry rule until a 3rd article is returned. She finally mentions the loss of inhabitants in the Centre now trekking to white settlements and notes that some natives have reported that there are very few still ‘behind’.