Mbewum

The Mbewum were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland. They were dispossessed and became extinct soon after colonization.

Language

The Mbewum spoke Mbiywom, a northern Paman language^[1]

Country

The Mbewum had an estimated 600 square miles (1,600 km²) of tribal domain territory on the Upper Watson River, which included Merluna^[2] in the area 120 miles south-east of Weipa. Their land, together with that of the Totj was incorporated into a state-run enterprise, the Queensland State Pastoral Station of that name, which by 1916 was running over 12,000 head of cattle.^[3][4]

Social organization

They had four kinship divisions like other tribes in the area, according to R. H. Mathews.^[5]

Alternative names

• KokMbewan
• Mbe:wum, Mbeiwum, M-Berwum
• Bywoom
• Kokinno^[6]
• Kokimoh^[2]

Notes

Citations

1. Dixon 2002, p. xxxi.
2. Tindale 1974, p. 181.
3. Cohen 1988, p. 233.
4. May 1994, p. 212, n6.
5. Mathews 1900, pp. 131–135.
6. Mathews 1900, p. 131.

Sources

• "AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia". AIATSIS. 14 May 2024.
• Cohen, Kay (August 1988). "State Pastoral Stations in Queensland: 1916-30" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Society of Queensland. X111 (7): 229–248.
• Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
• Mathews, R. H. (1900). "Some tribes of Cape York Peninsula". Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 34: 131–135.
• May, Dawn (1994). Aboriginal Labour and the Cattle Industry: Queensland from White Settlement to the Present. Cambridge University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-521-46915-9.
• McConnel, Ursula H. (September 1939). "Social Organization of the Tribes of Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland". Oceania. 10 (1): 54–72. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1939.tb00256.x. JSTOR 40327744.
• McConnel, Ursula H. (June 1940). "Social Organization of the Tribes of Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland (Continued)". Oceania. 10 (4): 434–455. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1940.tb00305.x. JSTOR 40327867.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Mbewum (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.