Yir-Yoront
On one hand, a distinct identity for this group appears clear-cut.
The AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia places the Yir-Yoront (alternatively, Kokomindjan, KokoMindjin, Kokominjan, KokoMandjoen, Koko-manjoen, KokoMinjen, Koka-mungin) about two-thirds of the way down Cape York Peninsula's west coast with the Thaayorre to their north, the Kunjen to their east and the Koko-Bera to the south.
Norman Tindale's Aboriginal Tribes of Australia suggests that they occupied around 1300 square kilometres around the Coleman River's mouth and the three widely separated mouths of the Mitchell River and inland to around the limits of tidal waters.
On the other, based on fieldwork in the area during the 1930s, Robert Lauriston Sharp wrote that Yir Yoront, which he translated as I speak Yoront or I am a speaker of Yoront
is purely a label for a linguistic class or category of people who in no sense constitute a corporate or organized entity. At any given time a majority of the ... Yir Yoront will be found together occupying a region or zone of some twelve hundred square miles which can be roughly mapped. They live there not because they speak or are Yir Yoront; rather, they speak this language because they live there, and they live there for good and sufficient reasons ... Some, however, for equally good reasons, live outside the main zone of Yir Yoront language speakers. A number of them spend most of the year as a scattered minority among Koko Bera speakers, their neighbors to the south; others similarly will be found living among a majority of Kuk Taiori speakers, their neighbors to the north; a few more spend as much time among both these neighboring speech groups as among their own; and still others live even farther afield. But even those who are usually "at home" within the Yir Yoront zone may go quite separate ways ... Nevertheless, wherever these people move or re¬ main as they make the circuits of their ranges, they are there legitimately and there is no question of trespassing on land exclusively held by other people. They are not away from their own country or among strangers. Indeed, one cannot even speak of Yoront country or of Yoront customs, but only of Yoront speech--Yir Yoront--and of people who speak it. (R. Lauriston Sharp, People Without Politics: The Australian Yir Yoront, pp. 2-3)
Sharp's translation aligns with other derivations from yirrq (speech) and yorront, which may be derived from yorr(l) ("thus, like this"), giving a meaning of people who talk like this. Similar denominations for tribal languages occur elsewhere. Alternatively, it may derive from yorr (sand) since sand ridges are a significant feature of traditional Yir Yoront territory.
While the name's etymology is unclear, their language belonged to the Pama-Maric group of the Pama-Nyungan language family. Since only fifteen speakers of the language remained in 1991, and most Yir-Yoront people spoke English or Kuuk Thaayorre in daily conversation, it is thought to be extinct, along with its two dialects, Yirr-Thutjim (Yir-Yoront) and Yirrk-Thangalkl (Yirrk-Mel). To their neighbours, the language was Yirr-Thuchm ("from the sand ridges"), Kok-Minychen (alternatively Koko-Minychena, in the Koko-Bera language) or Kuuk-Thaanhon (Kuuk Thaayorre language).
The earliest European visitors to interact with the Yir-Yiront were the Dutch expedition led by Jan Carstensz, who landed on the coast in 1623 looking for firewood, fresh water and precious metals or spices.
The encounter between the Jardine brothers' expedition overlanding cattle to the newly established settlement at Somerset at the tip of Cape York and local people, which the Jardines labelled the Battle of Mitchell River, probably occurred in Yir-Yoront country. However, since they lived in areas unsuited to pastoralist expropriation, the Yir-Yoront remained relatively autonomous until the 1930s when they were drawn into the Anglican missions at Mitchell River (Kowanyama, from kawn yamar or 'many waters') and Edward River Mission (Yir-Yoront: Lirrqar, usually known by its Kuuk-Thaayorre name, Pormpuraaw), where steel axes, fishhooks, sugar and tobacco were readily available. Both settlements lie outside their traditional lands.
Missing links:
Pama-Maric group
Mitchell River Mission
Edward River Mission
