The Nyikina people (also spelt Nyigina and Nyikena, and listed as NjikenabyTindale) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
They come from the lower Fitzroy River (which they call mardoowarra).
The Nyigina language is one of several eastern varieties of the Nyulnyulan languages, closely related to Warrwa and Yawuru.[1] As of 2012[update] it was spoken by around 10 people.[2]
The Nyigina (Njikena) inhabited an area, estimated at 11,300 square miles (29,000 km2). The area is located on the lower Fitzroy River from Yeeda upstream to Noonkanbah, on both banks.[3]
The Nyigina, together with the Mangala people, run the Nyikina Mangala Community School a school at Jarlmadangah in West Kimberley. The Nyigina-Mangala peoples also run another school, together with the Walmajarri, at Looma.
In 1998 the Nyigina people undertook legal proceedings to pursue their native title claims. One consisted of a Nyikina Mangala claim, which they shared with the Mangala while the other comprised the Nyikina- Warrwa pursued together with the closely related Warrwa people.[citation needed] The Shire of Derby settled an Indigenous land use agreement with the Indigenous plaintiffs, regarding the Nikina Mangala area, and set down a protocol that provided guarantees for surveying the Aboriginal cultural heritage before any development projects on the land could be undertaken.[citation needed] In 2014, after an 18-year legal battle, the Federal Court of Australia granted the Nyikina-Mangala petitioners native title over 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of territory, from King Sound through the Fitzoy Valley to the Great Sandy Desert.[4]
