Nokaan

See also: Nokaan language

The Nokaan or Nhugarn were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Mid West region of Western Australia.

Country

The Nokaan dwelt on the plateau west of the Murchison, at least as far south from Curbur to Yallalong and Coolcalaya. Their inland extension to the south went close to Northampton. According to Norman Tindale, who estimated their lands as embracing about 4,700 square miles (12,000 km²) of territory, they pushed into the coastal strip only relatively recently after the onset of contact with white settlers.^[1]

Running clock-wise from north, their neighbours were the Malgana, Watjarri, Widi, then the Amangu south, and the Nanda directly east.

Alternative names

• Noga:n (Malgana exonym)
• Nagadja (easterners, an Amangu exonym for circumcised tribes lying to the east of Geraldton)
• Nagodja (a Watjarri exonym)
• Ngadja
• Akadja, Akady, Akadi
• Wiludjanu (another Watjarri language-denoting exonym, signifying 'western talk')^[1]