Wakka Wakka or Waka Waka is an Aboriginal language in Queensland, Australia.
"Wakka" is believed to mean "no", and it distinguished the speakers of this language from others who used another form of "no", ie. the adjacent Gubbi Gubbi or Kabi Kabi people.
Clan groups which spoke Wakka Wakka extended from the Central Burnett area, especially around Gayndah, to the South Burnett.
Central Burnett groups sometimes identify as Wakka Jinda, ie. Gayndah Wakka,
Many Wakka Wakka and Gubbi Gubbi people - along with many other groups from across Queensland - were shifted on to the Barambah Mission near Murgon in the early 20th century.
This mission later became the town of Cherbourg and is now self-administered by the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council.
Wakka Wakka people have many important sites located throughout their territory, including Ban Ban Springs, Barambah Creek, a sacred area near Maidenwell, and in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains. There are also a number of bora rings which have survived destruction.
In pre-European times, the Wakka Wakka people were one of the many groups that took part in the regular bunya nut feasts at the Bunya Mountains and other large gatherings in other parts of the South Burnett.
Language
Waka Waka is an Australian Aboriginal Language of South East Queensland.
The language area includes several dialects and extends across the South and North Burnett regions and takes in the communities of Cherbourg, Kingaroy, Gayndah, Mundubbera, Jimna and the Bunya Mountains.
There is a significant amount of documentation on the Wakka Wakka language from first contact in the 1840’s with several lexicons, wordlists and other vocabularies.
Linguistic work by Rev John Mathew and recent linguists such as Holmer means there is an accompanying grammar to provide clues on how the language was constructed and spoken. Unfortunately, there are minimal speakers and there is a real concern that the language is not spoken on a daily basis in communities to keep Wakka Wakka as a thriving, living language.