Arabana

The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia.

Name

The older tribal autonym was Ngarabana, which may have been misheard by white settlers as Arabana, the term now generally accepted by new generations of the Ngarabana.

Language

Arabana, like Wangganguru with which it shares a 90% overlap in vocabulary, is a member of the Karnic subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan language.

Country

In Norman Tindale's estimation, the Arabana controlled some of tribal land. They were present at the Neales River to the west of Lake Eyre, and west as far as the Stuart Range; Macumba Creek. Southwards their lands extended to Coward Springs. Their terrain also took in Oodnadatta, Lora Creek and Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.

The neighbouring tribes were the Kokata to the west, with the frontier between the two marked by the scarp of the western tableland near Coober Pedy. To their east were the Wangkanguru.

Mythology

Several traditional stories are well documented, especially that regarding a man-eating Buzzard and his Eaglehawk mate. The chief protagonists are three animals: (1) ''Wantu Wantu'', the man-eating Black-breasted Buzzard; (2) ''Irritye'' or ''Irretye,'' a friendly Wedge-tailed Eagle; and (3) ''Kutta Kutta'' (variantly called ''Akwete Akwete'') who, though described as a small hawk is actually the Spotted nightjar.

History of contact

The Arabana were interviewed at Old Peake Station and ''Thantyiwanparda'' in the nearby gidgee scrub by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen over a ten-day period in August 1903 for a specific purpose. Their earlier work had argued that the truly "primitive" nature of the Arrernte was indicated by the fact that their totemic identities came from the spirit responsible for making individuals' mothers pregnant. James Frazer adopted this to buttress his theories on the development phases of "primitive societies". A Scottish amateur ethnographer Andrew Lang contested their interpretations of the Arrernte, arguing that they were not "primitive", a label he argued was more appropriate to their near neighbours the Arabana, who traced descent through the mother and linked their totemic system to exogamy. It was to address this challenge that accounted for Spencer and Gillen's return to Arabana lands.

Social organisation

The Arabana were divided into kin groups, whose respective territories were called ''wadlu''.
* ''Jendakarangu'' (Coward Springs)
* ''Peake tribe''
* ''Anna Creek tribe''

Their moieties were named ''Mathari'' and ''Kararru''.

Alternative names

* ''Arabuna, Arrabunna, Arrabonna, Arubbinna''
* ''Arapani''
* ''Arapina''. (Iliaura pronunciation)
* ''Ngarabana''
* ''Nulla''
* ''Rabuna'' (an occasional Aranda pronunciation)
* ''Urapuna, Urabuna, Urabunna, Urroban''
* ''Wangarabana''. (

Some words

* ''kutyu''. ritual assassin, kurdaitcha"> term reflecting a word ''woqka'' /''wagka'' meaning "speech")
* ''Wongkurapuna, Wangarabunna''
* ''Yendakarangu''

Source:

Some words

* ''kutyu''. ritual assassin, kurdaitcha
* ''thanthani'' (cormorant) also the name of a totem.

Source:

Notes

Citations

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Further reading

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{{Authority control

Aboriginal peoples of South Australia