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The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an
Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
people of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
.


Name

The older tribal
autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
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 The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia. Name The older tribal Exonym and endonym, autonym was Ngarabana, which may have been misheard by white settlers as Arabana, the term now generall ...
, 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 Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
's estimation, the Arabana controlled some of tribal land. They were present at the
Neales River The Neales River is a watercourse located in the Far North region of the Australian state of South Australia. The river is a tributary of Lake Eyre. The Central Australia Railway, on which The Ghan passenger train operated until 1980, crossed ...
to the west of
Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...
, and west as far as the
Stuart Range The Stuart Range is a mountain range in central Washington (state), Washington, United States. The range lies within the eastern extent of the Cascade Range immediately southwest of Leavenworth, Washington, Leavenworth and runs east–west. The ...
; Macumba Creek. Southwards their lands extended to
Coward Springs Coward Springs is a former railway station of the Central Australia Railway and associated settlement in the Far North region of South Australia, west of Lake Eyre South. The name refers to a nearby mound spring, situated on the Oodnadatta Tr ...
. Their terrain also took in
Oodnadatta Oodnadatta is a small, remote outback town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia, located north-north-west of the state capital of Adelaide by road or direct, at an altitude of . The unsealed Oodnadatta Track, an outback road ...
, Lora Creek and
Lake Cadibarrawirracanna Lake Cadibarrawirracanna, informally known as Lake Cadi, is a salt lake located in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Anna Creek in the state's Far North region about north-west of the state capital of Adelaide. A Sou ...
. The neighbouring tribes were the
Kokata The Kokatha, also known as the Kokatha Mula, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. They speak the Kokatha language, close to or a dialect of the Western Desert language. Country Traditional Kokatha lands extend ov ...
to the west, with the frontier between the two marked by the scarp of the western tableland near
Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is ...
. 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 The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...
; and (3) ''Kutta Kutta'' (variantly called ''Akwete Akwete'') who, though described as a small hawk is actually the
Spotted nightjar The spotted nightjar (''Eurostopodus argus'') is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It inhabits much of mainland Australia and has also been found in several Indonesian islands. Its natural habitats are open forests and woodland ...
.


History of contact

The Arabana were interviewed at Old Peake Station and ''Thantyiwanparda'' in the nearby gidgee scrub by
Walter Baldwin Spencer Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (23 June 1860 – 14 July 1929), commonly referred to as Baldwin Spencer, was a British-Australian evolutionary biologist, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his fieldwork with Aboriginal peoples in ...
and
Francis James Gillen Francis James Gillen (28 October 1855 – 5 June 1912), also known as Frank Gillen and F. J. Gillen, was an early Australian anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his work with W. Baldwin Spencer, including their seminal work ''T ...
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 Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
was indicated by the fact that their totemic identities came from the spirit responsible for making individuals' mothers pregnant.
James Frazer Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. Personal life He was born on 1 Janua ...
adopted this to buttress his theories on the development phases of "primitive societies". A Scottish amateur ethnographer
Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...
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 Exogamy is the social norm of marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which two groups c ...
. 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 The Alyawarre, also spelt Alyawarr and also known as the Iliaura, are an Aboriginal Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. The Alyawarre are made up of roughly 1,200 associated peoples and actively engage in local tra ...
pronunciation) * ''Ngarabana'' * ''Nulla'' * ''Rabuna'' (an occasional Aranda pronunciation) * ''Urapuna, Urabuna, Urabunna, Urroban'' * ''Wangarabana''. (

_Some_words

*_''kutyu''._ritual_assassin,_kurdaitcha.html" ;"title=" term reflecting a word ''woqka'' /''wagka'' meaning "speech") * ''Wongkurapuna, Wangarabunna'' * ''Yendakarangu'' Source:


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


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of South Australia