The Bidjara people, also spelt Bitjara or Bithara, 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 Isl ...
people of south-western
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
. They spoke a dialect of the
Ngura language
Ngura is a disputed and possibly spurious ethnic and language designation of central Australia. The name 'Nura', short for Ngurawarla, means 'empty camp', referring to lands abandoned after a massacre. It is not a language or ethnic designation. ...
.
They are not to be confused with the
Warrego River Pitjara or the
Badjiri
The Badjiri people, also written Budjari or Badyidi, are an Australian Aboriginal people of just north of the Paroo River, close to the southern border of Queensland.
They are not to be confused with the Pitjara/Bidjara people of the Warrego ...
of the
Paroo River
The Paroo River, a series of waterholes, connected in wet weather as a running stream of the Darling catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the South West region of Queensland and Far West region of New South Wales, Austra ...
, both of whose traditional lands are further to the east of the state.
Country
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 ...
estimated their lands as encompassing approximately , centered around
Bulloo Downs, south to the south to
Bulloo Lake floodplain. Their western border lay at the
Grey Range
The Grey Range is a low-lying range of hills located in the Australian state of Queensland. The stretches from the west of Blackall of Central West Queensland in the north to Tibooburra in the far west of New South Wales.
The range's highest poi ...
. Their northern limits were at Orient, and their eastern frontier was around Clyde.
Social organization and customs
The Bitjara included circumcision in their initiatory rites.
Alternative names
* ''Bithara.''
* ''Pitteroo.''
* ''Minkabari.'' (language name),
* ''Wilya.''
Some words
* ''mirre''. (tame dog)
* ''urni'' (father)
* ''ummadi.'' (mother)
* ''birri-birri.'' (whiteman).
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Queensland