The Gudanji, otherwise known as the Kotandji or Ngandji, are an

indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

people of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Language

The Gudanji were formerly thought to speak a Ngurlun language, belonging to the eastern

Mirndi languages The Mirndi or Mindi languages are an Australian Aboriginal languages, Australian language family spoken in the Northern Territory of Australia. The family consists of two sub-groups, the Yirram languages and the West Barkly languages, Barkly la ...

group of non-Pama Nyungan family, one that was mutually intelligible with Wambaya.

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 ...

's estimate of Gudanji lands has them covering about , running southeast of the coastal slope at Tanumbirini to the headwaters of the

McArthur River The McArthur River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria at Port McArthur, opposite the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands. The river was named by Ludwig Leichhardt while he explored the are ...

, taking in Old Wallhallow and northward, also

Mallapunyah Mallapunyah Springs Station, often referred to as Mallapunyah, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated about south east of Borroloola and south east of Darwin. Mallapunya ...

. The western extension lay about the head of Newcastle Creek, while their southern frontier ran to the

Barkly Tableland The Barkly Tableland is a rolling plain of grassland in Australia. It runs from the eastern part of the Northern Territory into western Queensland. It is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory and covers , 21% of the Northern Terr ...

area of

Anthony Lagoon Anthony Lagoon is a cattle station on the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is situated approximately east of Elliott and south of Borroloola. Eva Downs is run as an outstation of Anthony Lagoon and employs a separ ...

and Eva Downs. Neighbouring tribes where reckoning clockwise from the north, the Yanyuwa, with the Garrwa on their eastern flank, the Wambaya to their south, the

Ngarnka The Ngarnka, also Ngarnji or Ngewin, are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. They are often said to be the same as the Gudanji, one of whose alternative names is Ngarnji. However linguists distinguish between the language s ...

east and the

Binbinga The Binbinga, also pronounced Binbinka, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory of Australia. Language Binbinga is a dialect classified as a variety of the Ngurlun branch of the Mirndi languages, closely related to Wambaya ...

to their northeast.

History of contact

Before 1900, the Gudanjii were on the move penetrating into the

lands that lay to their northeast.

Alternative names

* ''Anga'' * ''Angee'' (mishearing) * ''Gnanji'' (scribal error) * ''Gudanji, Godangee'' * ''Gundangee'' * ''Kakaringa'' (Tjingili exonym with the sense of "easterners"(''kakara'' = east)) * ''Kudenji'' * ''Kutandji, Kudandji, Koodanjee, Koodangie'' * ''Kutanjtjii'' (Alyawarre exonym) * ''Nandi'' * ''Ngandji'' * ''Nganji, Ngangi'' Source:

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory