The Kuyani people, also written Guyani and other variants, and also known as the Nganitjidi, 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 the state 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 ...

who speak the

Kuyani language The Adnyamathanha language (pronounced ), also known as yura ngarwala and other names, and Kuyani, also known as Guyani and other variants, are two closely related Australian Aboriginal languages. They are traditional languages of the Adnyama ...

. Their traditional lands are to the west of the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabi ...

Country

According to the estimation made by

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 ...

, the Kuyani held sway over some of tribal land, extending northwards from Parachilna to the western flank of the

at Marree. Their northeastern boundary was at Murnpeowie. Their western frontier lay at Turret Range and Andamooka. They also occupied the area to the north of, but not including,

Lake Torrens Lake Torrens (Kuyani: ''Ngarndamukia'') is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf. Isl ...

. However, Lake Torrens was of great significance to the Kuyani people, known to them as Ngarndamukia, meaning "shower of rain". Kuyani woman Regina McKenzie said that the Kuyani were "the law holders of what anthropologists would call the lake's culture people". The Kuyani around

Beltana Beltana is a town north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased. The town's history began in the 1870s with the advent of copper mining in the area, construction ...

and Leigh Creek were known as the ''Adjnjakujani'' from a word, ''adjna'' meaning "hill," while those near Lake Torrens were called plainspeople (''Wartakujani''.) Their neighbours to the east are the

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, formed as an aggregate of several distinct peoples. Strictly speaking the ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternativ ...

people, whose language is closely related.

Alternative names

* ''Kujani, Kuyanni'' * ''Kwiani, Kwiana'' * ''Kooyiannie'' * ''Gujani'' * ''Owinia'' * ''Cooyiannie'' * ''Kooyeeunna, Kooteeunna'' * ''Nganitjidi'' (

Barngarla The Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla and also known as Pangkala, are an Aboriginal people of the Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta areas. The Barngarla are the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Language ...

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

, meaning "those who sneak and kill by night") * ''Ngannityiddi''

Language

The

is extinct today, with no speakers recorded since 1975.

Some words

* ''wilker'' (dog, both tame and wild) * ''papi'' (father) * ''comie/knumie'' (mother) * ''coodnoo'' (white man)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of South Australia