The Pilatapa (or Pirlatapa, Birladapa, or Biladaba) were an
Indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original 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 ...
, now extinct.
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 that the Pilatapa had some of tribal land, ranging northeast of the northern edges 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 ...
and to the north of the
Lake Frome
Lake Frome / Munda is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, long and wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total s ...
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
. On the northwest they lived also around northwest to what is now the
Strzelecki Desert Lakes encompassing
Lake Blanche
Lake Blanche is a salt lake in central South Australia that lies below sea level. It is located within the Strzelecki Creek Wetland System which is listed on A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia. It also is within the extent of th ...
and
Blanchewater. He placed their eastern extension at east to
Callabonna approximately to the vicinity of Tilcha, while their southern boundaries were around
Wooltana and Hamilton Creek.
Language
Their language, Pilatapa, was closely related to the
Diyari language
Diyari () or Dieri () is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Diyari people in the far north of South Australia, to the east of Lake Eyre. It was studied by German Lutheran missionaries who translated Christian works into the language ...
.
Social organisation and customs
Samuel Gason's account of the Pilatapa is integrated into a general description of the
Diyari
The Diyari (), alternatively transcribed as Dieri (), is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre.
Language
Diyari is classified as one of the K ...
,
Ngameni,
Yandruwandha and
Yauraworka.
Male initiation rites involved circumcision, but excluded
subincision
Penile subincision is a form of genital modification or mutilation consisting of a urethrotomy, in which the underside of the penis is incised and the urethra slit open lengthwise, from the urethral opening (meatus) toward the base. The slit can ...
.
Alternative names
* ''Pidlatapa''
* ''Piladapa, Pilladapa, Pillitapa''
* ''Billidapa''
* ''Pulladapa''
* ''Berluppa''
* ''Pilliapp''
* ''Jarikuna''. (
Wailpi
The Wailpi are an indigenous people of South Australia They are also known as the Adnyamathanha, which also refers to a larger group, though they speak a dialect of the Adnyamathanha language.
Country
The Wailpi had, according to Norman Tindale's ...
pejorative
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, ...
).
* ''Yarrikuna''
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of South Australia