The Yandruwandha, alternatively known as ''Jandruwanta,'' 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 living in the Lakes area 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 ...

, south of

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its t ...

and west of the

Wangkumara The Wanggumara, also spelt Wangkumara, Wongkumara, Wangkumarra, and other variants, are an Aboriginal people of the state of Queensland, Australia. Language Old Wankumara, spoken along the Bulloo River with the Kalali people, was a 'Karna–M ...

people.

Language

Yandruwandha is a generic term referring to a number of dialects: Yawarrawarrka, Nhirppi, Matja, Parlpamardramardra, Ngananhina, Ngapardajdhirri and Ngurawola. It belongs to the Karna group of Karnic languages The best known version is that recorded by

Gavan Breen Gavan Breen (born 22 January 1935), OAM, also known as J.G. Breen, is an Australian linguist, specialising in the description of Australian Aboriginal languages. He has studied and recorded 49 such languages. Life Early life Breen was born at ...

from informants in Innamincka.

Country

The Yandruwandha ranged over an estimated of their tribal lands, which extended, according to

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 ...

, from an area south of

, namely from Innamincka to Carraweena. This area also included

Strzelecki Creek The Strzelecki Creek, part of the Lake Eyre basin, is an ephemeral watercourse located in the Australian state of South Australia. Course and features The Strzelecki is a distributary of Cooper Creek and branches off near the town of Innaminc ...

History

The Yandruwandha played a significant role in key moments of the

Burke and Wills expedition The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria in Australia in 1860–61. It consisted of 19 men led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, with the objective of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the s ...

Oral lore Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...

conserved among them, according to a descendant, Aaron Paterson, has it that

William John Wills William John Wills (5 January 1834 – ) was a British surveyor who also trained as a surgeon. Wills achieved fame as the second-in-command of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from s ...

, who recorded some of their words, made a good impression on the elders, who provided him with shelter in a walpa shared with an as yet uninitiated youth. While Burke and Wills died, the only man to survive, John King, did so because he found sanctuary with the Yandruwandha, among whom he was eventually found by

Edwin Welch Edwin James Welch (26 December 1838 – 24 September 1916) was an English naval cadet, surveyor, photographer, newspaper proprietor, writer and journalist. Welch discovered John King, sole survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition. Early life ...

, a surveyor with

Alfred William Howitt Alfred William Howitt , (17 April 1830 – 7 March 1908), also known by author abbreviation A.W. Howitt, was an Australian anthropologist, explorer and naturalist. He was known for leading the Victorian Relief Expedition, which set out to es ...

, who had been dispatched to find the missing explorers. Many Yandruwandha people fell victims to the 1919 flu pandemic.

Customs

They practised male circumcision.

Native title

The Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka filed a petition to have their

land rights Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use ...

recognised in 1988. In 2015, their

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

was determined by a Federal Court over some of the

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

, covering

pastoral leases A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

, and including Coongie Lakes National Park, the Innamincka Regional Reserve and the Strzelecki Regional Reserve.

Notable people

* Murtee Johnny (born c.1888; died Adelaide 1979) was the last member of the Yandruwanda of the

Strzelecki Track Strzelecki Track is a mostly unsealed outback track in South Australia, linking Innamincka to Lyndhurst. History The track was pioneered by stockman, drover and cattle thief. Harry Readford, iin 1870, who stole drove 1,000 head of c ...

, many of whom died in the flu pandemic that spread through the area in 1919. He was an accomplished stockman, working on the Mount Hopeless in 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 ...

Alternative names

* ''Yandruwunta, Yandruwonta, Yantruwanta, Jendruwonta, Yandra Wandra.'' * ''Yandrawontha, Yanderawantha, Yantowannta, Jandruwalda.'' * ''Yanduwulda''. * ''Endawarra.'' * ''Innamouka'' (loose transcription of the toponym Innamincka).

Notes and references

Notes

References

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