The Marditjali were 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, a small tribe distinct from the
Jaadwa, whose lands extended from the
state of Victoria
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state i ...
to
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 ...
.
Name
Marditjali may not be the term used by the tribe itself, but an
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, ...
applied to them by tribes to their west. Since the ethnonym is composed of two words ''marti'' ("abrupt/difficult to understand") and ''tjale'' (speech) from Westernj languages indicating their language was hard to grasp.
Language
The Marditjali name for
their language is unknown, but it was called Wintjabarap, designating the Wintjintanga horde by tribes to their west.
Country
Marditjali ranged over a traditional land encompassing around from.
Naracoorte in South Australia to the Victorian
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...
area of
Goroke and west of
Mount Arapiles
Mount Arapiles is a rock formation that rises about above the Wimmera plains in western Victoria, Australia. It is located in Arapiles approximately west of the town of Natimuk and is part of the Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park. Arapile ...
; They ranged as far south as
Struan,
Apsley, and
Edenhope. Their northern boundaries were around
Bangham,
Kaniva
Kaniva is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Western Highway, north of Little Desert National Park, in the Shire of West Wimmera local government area. It is located roughly east of the South Australian border and east of Bo ...
, and
Servicetown.
Marditjali tribal areas were characterized by swampy zones encircled by imposing country was characterized by large
red gum forests The frontier with the
Bungandidj (Buandik) around Eden hope was marked by a brusque change in tree type, as red gums yielded to
scrub gums. Their western boundaries with the
Meintangk on the Naracoorte Range are likewise ecologically defined by the rising terraces of wooded lime sand dunes.
Social organisation
The Marditjali were divided into several camps
* ''Witjintanga''
Alternative names
* ''Worangarait'' (
'wora''= plain country,
'ngara''= to exist in-name applied by Bunganditj)
* ''Worangarit, Wragarait''
* ''Wintjabarap'' (language name)
* ''Lake Wallace tribe''
* ''Keribial-barap''
* ''Witjintanga''
* ''Wichintunga''
Some words
* ''bangg'' (man)
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of South Australia
Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (state)
History of Victoria (state)