The Ngarla 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 Isl ...

people of the Pilbara region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

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 their territory, to the west of

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

, at around , describing it as lying along the coast to the west of Solitary Island as far as the mouth of the

De Grey River The De Grey River is a river located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was named on 16 August 1861 by the explorer and surveyor Francis Gregory after Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, who was at the time the president of the Roya ...

. He set their upriver boundary between Kudingaranga (Mulyie Station) and Tjaljaranja (otherweise known as ''Taluirina Pool''). Their traditional inland extension was said to run up to Yarrie.

Social organisation

The Ngarla had a four class system:- Males-----Females-----Children. * ''Poorungnoo'' marries a ''Parrijari'' producing ''Kiamoona.'' * ''Banakoo''marries a Kiamoona, giving birth to ''Parrijari'' * ''Parrijari'' marries ''Poorungnoo'' producing ''Banakoo.'' * ''Kiamoona'' marries ''Banakoo'' producing ''Poorungnoo.''

History of contact

White colonisation of Ngarla domains began in 1864. Over the following two years, smallpox (''boola'') swept through the area killing off large numbers of Ngarla. By 1886 there were said to be several hundred.

Alternative names

* ''Nga:la'' * ''Ngala, Ngerla'' * ''Ngurla, Ngirla'' * ''Ngala'' * ''Gnalla'' * ''Ngalana'' * ''Kudjunguru'' (a Nyamal

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 "coast dwellers")

Some words

* (wild dog) * (father) * (mother) * (white man)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Mid West (Western Australia)