The Ninanu were 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
Gascoyne
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gasc ...
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
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 ...
, the Ninanu's tribal lands covered roughly on both the
Lyons and North Lyons rivers, extending west as far as the vicinity of
Mount Phillips and Peedawarra Bluff. Their eastern boundary lay at the eastern end of Teano Range, while their southern frontier was in proximity of
Mount Augustus.
Social customs
The Ninanu's initiatory rites involved the practice of both circumcision and
subincision
Penile subincision is a form of genital modification or mutilation
The terms genital modification and genital mutilation can refer to permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs. Some forms of genital alteration are performed on adults w ...
.
Alternative name
One possible alternative name for the Ninanu may be ''Ngaunmardi''. The word is attested only in manuscripts collecting ethnographic data written by
Carl Georg von Brandenstein
Carl-Georg Christoph Freiherr von Brandenstein (10 October 1909 – 8 January 2005) was a German linguist who took up the study of Australian Aboriginal languages.
Life
Born in 1909 in Hannover to , Carl-Georg finished high school in Weimar, a ...
, which state that this referred to a people on Dooley Downs on the Lyons River. Unable to find independent corroboration for this tribe, Tindale speculated that it might have been an alternative name for the Ninanu in the same area.
Notes
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Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia
Gascoyne