The Ngaiawang (Ngayawang) were an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people of the western

Riverland The Riverland is a region of South Australia. It covers an area of along the Murray River, River Murray from where it flows into South Australia from New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria downstream to Blanchetown, South Australia ...

area of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, with a language considered part of the Lower Murray group. They are now considered extinct. They have sometimes been referred to as part of the Meru people, a larger grouping which could also include the

Ngawait The Ngawait, also spelt Ngawadj and other variations, and also known as Eritark and other names, were an Aboriginal Australian people of the mid-Riverland region, spanning the Murray River in South Australia. They have sometimes been referred to ...

and

Erawirung The Erawirung (Yirawirung, Jirawirung) people, also known as Yirau, Juju and other names, were an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional territory was located in what is today the Riverland of South Australia. They consisted of sub-groups ...

peoples. They were called Birta by the

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...

and

Ngadjuri The Ngadjuri people are a group of Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lie in the mid north of South Australia with a territory extending from Gawler in the south to Orroroo in the Flinders Ranges in the north. Name Their ethn ...

peoples, variations of Murundi by the

Jarildekald people The Jarildekald people, also known as Yarilde or Yaralde, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia originating on the eastern side of Lake Alexandrina and the Murray River. Name The tribal name Jarildekald is said to derive from ' ...

, and were also known various other terms and spellings.

Language

The

Ngayawung language Ngayawung (Ngaiawong) is an extinct language of southern South Australia, spoken by the Ngaiawang The Ngaiawang (Ngayawang) were an Aboriginal Australian people of the western Riverland area of South Australia, with a language considered part ...

belonged to the Lower Murray language branch of the Pama–Nyungan family.

Country

The Ngaiawang lived in an area of some ranging along the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

from Herman Landing ( Nildottie) to Penn Reach (near Qualco). The western boundary was formed by the scarp of the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and d ...

. To the south, the tribal territory ended at Ngautngaut (Devon Downs)

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...

, the first area to be subject to

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

(by

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...

and Herbert Hale of the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultur ...

) and the first formal

undertaken in Australia.

Society

The Ngaiawang consisted of some ten clans or peoples, among which were the Molo people. They did not practice

circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. T ...

, and were derided for this by the

, whose derogative

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

for them, ''Paruru'', meant "uncircumcised" or "animal".

History

The first recorded encounter of the Ngaiawang with Europeans occurred when the explorer

Edward John Eyre Edward John Eyre (5 August 181530 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand's New Munster province, and Governor of Jamaica. Early life Eyre was born in ...

came across them at Lake Bonney. When Eyre returned to England in 1845, onboard the ''Symmetry'', he took two Ngaiawang boys with him, one of who was

Warrulan Warrulan (sometimes written Warruloong or Warru-loong; known in England as Edward Warrulan; c. 1835–1855) was an Aboriginal Australian, who migrated to England as a boy. He was educated in agriculture and found work as a saddlemaker, dying a ...

Alternative names

* ''Aiawung, Aiawong'' (given by Eyre, who, according to Tindale, was tone deaf to the initial ng sound) * ''Birta'' (Kaurna and Ngadjuri term) * ''Iawung'' * ''Karn-brikolenbola'' (horde at Moorunde) * ''Meru'' (term for man) * ''Moorunde, Moorundee, Moorundie'' * ''Murundi'' ( Jarildekald term for the Murray River upriver from Lake Alexandrina and place name south of Blanchetown) * ''Naiawu'' (a language name); ''Niawoo'' * ''Ngaiawung'' * ''Ngaijawa, Ngaiyawa'' * ''Ngaiyau'' * ''Nggauaiyo-wangko'' * ''Paruru'' ( Kaurna term meaning "uncircumcised" (also "animal") to denote the Ngaiawang and other Murray River tribes * ''Pijita, Pitta, Pieta, Peeita'' * ''Wakanuwan'' (name applied by the Jarildekald to this, the Nganguruku, and other tribes; they called the language Walkalde) Source:

Notes

Citations

Sources

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