A World That Was: The Yaraldi of the Murray River and the Lakes, South Australia

Yengoyan, Aram A.; Berndt, Ronald M.; Berndt, Catherine H.; Stanton, John; Swain, Tony

doi:10.2307/483424

Cited by 6 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The Lower Murray peoples possessed common subsistence technologies and a shared ceremonial life, and were collectively referred to as Ngarrindjeri (Narrinyeri, Narr-inyeri, Ngarinderi, Ngarinderar) as they lived in the same cultural area (Brown 1918;Meyer 1843;Taplin 1879aTaplin , 1879b. Along with their neighbors based further upstream, with whom they had ceremonial and close trade relations, the Ngarrindjeri were known as Kukabrak (Berndt et al 1993).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Lower Murray people had patrilineal clan totemism (Elkin 1933). Each exogamous clan, known as a lakalinyeri (lakatindjeri), possessed one or sometimes several totemic emblems, ngaitji (ngatji), which were generally birds and other animals or plants, but sometimes entities such as the sun or atmospheric phenomena like wind (Berndt et al 1993;Fison and Howitt 1880;Meyer 1846;Taplin 1879a). It was claimed that for the ngaitji, "most…are considered to be birds (e.g.…”

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yaraldi man Jacob Karruck Harris 1 described them as a "signature or a coat-of arms." On occasion, people referred to a person by using the name of their primary ngaitji, particularly in song (Berndt et al 1993).…”

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The connection between people and their ngaitji was close. In cases when an animal species, such as a bird, was involved, people associated with a particular ngaitji species would avoid killing and eating that species, although others were allowed to do so (Berndt et al 1993;Taplin 1879a) The ngaitji were ritually consulted when the community determined who was responsible for a sorcery death. For instance, it was recorded at the Point McLeay Mission that local people believed that "Louisa was millined [sorcery involving a club] and ngadhungied [sorcery involving fat mounted on a bone] too, and that her ngaityengk [ngaitji], viz.…”

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The turkey (bustard, Ardeotis australis) dance that was performed in the Lower Murray, having come downstream from the upper reaches of the Murray River, involved a symbolic "tail-feather" made of red-ochred human hair cord (Berndt et al 1993). Another ceremony that came downstream involved a pole, decorated with emu (Australian ostrich, Dromaius novaehollandiae) feathers and a boomerang, which was placed in the middle of a canoe.…”

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Birds as Totemic Beings and Creators in the Lower Murray, South Australia

Clarke¹

2016

Journal of Ethnobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper is a literature review of the relationships Indigenous peoples in the Lower Murray of temperate South Australia had with the local avifauna as recorded in the early years of European settlement. Birds were prominent as clan ancestors in their creation stories, being credited with the formation of landforms and the establishment of law and custom. Aboriginal origin stories describe bird behavior and detail the relationships between birds, plants, rain, and fire. Ornithological bodies of knowledge that are framed outside of Western science, such as the ethno-ornithological information discussed here, provide an alternative lens with which to view avifaunal biodiversity in a manner that respects local cultural values.

show abstract

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Birds As Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Birds as Totemic Beings and Creators in the Lower Murray, South Australia

Clarke¹

2016

Journal of Ethnobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Putting the Dark Emu debate into context

Denham,

Donohue

2023

Archaeology in Oceania

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this review of the Dark Emu debate we start out by summarising Bruce Pascoe's original work and Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe's critique. However, the majority of this contribution is to place this Australian‐focussed debate into broader conceptual, methodological and evidential contexts generally associated with the investigation of early agriculture in other parts of the world. If we are to apply the term “agriculture” to Aboriginal plant management practices, then this requires a global, rather than a continental‐centric comparative perspective. We argue debates regarding the character of plant exploitation practices on the Australian mainland, including whether they included forms of agriculture or experimental horticulture, have been hindered by a lack of terminological clarity, the absence of a methodological framework to assess empirically verifiable evidence, and – even more problematically – a lack of relevant data on the putative plants and practices involved. Here, terminology is clarified and a bottom‐up, practice‐based method is advocated for the assessment of recent (using oral, visual and written histories) and ancient (using archaeological, archaeobotanical and palaeoecological evidence) forms of food plant exploitation in Australia. The terminology and methodological framework are heuristically applied to three scenarios: (1) ethnographic and historical records for the exploitation of underground storage organs (USOs) on the Australian mainland; (2) historical documentation regarding the botany, potential human roles in dispersal, and Aboriginal exploitation of banana (Musa spp.), taro (Colocasia esculenta) and greater yam (Dioscorea alata) in northern Australia and (3) archaeobotanical evidence for the exploitation of USOs and other plants from The Top End.

show abstract

An archaeological example of Aboriginal management of a hydro-ecological system in the Murray River valley, South Australia

Westell

Roberts

McCullough³

2023

Mar. Freshw. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context A rare archaeological example of Aboriginal water management in a Murray River floodplain upstream of Renmark is described and contextualised. Aims Historical accounts, archaeological descriptions and hydrological modelling are used to propose a likely function of the site. Methods The site was documented through archaeological field recording, a digital elevation model (DEM) developed through a real-time kinematic (RTK) survey and flood inundation modelling (FIM), and is interpreted through a review of archival and documentary sources. Key results The site represents one of only a few extant physical examples of Aboriginal water management in the Riverland and greater Murray–Darling Basin. Conclusions Our assessment indicates that Aboriginal people had excavated an artifical channel within the Calperum floodplain in order to manipulate natural water connectivity, most likely as part of a fish trap or weir structure. Implications The site builds an appreciation of the complexity of Aboriginal land practices and supports the impression gained though historical accounts of a curated and managed riverscape.

show abstract

A World That Was: The Yaraldi of the Murray River and the Lakes, South Australia

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Birds as Totemic Beings and Creators in the Lower Murray, South Australia

Birds as Totemic Beings and Creators in the Lower Murray, South Australia

Putting the Dark Emu debate into context

An archaeological example of Aboriginal management of a hydro-ecological system in the Murray River valley, South Australia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About