Ngarinjin


The Ngarinjin or Ngarinyin, also known as the Ungarinyin, are an indigenous Australian people of northern Western Australia.

Language

belongs to the Worrorran language family. As of 2003 there were 82 speakers of Ngarinjin spread out from Derby to the King River.

Country

The Ngarinjin tribal lands were estimated by Norman Tindale to encompass some from Walcott Inlet at Mount Page. To the southeast their boundaries ran along the northern face of the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges. Their land included the Isdell Valley to Isdell Range, running east as far as the Phillips Range, the headwaters of the Chapman River, Blackfellow Creek, and Wood River. Their confines to the north lay along the Barnett and Harris Ranges, and to where the Gibb River joins with the upper Drysdal across to the Maitland Range. They were present also at the King River headwaters, as far as around about Mount Reid. Their western frontier was set at Mounts Bradshaw and Han. Their territory to the southeast reached Mount French on the highlands.

Social organization

The Ngarinjin were composed of roughly 40 hordes. Each of these local divisions had its own distinctive each with a clan and moiety classification.

History

Before the coming of white settlement, it appears that the Ngarinjin were pressing south into territory held by the Punaba.

Ethnography

The German ethnographer Helmut Petri, during the Frobenius expedition of 1938-1939, lived among the Ngarinjin and took copious notes on the lore language and mythology of the Ngarinjin, and gathered many objects of their traditional craftsmanship. A large part of his material, conserved in Frankfurt am Main, was obliterated during one of the many Allied bombing runs on that city, which razed to the ground the Museum der Weltkulturen where Petri worked.

Alternative names