Barngarla people facts for kids

Aboriginal languages of South Australia.

The Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla and also known as Pangkala, are an Aboriginal people of the Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta areas. The Barngarla are the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.

Language

Barngarla died out in the 1960s.

Israeli linguist Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann contacted the Barngarla community in 2011 proposing to revive it, the project of reclamation being accepted enthusiastically by people of Barngarla descent. Workshops to this end were started in Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta in 2012. The reclamation is based on 170-year-old documents.

Country

In Tindale's estimation, the Barngarla's traditional lands covered some 17,500 square miles (45,000 km²), around the eastern side of Lake Torrens south of Edeowie and west of Hookina and Port Augusta. The western reaches extended as far as Island Lagoon and Yardea. Woorakimba, Hesso, Yudnapinna, and the Gawler Ranges are formed part of Barngarla lands. The southern frontier lay Kimba, Darke Peak, Cleve, and Franklin Harbour.

Social organisation

The Barngarla had two tribal divisions: the northern Wartabanggala ranged from north of Port Augusta to Ogden Hill and the vicinity of Quorn and Beltana; a southern branch, the Malkaripangala, lived down the western side of the Spencer Gulf. Referred to as Pangkala, the Barngala have also been included in the grouping currently known as the Adnyamathanha people.

In 1844 the missionary C. W. Schürmann stated that the Barngarla were divided into two classes, the Mattiri and Karraru. This was criticized by the ethnographer R. H. Mathews, who, surveying South Australian tribes, argued that Schürmann had mixed them up, and that the proper divisions, which he called phratries shared by all these tribes was as follows:

Culture

A practice known as "singing to the sharks" was an important ritual in Barngarla culture, a technique that expired when its last traditional practitioner died in the 1960s. The performance consisted of men lining the cliffs of bays in the Eyre peninsula and singing out, while their chants were accompanied by women dancing on the beach. The aim was to enlist sharks and dolphins in driving shoals of fish towards the shore where fishers in the shallows could make their catch.

History of contact

Even before British colonisation, the Barngarla were under pressure from the Kokatha, who were on the move southwards, forcing the Barngarla to retreat from their traditional northern boundaries. One effect was to cut off their access to certain woods used in spear-making, so that they finally had to forage as far as Tumby Bay to get supplies of whipstick mallee ash.

Barngarla native title

On 22 January 2015 the Barngarla people were granted native title over much of Eyre Peninsula. They had applied for 44,500 square kilometres (11,000,000 acres) and received most of it.

On 24 September 2021 they were granted native title over the city of Port Augusta, after a protracted 25-year old battle. Justice Natalie Charlesworth presided over the sitting.

Alternative names

• Arkaba-tura (men of Arkaba, a toponym
• Bangala, Bungela
• Banggala, Bahngala
• Bungeha
• Jadliaura people
• Kooapidna
• Kooapudna (Franklin Harbour horde)
• Kortabina (toponym)
• Pamkala
• Pankalla, Parnkalla, Parn-kal-la, Pankarla
• Punkalla
• Punkirla
• Wanbirujurari ("men of the seacoast", northern tribal term for southern hordes)
• Willara
• Willeuroo ("west"/ "westerner")

Some words

• babi "father"
• gadalyili, goonya, walgara "shark"
• goordnidi "native dog"
• ngami "mother"
• wilga "domesticated dog"

Barngarla has four grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural and superplural. For instance:

• wárraidya "emu" (singular)
• wárraidyailyarranha "a lot of emus", "heaps of emus" (superplural)
• wárraidyalbili "two emus" (dual)
• wárraidyarri "emus" (plural)