Ngarkat facts for kids

The Ngarkat were an important group of Aboriginal people from South Australia. Their traditional lands connected the "mallee" people (who lived in dry, scrubby areas) from Victoria and South Australia with the "river people" who lived along the Murray River in the Murraylands.

The Ngarkat language was sometimes thought to be similar to the Peramangk language, but this idea wasn't supported by language experts. It's known that special songlines (paths followed by ancestral beings in Aboriginal culture) connected the Coorong area to the Mallee regions, and these paths went right through Ngarkat land. The Ngarkat people also met regularly with other groups along the Murray River.

Where the Ngarkat Lived

The Ngarkat's traditional country was a large area of about 22,500 square kilometers (8,700 square miles). This land was part of the Mallee scrub belt located east of the Murray River. Their territory included places like Alawoona, Pinnaroo, Keith, Tintinara, and Coonalpyn. Their eastern border reached areas near Tatiara and Murrayville. Some experts believe that the Ngarkat's land might have been smaller than first thought, with some areas belonging to the Wotjobaluk to their east.

How the Ngarkat Lived

The Ngarkat people lived on a dry, flat area called a karst plateau, which has very little surface water. Rainfall was low, especially in the north. Winters could be very cold, and summers were extremely hot, often reaching 38°C (100°F) and sometimes even 48°C (118°F). There were no permanent rivers or streams. The Ngarkat found water in natural soakages (places where water collects underground), by digging up mallee roots, or by collecting water from hollow trees and rock cracks. They even made water bags from kangaroo and wallaby hides.

Because water was so scarce, the Ngarkat were always moving. They were a nomadic people, meaning they didn't stay in one place for long. Other nearby groups, like the Warki and Jarildekald, lived near rivers where they could hunt, fish, and trap animals. This allowed those groups to live in a more settled way. The Ngarkat, however, had to keep moving to find water and food. They only had a few special places that they returned to regularly, and these places were important for their stories and traditions.

During very dry times, the Ngarkat would go to a rock-shelter called Ngautngaut on the Murray River. They were allowed to use a special path down the cliff to reach it. In their stories, Ngautngaut was a being who lived in the mallee scrubland and was killed when he knelt to drink water.

Ngarkat Social Groups

The Ngarkat people were spread out because water was so hard to find. They were divided into six main groups, or "hordes," according to an old person from the Tatiara area. These groups included:

• Kooinkill
• Wirriga
• Chala
• Camiagiiigara
• Niall
• Munkoora

Tools and Trade

Making tools was a challenge for the Ngarkat because good stone for things like millstones, hammers, and axes was rare in their area. When the weather was very dry, and water holes dried up, people would find old tools made from materials like chert (a hard, fine-grained rock), quartzite (a hard, metamorphic rock), and jasp-opal (a type of opal).

Even though their land was dry and difficult, the Ngarkat territory had many trade routes. These paths connected places like Lake Hindmarsh to Bordertown, and Nhill to Murrayville and Pinnaroo, all the way to the Murray Bridge area. Along these routes, they traded items such as necklaces made from yabby claws, pipe clay (a type of white clay), red ochre (a natural earth pigment), and diorite stone axes.

Relationships with Other Groups

The Ngarkat often had to look for water in the lands of other tribes, which sometimes led to difficult relationships. One story from the Ngarrindjeri people explains why Lake Bumbunga (also called "Pink Lake") has pink water. The legend says it's from a big battle between the Ngarrindjeri and the Ngarkat, where many warriors were killed.

Other tribes sometimes saw Ngarkat lands as dangerous. There were "legends of fear" about the area, saying it was prone to strong storms or had bad spirits.

Contact with Europeans

The explorer Edward Eyre traveled through Ngarkat lands between 1840 and 1841. He wrote that the Ngarkat (whom he called Arkatko) spoke similar "dialects" but couldn't always understand each other without using a third, common language.

Sadly, by the mid-1840s, only about 50 people from one Ngarkat group, the Jackegilbrab, were left. This decline was likely due to diseases brought by Europeans. It's also believed that many Ngarkat people were killed, though it's not clear by whom. Early settlers found a burial site with 70 skeletons near a soakage in the Lameroo district.

Today, the name Ngarkat is remembered in South Australia. There is a place called Ngarkat, and part of their traditional land has been set aside as the Ngarkat Conservation Park.

Other Names for Ngarkat

The Ngarkat people were known by several different names:

• Ngerget
• Ngarkato
• Arkatko
• Boraipar (a language name)
• Baripung (where barip means "man")
• Boripar, Booripung
• Tatiari (a regional name for the mallee desert)
• Thatiari (a general term)
• Duwinbarap (an eastern term where barap means "man")
• Doenbauraket
• Tjakulprap (a southeastern term where parap, a form of barab, means "man")
• Jakalbarap, Jackalbarap
• Jacke-gilbrab
• Ngalundji (a name for their language)
• Nalunghee
• Wularuki (name for a southwestern group)

Names Used by Other Tribes

Other Aboriginal groups had their own names for the Ngarkat:

• Ngeruketi (Maraura term)
• Ratarapa (Nganguruku term)
• Mangkarupi (Jarildekalde term)
• Merkani/Merkanie (Jaralde and Tangane term, meaning "enemy")
• Jakel-baluk (Wotjobaluk term)
• Baine Hill tribe (a group around Lameroo)