Aboriginal Nation of Ngarrindjeri

"The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, western Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ngarrindjeri means "belonging to men", and refers to a "tribal constellation". The Ngarrindjeri actually comprised several distinct if closely related tribal groups, including the Jarildekald, Tanganekald, Meintangk and Ramindjeri, who began to form a unified cultural bloc after remnants of each separate community congregated at Raukkan, South Australia (formerly Point McLeay Mission).

A descendant of these peoples, [Professor] Irene Watson, has argued that the notion of Ngarrindjeri identity is a cultural construct imposed by settler colonialists, who bundled together and conflated a variety of distinct tribal worlds into one homogenised pattern now known as Ngarrindjeri."

An NNTT application first made in 1998 identifies 71 groups - father's, mother's, husbands and wives - of apical ancestors, some of whom can be viewed on an Ancestry Family tree due to the many family connections made by descendants in the region particularly at the Point McLeay Mission.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Ngarrindjeri
• http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleRegisters/RNTC%20Extracts/SC1998_004/RNTCExtract_SC1998_004.pdf
• https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/103817620/family/familyview
• [The AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia: David R Horton 1996]