The Ngaiawang ( Ngayawang ) were an Aboriginal Australian people of the western Riverland area of South Australia , with a language considered part of the Lower Murray group. They are now considered extinct. They have sometimes been referred to as part of the Meru people, a larger grouping which could also include the Ngawait and Erawirung peoples. They were called Birta by the Kaurna and Ngadjuri peoples, variations of Murundi by the Jarildekald people , and were also known various other terms and spellings.
3-671: The Ngayawung language belonged to the Lower Murray language branch of the Pama–Nyungan family . The Ngaiawang lived in an area of some 6,200 square kilometres (2,400 sq mi) ranging along the Murray River from Herman Landing ( Nildottie ) to Penn Reach (near Qualco ). The western boundary was formed by the scarp of the Mount Lofty Ranges . To the south, the tribal territory ended at Ngautngaut (Devon Downs) rock shelter ,
6-600: The Ngaiawang with Europeans occurred when the explorer Edward John Eyre came across them at Lake Bonney . When Eyre returned to England in 1845, onboard the Symmetry , he took two Ngaiawang boys with him, one of who was Warrulan . Source: Tindale 1974 Ngayawung language Ngayawung (Ngaiawong) is an extinct language of southern South Australia , spoken by the Ngaiawang , Ngaralti and Nganguruku people. The name
9-705: The first area to be subject to archaeological excavation (by Norman Tindale and Herbert Hale of the South Australian Museum ) and the first formal archaeological excavation undertaken in Australia. The Ngaiawang consisted of some ten clans or peoples , among which were the Molo people. They did not practice circumcision , and were derided for this by the Kaurna , whose derogative exonym for them, Paruru , meant "uncircumcised" or "animal". The first recorded encounter of
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