Nukunu

Nukunu (Alternative names Wongaidja (valid alternative), Nukuna, Nukunnu, Nugunu, Nookoona, Nukunna, Noocoona, Nokunna, Nu-guna, Pukunna (misprint), Wongaidja, Wongaidya, Tura (['tura] = man), Tyura, Doora, Eura (general term for several tribes), Warra (name of language), Barutadura (men of Baroota)),^[1] are a sovereign tribe of Indigenous Australians who inhabit the coastal region of South Australia around the Spencer Gulf which since the invasion of South Australia by British settlers on 28 December 1836, has now come to contain the cities of Port Pirie and Port Augusta. Nukunu once widely spoke Nukunu language. Nukunu (SC96/5) SA Parties to Native Title mediation 8 June 2001.^[2]

Location

Nukunu Nation

The land of the Nukunu people is the eastern side of Spencer Gulf from a little north of the mouth of the Broughton River and the vicinity of Crystal Brook, northward to Port Augusta; east to Melrose, Mount Remarkable, Gladstone, and Quorn; at Baroota. The Ngaiawang of the Murray River used the term 'Nokunno' as the name of a mythical being who went about by night killing people. The Kaurna tribe term ['nokun:a] has a meaning of an imaginary being, like a man, who prowls at night and kills, an assassin (Teichelmann and Schürmann, 1840). The Nukunu were the southeastern-most tribe to practise subincision, in addition to circumcision, as a male initiation rite. Barngarla men used the pronunciation 'Nukuna' for the name. The few Nukunu survivors of the British invasion of South Australia were settled at Baroota inland from Port Germein where they are known as Barutadura.^[3]

Bibliography^[4]

• Anderson, R.J. 1988, Solid Town: The history of Port Augusta, R.J. Anderson, South Australia.
• Angas, G.F. 1847, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, vols 1 & 2, Smith Elder & Co, London.
• Barwick, D. 1984, ‘Mapping the Past: an Atlas of Victorian Clans 1835 – 1904’, Aboriginal History, Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History, Australian National University, Canberra, vol. 8, no. 1-2, pp. 100–131.
• Basedow, H. 1929, The Australian Aboriginal (1925), F.W. Preece & Sons, Adelaide.
• Beddome, H.L. 1886, ‘Marachowie’, in E.M. Curr ed., The Australian Race: its Origin, Languages, Customs, Place of Landing in Australia, and the Routes by Which It Spread Itself, Vol. 2, Government Printers, Melbourne, pp. 132–135.
• Berndt, R.M. & C.H. 1993, A World That Was: The Yaraldi of the Murray Lakes, South Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
• Black, J.M. 1917, ‘Vocabularies of Three South Australian Native Languages – Wirrung, Narrinyeri, and Wongaidya’, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 41, pp. 1–13.
• Capell, A. 1963, Linguistic Survey of Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Sydney.
• Condon, H.T. 1955, ‘Aboriginal Bird Names – South Australia’ The South Australian Ornithologist, vol. 2, nos 6-7.
• Curr, E.M. ed. 1886, The Australian Race: its Origin, Languages, Customs, Place of Landing in Australia, and the Routes by Which It Spread Itself, vol. 2, Government Printers, Melbourne.
• Davidson, D.S. 1938, A Preliminary Register of Australian Tribes and Hordes, The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
• Davis, S. 1993, Australia’s Extant and Imputed Traditional Aboriginal Territories, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
• Dixon, R.M.W. ed. 1976, Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages, Linguistic Series no. 22, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies & Humanities Press, Canberra.
• Donahue, M. 1991, ‘AIATSIS Library Language Names and Community/Established Language Names’, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra.
• East, J.J. 1889, ‘The Aborigines of South and Central Australia’ Royal Society of South Australian Field Naturalists Section Proceedings, pp. 1–11.
• Elkin, A.P. 1931, ‘The Social Organisation of South Australian Tribes’, Oceania, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 44–73.
• Elkin, A.P. 1938, ‘Kinship in South Australia’, Oceania, vol. 8, pp. 419–452.
• Ellis, A.M., Ellis, C. J. & Hercus, L. 1966, ‘Recordings made during 1963-65 field work’, MS AITSIS PMS564.
• Eyre, E.J. 1845, Journals of Expeditions Into Central Australia and Overland… (1964), vol. 1, T. & W. Boone, London, Libraries Board of South Australia.
• Gray, J. 1930, ‘Notes On Native Tribe Formerly Resident at Orroroo, South Australia’, The South Australian Naturalist, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 4–6.
• Hack, B. 1879, ‘The Mount Remarkable Tribe’, in G. Taplin ed., The Folklore Manners, Customs, And Languages Of The South Australian Aborigines: Gathered From Inquiries Made By Authority Of South Australian Government (1971), Government Print, Johnson Reprint Corporation, London, pp. 64–66.
• Helon, G.W. 1998, Aboriginal Australia, Centre for Historical Aboriginal and International Research, Queensland.
• Hercus, L. 1965, ‘Report on Work on Aboriginal Languages’, April–June 1965, MS AIATSIS PMS2223.
• Hercus, L. 1971, ‘Summary Of Recent Work Carried Out…And Plans For Further Work’, AIATSIS PMS2223.
• Hercus, L. 1992, A Nukunu Dictionary, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• Hercus, L.A. & Potezny V. 1999, ‘‘Finch’ versus ‘Finch-Water’: a study of Aboriginal place-names in South Australia’, Records of the South Australian Museum, vol. 2, no. 31, pp. 165–180.
• Horton, D. ed. 1994, Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra.
• Howitt, A.R. 1904, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1996), Facsimile edition Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
• Le Brun, S. 1886, ‘Port Pirie, Forty Miles East Of’, in E.M. Curr ed., The Australian Race: Its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia, and the routes by which it spread itself over that continent, vol. 2, John Ferres Government Printers, Melbourne, pp. 140–142.
• Mathews, R.M. 1900, ‘Divisions of the South Australian Aborigines’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 39, pp. 78–93.
• Mattingly, C. & Hampton K. 1988, Survival in Our Own Land: ‘Aboriginal’ experiences in ‘South Australia’ since 1836 told by Nungas and others, Hodder & Stoughton, Sydney.
• Moorhouse, M. 1846, A Vocabulary, and Outline of the Grammatical Structure of the Murray River Language, Spoken By The Natives Of South Australia From Wellington On The Murray, As Far As Rufus, Andrew Murrat.
• Oates, W.J. 1970, A Revised Linguistic Survey of Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.
• O’Grady, G.N., Wurm, S.A. & Hale, K.L. 1966, Aboriginal Languages of Australia: A Preliminary Classification, University of Victoria, British Columbia.
• Purvis, R. 1978, Please Sir Lets Do History, original text by the teacher and students of Port Germein Primary School, Nadjuri Australia.
• Schurmann, C.W. 1844, Vocabulary of the Parnkalla Language Spoken By The Natives Inhabiting The Western Shores of Spencer’s Gulf (1962), George Dehane, Adelaide, Reprint Public Library of South Australia.
• Schurmann, C.W. 1879, ‘The Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln in South Australia Their Mode of Life, Manners, Customs, Etc’, in J.D. Woods ed., The Native Tribes of South Australia (1997), Australiana Facsimile Editions no. 215, pp. 207–251.
• Sutton, P. 1995, Country: Aboriginal Boundaries and Land Ownership in Australia, Aboriginal History Inc., Canberra.
• Taplin, G. ed. 1879, The Folklore Manners, Customs, and Languages Of The South Australian Aborigines: Gathered From Inquiries Made By Authority Of South Australian Government (1971), Government Printers, Johnson Reprint Corporation, London.
• Teichelmann, C.G. & Schurmann, C.W. 1840, Outlines of a Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phraseology, of the Aboriginal Language of South Australia, Spoken by the Natives in and for Some Distance around Adelaide, published by the authors, Adelaide.
• Tindale, N.B. 1937, ‘Two Legends of The Ngadjuri Tribe From The Middle North Of South Australia’, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 61, pp. 149–153.
• Tindale, N.B. 1940, ‘Results of the Harvard-Adelaide Universities Anthropological expedition, 1938-1939, Distribution of Australian Aboriginal Tribes: A Field Survey’, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 64, no.1.
• Tindale, N.B. 1959, Ecology of Primitive Aboriginal Man in Australia, Utgerverij, Den Haag, pp. 36–51.
• Tindale, N.B. 1974, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names, Australian National University Press, Canberra.
• Valentine, J.C. 1886, ‘Mt Remarkable’, in E.M. Curr ed., The Australian Race: It’s origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia, and the routes by which it spread itself over that continent, Vol. 2, John Ferres, Government Printers, Melbourne, pp. 136–139.
• Willhelmi, C. 1860, ‘Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, in Particular of the Port Lincoln District’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 5, pp. 164–203.

References

• Hercus, Luise Anna (1992). "Introduction". A Nukunu Dictionary. Maitland, South Australia: National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry. 

External links

• SA Museum South Australian Museum
• Tindale's Catalogue of Australian Aboriginal Tribes Tindale Tribes - Nukunu