Arabana people

The older tribal autonym was Ngarabana, which may have been misheard by white settlers as Arabana, the term now generally accepted by new generations of the Ngarabana.[2]

Arabana, like Wangganguru with which it shares a 90% overlap in vocabulary, is a member of the Karnic subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan language.[3]

In Norman Tindale's estimation, the Arabana controlled some 19,500 square miles (51,000 km²) of tribal land. They were present at the Neales River to the west of Lake Eyre, and west as far as the Stuart Range; Macumba Creek. Southwards their lands extended to Coward Springs. Their terrain also took in Oodnadatta, Lora Creek[4] and Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.[2]

The neighbouring tribes were the Kokata to the west, with the frontier between the two marked by the scarp of the western tableland near Coober Pedy. To their east were the Wangkanguru.[2]

In 2012, the National Native Title Tribunal issued a consent determination in the matter of Dodd versus the State of South Australia.[5] The Tribunal found that the Arabana maintained strong and enduring connections to country, each other and their culture. As a result, the Arabana were granted native title for more than 68,000 square kilometers in northern South Australia. The Arabana Aboriginal Corporation is responsible for the lands today.

Several traditional stories are well documented, especially that regarding a man-eating Buzzard and his Eaglehawk mate.[6] The chief protagonists are three animals: (1) Wantu Wantu, the man-eating Black-breasted Buzzard; (2) Irritye or Irretye, a friendly Wedge-tailed Eagle; and (3) Kutta Kutta (variantly called Akwete Akwete) who, though described as a small hawk is actually the Spotted nightjar.[7]

The Arabana were interviewed at Old Peake Station[8] and Thantyiwanparda in the nearby gidgee scrub[9] by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen over a ten-day period[10] in August 1903 for a specific purpose. Their earlier work had argued that the truly "primitive" nature of the Arrernte was indicated by the fact that their totemic identities came from the spirit responsible for making individuals' mothers pregnant. James Frazer adopted this to buttress his theories on the development phases of "primitive societies". A Scottish amateur ethnographer Andrew Lang contested their interpretations of the Arrernte, arguing that they were not "primitive", a label he argued was more appropriate to their near neighbours the Arabana, who traced descent through the mother and linked their totemic system to exogamy. It was to address this challenge that accounted for Spencer and Gillen's return to Arabana lands.[9]

Today, cross-cultural research collaborations are building on Arabana traditional knowledge and colonial and pastoral experiences to develop new ways of approaching modeling climate change.[11]

The Arabana were divided into kin groups, whose respective territories were called wadlu.

• Jendakarangu (Coward Springs)
• Peake tribe
• Anna Creek tribe[2]

Their moieties were named Mathari and Kararru.[12]

• Arabuna, Arrabunna, Arrabonna, Arubbinna
• Arapani
• Arapina. (Iliaura pronunciation)
• Ngarabana
• Nulla
• Rabuna (an occasional Aranda pronunciation)
• Urapuna, Urabuna, Urabunna, Urroban
• Wangarabana. ([a term reflecting a word woqka /wagka meaning "speech")
• Wongkurapuna, Wangarabunna
• Yendakarangu

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 210

• kutyu. ritual assassin, kurdaitcha
• thanthani (cormorant) also the name of a totem.

Source: Gibson & Hercus 2018, p. 207, n.37

• "Aboriginal people of South Australia: Arabana". LibGuides at State Library of South Australia. 26 August 2020.