Ngarrindjeri

The Ngarrindjeri (literal meaning The people who belong to this land) are a nation of eighteen "tribes" (lakinyeri) consisting of numerous family clans who speak similar dialects of the Ngarrindjeri language and are the traditional Aboriginal people of the lower Murray River, western Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of southern, central Australia. "Much of the early literature on this south-eastern region refers to the Aborigines collectively as the Ngarrindjeri 'confederacy' or 'nation', but in the Berndt's view this is misleading. Although there was freedom of movement over the region, and many bonds linked the culturally similar 'tribes' or dialect-named units that comprise the Ngarrindjeri, there was no political unity to warrant the 'nation' or 'confederacy' labels."