Ngarrindjeri - History

History

Whalers and sealers had been visiting the South Australian coast since 1802 and by 1819 there was a permanent camp on Karta, Kangaroo Island. Many of these men were escaped convicts, Sealers, Whalers who had brought Tasmanian Aboriginal women with them but they also raided the mainland for women, particularly Ramindjeri. Originally the most heavily populated area in Australia, a Smallpox epidemic had travelled down the river Murray before colonisation, possibly killing a majority of the Ngarrindjeri. Funeral rites and cultural practices were disrupted, clans merged and land use altered. Songs from the time tell of the smallpox that came out of the Southern Cross in the east with a loud noise like a bright flash. In 1830 the first exploratory expedition reached the Ngarrindjeri lands and Charles Sturt noted that the people were already familiar with firearms.

Numbering only 6,000 at the time of white settlement in 1836 due to the epidemic, they are the only tribal group in Australia whose land lay within 100 km (62 mi) of a Capital City to have survived as a distinct people with a population still living on the former mission at Raukkan (formerly Point McLeay). Pomberuk (Ngarrindjeri for crossing place), on the banks of the River Murray in Murray Bridge was the most significant Ngarrindjeri site. All 18 lakinyeri would meet there for corroborees. Around 22 km (14 mi) further down the river was Tagalang (Tailem Bend), a traditional trading camp where lakinyeri would gather to trade ochre, weapons and clothing. In the 1900s, Tailem Bend was assigned as a government ration depot supplying the Ngarrindjeri.