The Awarai (Warray) are an
indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples o ...
people of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
.
Language
The Norwegian explorer
Knut Dahl
Knut Dahl Knut Dahl (28 October 1871 – 11 June 1951) was a Norwegian zoologist and explorer who made important bird collections in northern Australia.
Early years
Dahl grew up at Hakadal in Akershus, Norway, where his father was an estate mana ...
wrote down a short list of vocabulary of the
Awarai language
Warray (Waray) was an Australian language spoken in the Adelaide River area of the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the cent ...
.
Country
The Awarai tribal lands took in some of territory, between Mount Shoebridge and the Central Tableland. Their northern boundary was 46 miles south of Darwin, on the
Darwin River
Darwin River is an outer suburban area in Darwin. The name of the locality derived from the Darwin River which flows through the locality. near the
Adelaide–Darwin railway line and 10 miles north of
Rum Jungle. The southern limits were at Brocks Creek, where their border met that of the
Awinmul
The Awinmul were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Country
The Awinmul1's traditional lands covered an estimated of land from Brocks Creek to the Edith River
The Edith River is a river of Fiordland, New Zealand. It r ...
.
Social organization
The Warai had arrangements to supply the Wogait with women for marriage.
People
According to
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist.
Life
Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ...
, they stood in fear of the
Agigondin horde of the
Wulwulam
The Wulwulam, also known as the ''Woolwonga,'' were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. They are reputed to have been almost completely exterminated in the 1880s in reprisal for an incident in which some members of the trib ...
, which however incorporated them eventually as a subtribe.
Alternative names
* ''Awarrai, Awarra''
* ''Warai, Warei, Warrai''
Source:
Some words
* ''nguk'' (1) tobacco (2) shit.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory