The Bidjara people, also spelt Bitjara or Bithara, are an
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
people of south-western
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. They spoke a dialect of the
Ngura language
Ngura is a disputed and possibly spurious ethnic and language designation of central Australia. The name 'Nura', short for Ngurawarla, means 'empty camp', referring to lands abandoned after a massacre. It is not a language or ethnic designation. ...
.
They are not to be confused with the
Warrego River Pitjara or the
Badjiri of the
Paroo River
The Paroo River, a series of waterholes, connected in wet weather as a running stream of the Darling catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the South West region of Queensland and Far West region of New South Wales, Aust ...
, both of whose traditional lands are further to the east of the state.
Country
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...
estimated their lands as encompassing approximately , centered around
Bulloo Downs, south to the south to
Bulloo Lake floodplain. Their western border lay at the
Grey Range. Their northern limits were at Orient, and their eastern frontier was around Clyde.
Social organization and customs
The Bitjara included circumcision in their initiatory rites.
Alternative names
* ''Bithara''
* ''Pitteroo''
* ''Minkabari'' (language name)
* ''Wilya''
Some words
* ''mirre'' (tame dog)
* ''urni'' (father)
* ''ummadi'' (mother)
* ''birri-birri'' (white man)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Queensland