The Kuyani people, also written Guyani and other variants, and also known as the Nganitjidi, 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 the state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

who speak the

Kuyani language The Adnyamathanha language (pronounced ), also known as yura ngarwala natively and Kuyani, also known as Guyani and other variants, are two closely related Australian Aboriginal languages. They are traditional languages of the Adnyamathanha peop ...

. Their traditional lands are to the west of the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhab ...

Country

According to the estimation made by

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 ...

, the Kuyani held sway over some of tribal land, extending northwards from Parachilna to the western flank of the

at Marree. Their northeastern boundary was at

Murnpeowie Murnpeowie or Murnpeowie Station is a pastoral lease in outback South Australia. The pastoral lease once operated as a sheep station but now operates as a cattle station. The land occupying the extent of the pastoral lease was gazetted as a ...

. Their western frontier lay at Turret Range and Andamooka. They also occupied the area to the north of, but not including,

Lake Torrens Lake Torrens ( Kuyani: ''Ngarndamukia'') is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf. ...

. However, Lake Torrens was of great significance to the Kuyani people, known to them as Ngarndamukia, meaning "shower of rain". Kuyani woman Regina McKenzie said that the Kuyani were "the law holders of what anthropologists would call the lake's culture people". The Kuyani around Beltana and Leigh Creek were known as the ''Adjnjakujani'' from a word, ''adjna'' meaning "hill," while those near Lake Torrens were called plainspeople (''Wartakujani''.) Their neighbours to the east are the

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporarily formed grouping of several distinct Aboriginal Australian peoples of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi but th ...

people, whose language is closely related.

Alternative names

* ''Kujani, Kuyanni'' * ''Kwiani, Kwiana'' * ''Kooyiannie'' * ''Gujani'' * ''Owinia'' * ''Cooyiannie'' * ''Kooyeeunna, Kooteeunna'' * ''Nganitjidi'' (

Barngarla The Barngarla, (historically also spelled as Parnkalla or Pangkala), are an Indigenous people of South Australia and the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula. Their language, Barngarla is a Yura language and part of a revival effo ...

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

, meaning "those who sneak and kill by night") * ''Ngannityiddi''

Language

The

is extinct today, with no speakers recorded since 1975.

Some words

* ''wilker'' (dog, both tame and wild) * ''papi'' (father) * ''comie/knumie'' (mother) * ''coodnoo'' (white man)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of South Australia