The Madngella, otherwise known as the ''Matngala'' or ''Hermit Hill tribe'', are an indigenous Australian people of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
, Australia.
Language
The Madngella spoke
Matngele, one of the
Eastern Daly languages
The Eastern Daly languages are an extinct family of Australian aboriginal languages that are fairly closely related, at 50% cognate. They were:
*Eastern Daly
** Matngele
** Kamu
These languages had elements of verbal structure that suggest t ...
, now extinct.
Country
The Madngella lived traditionally in the middle and lower reaches of the
Daly River nearby to the
Mulluk-Mulluk
The Mulluk-Mulluk, otherwise known as the Malak-Malak, are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory, Australia.
Language
Malak-Malak language, Mulluk-Mulluk is classified as an independent member of the Daly languages, northern D ...
people.
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 ...
assigned to them some of tribal land around Hermit Hill, and the area west of the Daly River, placing them to the southeast of the
Yunggor people. The
Pongaponga lay to their north.
Social system
In the
''merbok'' system of ceremonial exchange, the Madngella used the words in a way that indicated the coastal provenance of the articles (''ninymer'') exchanged, north-easterly and south-westerly. ''Medrdok''from the former direction was called''pork'' ''padaka'', as opposed to the south-westerly merbok, called ''nim berinken,'' where ''berinken'' is a generic term
used of tribes living south-west of the Madngella.
Circumcision
A technique used in native medicine by the Madngella to heal infections to the penis after ritual circumcision had been performed was described by the Norwegian ethnographer
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 ...
.
History
The Madngella tribe had experienced intense
culture shock
Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration ...
in the wake of white settlement, whose effects over 50 years, according to who studied them in the early 1930s, had been to disintegrate many of their attachments to the traditional way of life.
Jesuit missionaries, after several endeavours to set up a station in the general area of the Daly River, eventually managed to establish a viable community at Hermit Hill.
Alternative names
* ''Madngella''
* ''Muttangulla''
* ''Matngelli''
* ''Hermit Hill tribe''
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory