The Pindiini, also spelt Bindinini, 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
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
.
Name
The
Pitjantjatjara
The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...
referred to the Pindiini as ''Wonggai'', a term that implies they were given to thievery, ''wonggai'' being a word used to indicate mice pilfering flour. The Pindiini began to object to this Pitjantjatjara
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 ...
several years later, and asserted that they were to be known by their
endonym
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 ...
, Pindiini.
Country
The Pindiini's territory lay north of the
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of 'no' and 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its no ...
, as far north as Loonngana.
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 ...
states that their territory covered some .
Their neighbouring tribes, running clockwise from due north, were the
Nakako, the
Ngalia due east, the
Mirning
The Mirning, also known as the Ngandatha, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lay on the coastal region of the Great Australian Bight extending from Western Australia into south-west South Australia.
Name
''Mirniŋ'' was ...
due south, between them and the
Great Australian Bight
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight (geography), bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern Coast, coastline of mainland Australia.
There are two definitions for its extent—one by the Internation ...
, the
Murunitja southeast, followed by the
Nangatadjara
The Nangatadjara are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia.
Country
Nangatadjara lands encompassed, according to Tindale, approximately . Their north-northeastern extension touched the Bailey, Virginia and Newland Ranges. They ...
and the
Mandjindja to their northwest.
Alternative names
* ''Bindinini''
* ''Bindunda''
* ''Wonggai''
* ''Wongaidya''
* ''Wongaii, Wonkai''
* ''Wanggada, Wanggaji''
History of contact
Rumours of a tribe by the name Pindiini first emerged in 1934 at
Ooldea
Ooldea, known as Yuldea and various other names by Western Desert peoples ( Aṉangu), is a tiny settlement in South Australia. It is on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain, west of Port Augusta on the Trans-Australian Railway. Ooldea is ...
in 1934, when a majority of the tribe moved to that location. In later decades, together with the Ngalea, they settled in
Yalata
Yalata ( ), in the isolated far west of South Australia, is both an Indigenous Protected Area and, within that, a township of the same name where an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal community lives. The township is west of Ceduna, South Aus ...
.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia