According to the estimation made by Norman Tindale, the Kuyani held sway over some 13,200 square miles (34,000 km2) of tribal land, extending northwards from Parachilna to the western flank of the Flinders Ranges at Marree. Their northeastern boundary was at Murnpeowie. Their western frontier lay at Turret Range and Andamooka. They also occupied the area to the north of, but not including, Lake Torrens.[1] 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".[2]
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.)[1]
Their neighbours to the east are the Adnyamathanha people, whose language is closely related.[3]
Alternative names
Kujani, Kuyanni
Kwiani, Kwiana
Kooyiannie
Gujani
Owinia
Cooyiannie
Kooyeeunna, Kooteeunna
Nganitjidi (Barngarlaexonym, meaning "those who sneak and kill by night")
Kingsmill, J. W. (1886). "Beltana"(PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 118–121.
Schürmann, Clamor Wilhelm (1879). "The Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln"(PDF). In Woods, James Dominick (ed.). The Native Tribes of South Australia. Adelaide: E.S. Wigg & Son. pp. 207–252.