Gudanji

The Gudanji, otherwise known as the Kotandji or Ngandji,[1] are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

Language

The Gudanji were formerly thought to speak a Ngurlun language, belonging to the eastern Mirndi languages group of non-Pama Nyungan family, one that was mutually intelligible with Wambaya.[2][3]

Country

Norman Tindale's estimate of Gudanji lands has them covering about 12,000 square miles (31,000 km2), running southeast of the coastal slope at Tanumbirini to the headwaters of the McArthur River, taking in Old Wallhallow and northward, also Mallapunyah. The western extension lay about the head of Newcastle Creek,[4] while their southern frontier ran to the Barkly Tableland area of Anthony Lagoon and Eva Downs.[5] Neighbouring tribes where reckoning clockwise from the north, the Yanyuwa, with the Garrwa on their eastern flank, the Wambaya to their south, the Ngarnka east and the Binbinga to their northeast.[6]

History of contact

Before 1900, the Gudanjii were on the move penetrating into the Binbinga lands that lay to their northeast.[7][a]

Alternative names

  • Anga
  • Angee (mishearing)
  • Gnanji (scribal error)
  • Gudanji, Godangee
  • Gundangee
  • Kakaringa (Tjingili exonym with the sense of "easterners"(kakara = east))
  • Kudenji
  • Kutandji, Kudandji, Koodanjee, Koodangie
  • Kutanjtjii (Alyawarre exonym)
  • Nandi
  • Ngandji
  • Nganji, Ngangi

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 229

Notes

  1. ^ On Nordlinger's map, the Binbinga are placed to the northwest of the Gudanji. (Nordlinger 1998, p. xv)

Citations

  1. ^ Nordlinger 1998, p. 2,n.6.
  2. ^ Nordlinger 1998, pp. 1–3.
  3. ^ Dixon 2002, p. xl.
  4. ^ "Map of Newcastle Creek in the Northern Territory - Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia".
  5. ^ Tindale 1974, p. 229.
  6. ^ Nordlinger 1998, p. xv.
  7. ^ Tindale 1974, pp. 222, 229.

Sources