Portaulun people

See also: Portaulun language

The Portaulun were an indigenous Australian people of South Australia.

Country

The Portaulun's territory was estimated by Norman Tindale to encompass roughly 300 square miles (780 km2), along the western bank of the Murray River from Wood Hill to Wellington and Pomanda Point. Their westward extension ran to Grote Hill.[1]

Social organization

The Portaulun were divided into clans, the name of two of which are known:-

  • Warawalde
  • Welindjeri

The Welindjeri name is a post-colonial, being formed on the introduced toponym of Wellington, and thus meaning 'belonging to the Wel.'[2]

History of contact

The last Portaulun full-blood was David Ngunaiponi, who died in 1967.[1]

Notable people

David Unaipon.

Alternative names

  • Putjin
  • Warawalde
  • Welindjeri
  • Welinyeri
  • Pomunda (toponym, Pomunda Point)
  • Poomunda
  • Wellington tribe[2]

Notes

Citations

  1. ^ a b Tindale 1974, p. 217.
  2. ^ a b Tindale 1974, p. 218.

Sources

  • Brown, A. R. (July–December 1918). "Notes on the Social Organization of Australian Tribes". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 48: 222–253. doi:10.2307/2843422. JSTOR 2843422.
  • Hawker, J. C. (1899). Early experiences in South Australia. Adelaide: E.S. Wigg & Son.
  • Parkhouse, T. A. (April 1936). "Some words of the Australian autochthone". Mankind. 2 (1): 16–19–253. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1936.tb00920.x.
  • Taplin, George (1878) [First published 1873]. "The Narrinyeri" (PDF). The Native Tribes of South Australia. Adelaide: E.S. Wigg & Son. pp. 1–156.
  • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Portaulun (SA)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.