Murrinh-Patha

The Murrinh-Patha, or Murinbata, are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory

Language

Murrinh-Patha, is spoken by about 2500 people, and serves as a lingua franca for several other ethnic groups, such as the Mati Ke or Maridjabin, whose languages are extinct or threatened.^[1] It is not clearly related to other languages.

Country

The Murrinh-Patha's traditional lands extrended some 800 sq.miles inland from Wadeye, formerly kinown as Port Keats reaching eastwards the Macadam Range. Its southernj limits lay at Keyling Inlet and the the mouth of the Kemoi/Fitzmaurice River (native name Kemol). They expanded southwards in historical times to take over the territory of the Muringura, who were then absorbed into the tribe.^[2]

Social organization

The Murrinh-Patha consisted of 8 hordes.

Nagor

Alternative names

Murinbada.
Karama (perhaps = 'water folk')
Garama, Karaman.
Murinkura (apparently a tribe the Murrinh-Patha absorbed, becoming a linguistic group thus designated, the term meaning 'water language.')
Nagor
Nangu.
Mariwada.
Mariwuda.^[2]

Notes

Citations

↑ Abley 2003, p. 18.
1 2 Tindale 1974, pp. 231-232.

References

Abley, Mark (2005). Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages. Houghton-Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-618-56583-2.
Michaels, Walter Benn (2007). The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-466-81881-1.
Street, Chester S (1987). The Language and Culture of the Murrinh-Patha. Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 978-0-868-92319-2.
Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Murinbata (NT)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.

Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory

By state or territory: New South Wales; Northern Territory; Queensland; South Australia; Tasmania; Victoria; Western Australia

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