Djerait Explained

The Djerait were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory

Language

The Djerait language was said to have been mutually intelligible with that of the Mulluk-Mulluk who spoke a Daly river language, being as distant as ancient Greek dialects were to each other. And it was also said to be interchangeable with that spoken by the Pongaponga.

Country

According to Norman Tindale, the Djerait occupied some 500mi2 of tribal land on the north shores of Anson Bay, extending north to Point Blaze. Neighbouring tribes were the Mulluk-Mulluk, the Madngella the Pongaponga and the Wogait.

People

The Jesuit missionary Donald Mackillop stated that the Djerait were a "small but intelligent tribe".

Some words

• yinnung delluk (bamboo nose stick)
• wennu. (conical helmet smeared with pipe clay and topped with a bone to which an emu plume is affixed)
• barang (dangerous night spirit, noseless and with blanks for facial eyes, with two organs on the back for seeing at great distances.'

Alternative names

• Tjerait
• Cherait, Cherite
• Sherait
• Jeerite
• Scherits
• Tjiras
• Paperbark natives

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Anthropological notes on the Western Coastal tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia . Basedow . Herbert . Herbert Basedow . . Adelaide . 1907 . 31 . 1–62 .
• Book: Dahl, Knut . In Savage Australia: An Account of a Hunting and Collecting Expedition to Arnhem Land and Dampier Land . Knut Dahl . 1926 . P. Allen & Sons . London . 72–98 .
• Book: Eylmann, Erhard . Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien . 1908 . D.Reimer . Berlin .
• On the Manners, Customs, etc., of some Tribes of the Aborigines, in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin and the West Coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, North Australia . Foelsche . Paul . Paul Foelsche . . Adelaide . 1895 . 24 . 190–198 . 2842215 .
• Anthropological notes on the aboriginal tribes of the Daly River, North Australia . Mackillop . Donald . Mary MacKillop . . Adelaide . 1893 . 17 . 254–264 . PDF .
• Ceremonial Economics of the Mulluk Mulluk and Madngella Tribes of the Daly River, North Australia. A Preliminary paper (continued) . Stanner . W. E. H. . William Edward Hanley Stanner . . June 1934 . 4 . 4 . 458–471 . 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1934.tb00122.x . 27976164 .
• Book: Tindale, Norman Barnett . Djerait (NT) . Norman Tindale . 1974 . Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names . . http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/djerait.htm . 20 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200320020206/http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/djerait.htm . 978-0-708-10741-6 .