Gudanji Explained

The Gudanji, otherwise known as the Kotandji or Ngandji, 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.

Country

Norman Tindale's estimate of Gudanji lands has them covering about 12000mi2, 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,^[1] while their southern frontier ran to the Barkly Tableland area of Anthony Lagoon and Eva Downs. 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.

History of contact

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

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:

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: Dixon, R. M. W. . Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development . 2002 . Robert M. W. Dixon . . 978-0-521-47378-1.
• Book: Nordlinger, Rachel . A Grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia) . 1998 . . PDF.
• The Social Organization of Australian Tribes Part II (Continued) . Radcliffe-Brown . A. R. . Alfred Radcliffe-Brown . . October–December 1930 . 1 . 3 . 322–341 . 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1930.tb01652.x . 40327330.
• Book: Spencer, Baldwin . Native tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia . 1914 . Walter Baldwin Spencer . . London .
• Book: Northern Tribes of Central Australia . Spencer . Sir Baldwin . Gillen . Francis J. . Walter Baldwin Spencer . Francis James Gillen . 1904 . . PDF.
• On the habits etc. of the aborigines in the district of Powell's Creek, Northern Territory of South Australia . Stationmaster . . 1895 . 24 . 176–180 . 2842215.
• Book: Tindale, Norman Barnett . Kotandji (NT) . 1974 . Norman Tindale . Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names . . http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/kotandji.htm . 20 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200320020206/http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/kotandji.htm . 978-0-708-10741-6.
• The Aljawara and Their Territory . Yallop . C. L. . . 1969 . 39 . 3 . 187–197 . 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1969.tb01005.x . 40329775.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Map of Newcastle Creek in the Northern Territory - Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia.