Awarai Explained

See also: Awarai language. The Awarai (Warray) are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

Language

The Norwegian explorer Knut Dahl wrote down a short list of vocabulary of the Awarai language.

Country

The Awarai tribal lands took in some 1400mi2 of territory, between Mount Shoebridge and the Central Tableland. Their northern boundary was 46 miles south of Darwin, on the Darwin River near the Adelaide–Darwin railway line and 10 miles north of Rum Jungle. The southern limits were at Brocks Creek, where their border met that of the Awinmul.

Social organization

The Warai had arrangements to supply the Wogait with women for marriage.

People

According to Norman Tindale, they stood in fear of the Agigondin horde of the Wulwulam, which however incorporated them eventually as a subtribe.

Alternative names

• Awarrai, Awarra
• Warai, Warei, Warrai

Source:

Some words

• nguk (1) tobacco (2) shit.

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Book: Dahl, Knut . In Savage Australia: An Account of a Hunting and Collecting Expedition to Arnhem Land and Dampier Land . 1926 . Knut Dahl . P. Allen & Sons . London .
• Book: Eylmann, Erhard . Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien . 1908 . D.Reimer . Berlin .
• Ethnological notes on the aboriginal tribes of the Northern Territory . Mathews . R. H. . Robert Hamilton Mathews . Queensland Geographical Journal . 1901 . 16 . 69–90 .
• Native tongues in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin . Parkhouse . T. A. . . 1895 . 19 . 1–18 .
• Book: Spencer, Baldwin . Native tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia . 1914 . Walter Baldwin Spencer . . London .
• Book: Tindale, Norman Barnett . Awarai (NT) . 1974 . Norman Tindale . Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names . . http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/awarai.htm . 20 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200320020206/http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/awarai.htm . 978-0-708-10741-6 .