Puneitja

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The Puneitja (Buneidja) were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

Contents

Name

In the dreamtime legends of this area, a woman, Imberombera and a man, Wuraka, are foundational figures. They came to the mainland separately by walking southwards across the sea, and Imberombera landed at Malay Bay (Wungaran). Both originally spoke Iwaidja. She encounter Wuraka and wished him to accompany her, but Wuraka, tired by the burden of his heavy penis, which he carried slung over his shoulder, demurred. Imerombera pressed on, heavily pregnant, and on her journey, left spirit children at various points, together with yams, or cyprus bulbs or bamboo, and chanted the language to be spoken in each area. In what became Puneitja ground, she said: Puneitja ngeinyimma tjikaru, gnoro Jaijipali, the first word indicating the language. [1]

Country

In Tindale's calculations, the Puneitja's territorial lands covered some 900 square miles (2,300 km2) on the western side of the South Alligator River, running approximately 50 miles inland and along Coirwong Creek. Ronald and Catherine Berndt also placed them at the headwaters of the East Alligator River, a view queried by Tindale, who thought this located them beyond their eastern boundaries. [2]

Alternative names

Notes

    Citations

    1. ↑ Spencer 1914, pp. 274–276.
    2. 1 2 Tindale 1974, p. 235.

    Sources


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