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Series AA 238/1 comprises a 118-page manuscript written in 1924 by William Nott. The manuscript is a reminiscence of life in the 1860s and 1870s when the author was a boy living around Moorundie, Swan Reach, Portee and Blanchetown on the River Murray, South Australia. It includes information on and stories about the inhabitants of the area, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal (many of whom are named), and local events of interest. References to Aboriginal people in the manuscript include descriptions of hunting and fishing techniques, bush food sources, fibre and artefact manufacture, bark canoes, women working as domestic labour, the 'blacks camp', a reference to a smallpox epidemic and an incident relating to rainmaking. There is also an account of Nott's father supervising a gang of 30 'Goolwa Blacks' working at Goolwa, including a reference to a recent fight between those people and 'the Encounter Bay tribe'. Named Aboriginal people include Black Moriah, Fernanaby ('chief over all the Moorundee blacks and [who] rejoiced in the honoured name of King'), Jim and Lewie Crow, Wpiwp, Milit 'the rain maker' and Jack Shay. The manuscript also includes biographical details of the author's mother, Eliza (nee Hawks) and his father, William Nott, and accounts of their experiences of migration from England, in Adelaide in the 1850s, and on the Murray in the 1860s and 1870s. The 118-page handwritten manuscript is in fair condition; however the outer pages are faded and torn around the edges, and some pages have sections missing. The typescript version of the manuscript was produced in 1966. This series contains references to the following region of South Australia: River Murray - Coorong. This series includes references to the following named groups: 'Goolwa Blacks'; 'Encounter Bay tribe'. Corresponding Tindale Tribes: Warki; Ramindjeri. Corresponding AIATSIS Tribal/language Groups: Ngarrindjeri.
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