Tindale's Catalogue of Australian Aboriginal Tribes
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Aranda (NT)
LocationAt Mount Gosse, Mount Zeil, and Mount Heughlin; on the Finke River to Idracowra, Blood Creek, Macumba, Mount Dare, and Andado, and some distance east into the sandhills of the Arunta (Simpson) Desert; northeast to Intea on the lower Hale River, thence north to Ilbala on Plenty River; west to Inilja and Hart Range, Mount Swan, Gillen Creek, Connor Well, and Narwietooma; in Central Mac-Donnell, James, and Ooraminna Ranges. T. Strehlow (1960 MS) provided map and data to indicate subdivisions of the Aranda. The southern Aranda, south of Maryvale on the Hugh River have almost the status of a separate tribe, the Wongkatjeri, with a four-class social organization. Northern hordes are divisible into Eastern, Northern, Central, and Western portions. The last named are the Aranda Ilpma or the Mbenderinga (those who live on the Finke River). The hordes on the Hale River speak a dialect called Alitera and are the Easterners (Aldolanga). Yallop records the post-European movements of the Eastern Aranda. Giles in Taplin (1879) and again in Fison and Howitt (1880) gave data on their social organization but incorrectly ascribed the information to the Antakirinja tribe. According to one aged aboriginal who lived in the southern part of Aranda territory, the Aranda were really five separate peoples. His subdivision followed those of T. G. H. Strehlow outlined above but he provided names, the Ko:ang at Alice Springs, the Karo:linga at Arltunga and eastward, the I:lma from Undoolya to Deep Well, the Aluna at Henbury, Horseshoe Bend, New Crown Point, and up the Finke River to Hermannsburg, the true Aranda were between Charlotte Waters and Macumba. Color plates 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, and 26 are relevant. The relative areas occupied by the six groups of Aranda are approximately as follows:
Eastern Aranda - 16,000 Sq. m. (41,600 Sq km)
Northern Aranda - 5,700 Sq. m. (14,820 Sq km)
Western Aranda - 4,600 Sq. m. (11,960 Sq km)
Central Aranda - 3,200 Sq. m. (8,320 Sq. km)
Upper Southern Aranda - 8,200 Sq. m. (21,320 Sq. km)
Lower Southern Aranda - 9,300 Sq. m. (24,180 Sq. km)
Total: 47,000 Sq. m. (122,200 Sq. km)
Co-ordinates134°45'E x 24°40'S
Area47,000 sq. m. (122,200 sq. km)
ReferencesWoods, 1879; Giles in Taplin, 1879; Giles in Fison and Howitt, 1880; Willshire, 1881, 1888, 1891, 1895; Belt in Curr, 1886; Krichauff, 1886; East, 1889; Lindsay, 1890; Kempe, 1891; Schulze, 1891; Gillen, 1896, 1901; Stirling, 1896; Spencer, 1898; Mathews, 1898 (Gr. 6417), 1899 (Gr. 6443), 1900 (Gr. 6448, 6524), 1901 (Gr. 6453), 1905 (Gr. 6543), 1907 (Gr. 6415, 6513, 6515), 1908 (Gr. 6492), 6546, 6578(, 1912 (Gr. 6493); Spencer and Gillen, 1899, 1904; Howitt, 1904; Lang in Parker, 1905; Basedow, 1908, 1925, 1927; Thomas, 1907; C. Strehlow, 1907, 1910; Brown, 1910, 1911; Giglioli, 1911; Tindale, 1929 MS, 1932, 1940; Roheim, 1932, 1933; Fink, 1936; T. G. H. Strehlow, 1942-1944, 1944, 1947, 1965, and MS, Peterson, 1969; Yallop, 1969.
Alternative NamesA'randa (valid alternative pronunciation), Aranta, Arunda, Arunta, Arranda, Arinta (of Iliaura), Arrinda, Urrundie, Herrinda, Arrundta, Wonggaranda, Arrunta, Ur-rundie, Ilpma, Ulpma, Arunta Ulpma, Paroola and Burrin-gah (based erroneously on Purula and Purunga, two of the eight class terms of their social organization), Oiljpma (dialect name based on Ilpma, name for Bond Springs), Pitjima (Iliaura name for Eastern Aranda), Pitjapitja (Iliaura name also for Eastern Aranda), Waitjinga (horde of Southern Aranda at Macumba), Wychinga, Alitera (eastern dialect name), Jairunda (name as known by hearsay among Wirangu of south coast), Aldolinga (means easterners; a Kukatja name), Aldolanga, Wongkatjeri (southerners east of lower Finke River).
This information is reproduced from NB Tindale's Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (1974). Please be aware that much of the data relating to Aboriginal language group distribution and definition has undergone revision since 1974. Please note also that this catalogue represents Tindale's attempt to depict Aboriginal tribal distribution at the time of European contact.

Collection AA1 Aborigines' Friends' Association

Collection AA105 Dr Henry Kenneth Fry

Collection AA23 Daisy May Bates

Collection AA31 Dr Eustace Cooper Black

Collection AA338 Dr Norman Barnett Tindale

Collection AA346 Board for Anthropological Research

Collection AA357 Dr William Delano Walker

Collection AA60 Sir John Burton Cleland

Collection AA62 Edmund Albert Colson

Collection AA669 Ernest Eugene & Euphemia Kramer

Collection AA689 Dr Joseph Bernard Birdsell