Tindale's Catalogue of Australian Aboriginal Tribes
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Kaurna (SA)
LocationCape Jervis to Port Wakefield along eastern shore of Gulf St. Vincent; inland to near Crystal Brook, Snowtown, Blyth, Hoyleton, Hamley Bridge, Clarendon, Gawler, and Myponga; from the east side of the Hummock Range to Red Hill where northern hordes were sometimes known as the Nantuwara. Inland the Jultiwira or stringy bark forests of the Mount Lofty Ranges marked their boundary. The Kaurna were the southernmost tribe to perform the initiatory rite of circumcision. Their territory was very correctly indicated as 2,800 square miles (7,200 sq. km.) with a population of 650 in the South Australian Register of 30 January 1842. Ivaritji, the last woman survivor, who died in 1931, provided much of our scanty knowledge of the Kaurna. A southern horde spoke a slight dialect at Rapid Bay. Tunkalilla Beach, 12 miles (20 km.) east of Cape Jervis, was given as the actual ['keinari] or boundary with the Ramindjeri. East (1889) incorrectly included the related Yorke Peninsula people, the Narangga, under his term Padnayndie. This is in the form Padnaindi, a hordal term for the folk living between Hamley Bridge and Crystal Brook.
Co-ordinates138°30'E x 34°35'S
Area2,800 sq. m. (7,200 sq. km)
ReferencesJ. Stephens, 1839; Williams, 1839; Teichelmann, 1840; Teichelmann and Schürmann, 1840; Gell, 1842; South Australian Register, 1842; Cawthorne, 1844 MS, 1926; Moorhouse, 1844; Schürmann, 1844; Eyre, 1845; Behr, 1848; Wyatt, 1879; Mueller, 1882; E. Stephens, 1889; East, 1889; McKinlay in Howitt, 1904; Howitt, 1904; Howchin and Gregory, 1909; Strehlow, 1910; Parkhouse, 1936; Tindale, 1931 MS, 1936, 1940; Tindale and Mountford, 1936; Berndt, 1940; Tindale and Lindsay, 1963.
Alternative NamesKaura (misprint for Kaurna), Coorna, Koornawarra, Nantuwara ('Kangaroo speakers,' name given to northern hordes), Nantuwaru, Nganawara, Meljurna ('quarrelsome men,' said of northern hordes of Kaurna), Kurumidlanta (Pangkala term, lit. 'evil spirits'), Milipitingara (MS), Midlanta (another name given by Pangkala), Widninga (Ngadjuri term applied to Kaurna of Port Wakefield and Buckland Park), Winaini (horde north of Gawler), Winnay-nie, Meyu (['meju] = man), Wakanuwan (name applied by Jarildekald to this and some other tribes, including Ngaiawang), 'Adelaide tribe,' Warra (means 'speech' a name for language), Warrah, Karnuwarra ('hills language,' a northern dialect, presumably that of Port Wakefield), Jaitjawar:a ('our own language'), Padnaindi (horde name), Padnayndie, Medaindi (horde living near Glenelg), Medain-die, Merildekald (Tanganekald term also loosely given to Peramangk), Merelde (Ramindjeri term applied most frequently to the Peramangk but also to the Kaurna).
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 AA338 Dr Norman Barnett Tindale

Collection AA346 Board for Anthropological Research

Collection AA52 Prof. Thomas Draper Campbell

Collection AA64 Harold More Cooper

Collection AA676 Marjorie Alice Angas

Collection AA824 Anthropological Society of South Australia

Collection AA861 Aboriginal and Historic Relics Unit