What is "ngarrindjeri"

The Ngarrindjeri (literal translation "the people who belong to this land") are an Australian Aboriginal nation, language group or confederation of 18 lakinyeri ( clans or tribes), and 77 family groups, who speak related dialects of the Ngarrindjeri language. They are the traditional Aboriginal people of the lower Murray River, western Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of southern, central Australia. "Much of the early literature on this south-eastern region refers to the Aborigines collectively as the Ngarrindjeri 'confederacy' or 'nation', but in the Berndt's view this is misleading. Although there was freedom of movement over the region, and many bonds linked the culturally similar 'tribes' or dialect-named units that comprise the Ngarrindjeri, there was no political unity to warrant the 'nation' or 'confederacy' labels." However, other sources disagree. For instance, Donald Pate states:

Taplin (1879, p. 34) estimates that there were eighteen territorial clans or Lakalinyeri that constituted the Ngarrindjeri ‘confederacy’ or ‘nation’. Each territorial clan was administered by a group of ten to twelve men or elders, referred to as the Tendi. The Tendi from each clan collectively elected the Rupulli or the head of the entire Ngarrindjeri confederacy. [...] Thus, the Ngarrindjeri were landowners who had a centralised and hierarchical government to administer the laws of the confederacy and its eighteen independent territories.

Ngarrindjeri was originally the name of the language group; Europeans subsequently used it as a collective name for the lakinyeri following colonisation. Variations in spelling are common due to their use as family group names and include Narinyerrie, Narrin’yerree, Narrinjeri and Narrinyeri. In Ngarrindjeri grammar the –nyeri -ndjeri suffix means belonging to a specific place or area. The name Kukabrak also refers to the tribes of the Lower Lakes, however the name Ngarrindjeri was popularised in the 19th century by missionary George Taplin.