The Ngarrindjeri (meaning The People) are a group of eighteen clans (lakinyeri) with similar language dialects and family connections who are the traditional Aboriginal people of the lower Murray River, western Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of southern, central Australia.
The Ngarrindjeri's traditional areas extends from Mannum, South Australia downstream through Murray Bridge and Victor Harbor and along the coast through GoolwatoCape Jervis, including Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert.
Originally numbering around 6,000 at the time of white settlement, they are the only tribal group in Australia whose land lay within Template:Km to mi of a Capital City to have survived as a distinct people. [citation needed]
The Ngarrindjeri achieved a great deal of publicity in the 1990s due to their opposition to the construction of a bridge from Goolwa to Hindmarsh Island, which resulted in a Royal Commission and a High Court case in 1996. The Royal Commission found that claims of "secret women's business" on the island had been fabricated.[1]
There were eighteen tribes ("lakinyeri") in the Ngarrindjeri language group, each occupying a distinct area of land ("ruwe"). They include:
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