Yandruwandha and Yawarrawarrka Authorisation Meeting

The claim area starts at Cameron Corner and extends roughly along the Qld / SA border nearly to Haddon Corner and inland into Queensland slightly.

Under the traditional laws and customs of the Yandruwandha and Yawarrawarrka People, the Native Title Holders are those living Aboriginal people who identify as, and are recognised by other Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Native Title Holders as Yandruwandha or Yawarrawarrka (or both), because:

(a) he or she is biologically descended from one or more of the following Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka apical ancestors:

(i)    Annie (born at Gordillo Downs), mother of Archie Guttie;
(ii)   Clara Nirrpinni, mother of Frank Booth and Alice Miller (nee Booth);
(iii)  Cora the mother of Bob Parker and Nellie Parker;
(iv)   The parents of Flash Ted Bikehandle and Flash Tommy;
(v)    Kimi (born at lnnamincka) and his wife;
(vi)   Maramundu Jack "The Ripper" Parker;
(vii)  Caroline (born at Gordillo Downs) the mother of Mary Stafford (nee Moore), Jack Moore, Charlie Moore, female twins (Winifried and Freida) and Albert Moore;
(viii) Brothers Walter Harris (on) and Dick Harrison;
(ix)   The parents of Lilly (whose married name is Parker) and her sister Kathlene (whose married name is George);
(x)    Annie and her husband, who are the parents of Coongie Maggie (born at Coongie Lakes in South (Australia);
(xi)   The parents of the sibling set- Billy Parker, Jessy Parker, Peter "Petekin" Parker, and Paddy Parker;
(xii)  The parents of sibling set- Merty George and Merty Johnny and Merty Mick;
(xiii) Larriken Mick; or

(b) he or she is biologically descended from such other ancestor who is acknowledged by the Native Title Holders as a Yandruwandha or Yawarrawarrka apical ancestor.

Appeared in the Courier Mail dated October 19, 2019

Some Notes of interest

AIATSIS Index to the History of Bourke Series
Jack Guttie was the last fluent speaker of the Yandruwandha language and recorded it at Bourke TAFE for posterity around the end of 1993. He was born at Innamincka and worked as a stockman.

Report on the First Medical Relief Expedition among the Aborigines of South Australia by Dr H Basedow 10 February 1920Clara Nirrpinni (tribe not recorded) and Maggie Nirrpinni (Yantowannta tribe) are recorded.

Extract from Wallace on behalf of the Boonthamurra People v State of Queensland [2014] FCA 901 Herbert Basedow was an anthropologist and geologist who conducted a number of expeditions in South Australia and elsewhere between 1903 and 1928. He prepared a list of some 250 Aboriginals in the north-east South Australian region on one of those expeditions. That list was put into evidence. It includes Clara Nirrpinni, who the experts agreed is Clara, and Maggie Nirrpinni of the Yantowannta (Yandruwandha) tribe. Dr Sneddon drew the inference that Maggie was Clara’s mother. By extension, that supports his view that Clara was from the Yandruwandha tribe through her mother’s association with that tribe. The name Nirrpinni is the Aboriginal name.

Innamincka talk: a grammar of the Innamincka dialect of Yandruwandha with notes on other dialects
Gavin Breen 2015
Benny Kerwin, Man.gili was born about 1890 at Innamincka, South Australia, the only
son of Jack Kirwan a white man who worked as cook and cowboy on various stations in
the area, and an Aboriginal mother (who, however, was said to have had an Indian mother).
While working at Nappa Merrie, Benny met his first wife, Nelly Parker, usually known
(later, if not then) as Tim. Like Benny, she had a white father and Aboriginal mother, and
she was employed as a housemaid. They were married about 1915. They had six children,
of whom the first two died in childhood. The marriage broke up about 1932.
Benny’s second wife was Mary Stafford (nee Moore), bom at Cordillo of a white father
and Aboriginal mother. They had seven children; Mary died at Broken Hill giving birth to
the seventh, who also died. Most of this family were born at Tibooburra, New South Wales.
Benny lost an eye in an accident in 1953.

Nelly Parker (Manngidrikani in Yandruwandha, Tim to many people) was born at
Nappa Merrie and brought up at Innamincka. She had a white father, who may have been
John Conrick, the owner of Nappa Merrie (Paterson n.d.), and an Aboriginal mother. After
leaving Benny she married Archie Guttie, but she and Benny were together again before
she died in 1969.

Willy Harris, Alfie Harris and Hector Harrison were the sons of Walter Harrison, a
Yandruwandha speaker, and grew up at Innamincka, but the language they spoke was
Yawarrawarrka.