Gurindji

The Gurindji are an Aboriginal people of the Victoria River district in the Northern Territory, roughly four hundred and sixty kilometres south-west of Katherine. Their language belongs to the Eastern Ngumpin, or Victoria River, branch of the Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup of Pama-Nyungan, among the northernmost Pama-Nyungan tongues, and Wanjdjirra, Malngin and Bilinarra form a dialect chain with it.

With the Malngin, Bilinara, Mudburra and Ngarinyman they count themselves one people, the Ngumpit, sharing language and ceremony, and like the neighbouring Warlpiri they order society through inherited skin names such as Janama and Nangala that fix each person's kinship to every other. Their Dreaming is anchored by Jurntakal, the snake, whose travels with other ancestor spirits give shape to their country.