Kaurna-Pangkarran

The Kaurna-Pangkarran are the Kaurna, the people of the Adelaide Plains on the eastern shore of Gulf St Vincent. Their name was probably an exonym from the Ramindjeri or Ngarrindjeri word for “men”, for they called themselves after their localities. Each patrilineal band held a pangkarra, with coast and inland hunting ground, grouped into larger yerta lands.

In 1337 their life followed a four-season calendar, and their speech was a Thura-Yura language of the Pama-Nyungan family. Their Dreaming followed the hero Tjilbruke down the Fleurieu coast and traced the Mount Lofty Ranges to the body of the slain giant Nganno.

The first Kaurna word lists were taken down in 1826. In 1836 Colonel Light's party met Kaurna speakers at Rapid Bay before Adelaide was planted on Tarndanyangga, the red kangaroo place, opening a colonisation that nearly destroyed plains life.