Maran

The Maran, better known as the Marra, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Gulf of Carpentaria coast in the Northern Territory, around the Roper, Towns and Limmen Bight Rivers.

Their three clans lived along the Limmen Bight River and, together with a Warndarrang group, formed four patrilineal semi-moieties, each with its own totems, songs and rituals. Their language Marra is one of the Marran group of Gunwinyguan.

A word for flour or bread, gandirri, may be a loan from Macassan, hinting at contact with the trepang traders who visited these coasts. In 1802 Matthew Flinders became the first European to land on Maria Island off their shore, noting the fires and footprints of its inhabitants; sustained colonial intrusion came only later.