Barindji


The Barindji, also written Parrintyi, are an indigenous Australian people of the state of New South Wales. They are to be neatly distinguished from the Paaruntyi, who spoke a similar language but whom they called the spitting people.

Name

Parrintyi, according to one theory, meant forest dwellers in the local languages, but another view suggests it may have originated from the toponym for a creek known as the Paroo, reflecting prior tribal links.
Tindale glosses this attribution by suggesting that the term may derive from a creek name, called the Paroo, reflecting prior tribal links. An exonym, mamba was once used by the Darling River aborigines, who were terrified of the Parrintyi.

Country

estimated Parrintyi lands as encompassing roughly of tribal territory. Their land consisted of large stretches of mallee, mulga, swamp and sand land running parallel rto, and east of, the Darling River. Tindale set their southern boundaries from Moira to within of Euston, and their eastern extension in the vicinity of Ivanhoe. To their west, he added, they took in Manara Range , Carowra, , and Willandra Lakes.
Running clockwise from the north, their neighbours were the Naualko, followed by the Ngiyambaa to their east, the Yitayita on their southeastern flank, while the southern Paakantyi inhabited the land to their west.

Social organization

The Parrintyi were organized into clans of which the following eight are known:
Their water often was obtained from the roots of water mallee trees and Hakea, hence their camping places were widely dispersed and often were casual. Some of the neighbors had more disparaging names for them. The Barindji, living in dry country, extracted water from hakea and mallee. In periods of drought, they would resort, in large mobs, to riverine areas in other tribal lands, engendering fear among, and conflict with, the riverine tribal groups.
Their burial practices are similar to the very ancient burials at nearby Mungo Lake indication a long time in the area. The Parrintyi were described by Thomas Mitchell and Charles Sturt on their respective explorations of the area and described in colonial times by local landowners A.L.P. Cameron and A. W. Howitt.

Alternative names