Kamilaroi
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Aboriginal Flag of Australia
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| Total population | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| approx. 13,000 | |||||||||
| Regions with significant populations | |||||||||
| Languages | |||||||||
| Gamilaraay language, English and Aboriginal English | |||||||||
| Religion | |||||||||
| Christianity, Traditional | |||||||||
| Related ethnic groups | |||||||||
| Indigenous Australians | |||||||||
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The Kamilaroi or Gamilaroi are an Indigenous Australian Murri people who are from the area which extended from around Singleton in the Hunter Valley through to the Warrumbungle Mountains in the west and up through the present-day centres of Quirindi, Gunnedah, Tamworth, Narrabri, Walgett, Moree, Lightning Ridge and Mungindi in New South Wales, to Nindigully in south west Queensland. The Kamilaroi is one of the four largest indigenous nations in Australia. The Kamilaroi language is classified in the Pama–Nyungan family of Australian languages. The Kamilaroi Highway, Sydney Ferries Limited's vehicular ferry "Kamilaroi" (1901–1933), and a cultivar of Durum wheat have all been named after the Kamilaroi people.
The language is no longer spoken, though some parts have bneen reconstructed by late field work, and analyzing the results against the materials written down by missionaries in the 19th century. Robert M. W. Dixon and his student Peter Austin recorded some around Moree, while Corinne Williams wrote a thesis on the Yuwaaliyaay dialect spoken at Walgett and Lightening Ridge.
The Gamilaroi were hunters and gatherers with a band-level social organization. Important vegetable foods were yams and other roots, as well as a sterculia grain, which was made into a bread. Insect larvae, frogs, and eggs of several different animals were also gathered. Various birds, kangaroos, emus, iguanas, possums, echidnas, and bandicoots were among the important animals hunted. Dingo pups were regarded as a delicacy. Fish were also consumed, as were crayfish, mussels, and shrimp. Men typically hunted, cleaned, and prepared the game for cooking. Women did the actual cooking, in addition to fishing and gathering. Individual Kamilaroi did not eat animals that were their totems.
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