Peramangk

The Peramangk are an Indigenous Australian people whose traditional lands are primarily located in the Adelaide Hills, but also in the southern stretches of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. They were also referred to as the Mount Barker tribe, as their numbers were noted to be greater around the Mount Barker summit, but Peramangk country extends from the Barossa Valley in the north, south to Myponga, east to Mannum and west to the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Conflicting reports show enmity between the three tribes of the Adelaide region, the Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri and Peramangk, yet other reports tell that the Peramangk were held with some reverence due to their differing cultural practices.

Population and traditional practices are hard to verify as shortly after the European settlement of the Adelaide Hills, especially in Mount Barker and Hahndorf, the Peramangk had mysteriously disappeared. It is most likely that they were devastated or wiped out as a result of introduced diseases, but it is also possible that survivors integrated with the Kaurna or Ngarrindjeri tribes. In recent decades, there have been attempts to identify Peramangk descendants through genealogy and DNA testing.

Peramangk family group names included Poonawatta, Tarrawatta, Karrawatta, Yira-Ruka, Wiljani, Mutingengal, Runganng, Jolori, Pongarang, Paldarinalwar, Merelda. Although Peramangk culture was wiped out soon after settlement, many families survive with a Peramangk genealogy. Norman B Tindale in his various interviews with Peramangk descendents recorded the names of at least 8 family groups; the Poonawatta to the west of Mount Crawford, the Tarrawatta and Yira-Ruka (Wiljani) whose lands extended to the east down as far as Mount Torrens and Mannum. The Karrawatta (west) and Mutingengal (east), occupied lands to the north of Mount Barker, but somewhat south of the River Torrens. The Rungang, Pongarang, and the Merelda, occupied the lands to the south of Mount Barker, in preceding order down as far as Myponga in the south. (ref: http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/ | Tindale Tribes | Peramangk | )

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