ThePangerang,also speltBangerangandBangarang,are theIndigenous Australianswho traditionally occupied much of what is now north-easternVictoriastretching along theMurray RivertoEchucaand into the areas of the southernRiverinainNew South Wales.They may not have been an independent tribal reality, asNorman Tindalethought, but one of the manyYorta Yortatribes.

Country

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Pangerang lands were estimated byNorman Tindaleto have covered some 6,700 square kilometres (2,600 sq mi), running through the lowerGoulburn Rivervalley and extending westwards to the Murray River. It covered areas east and west ofShepparton,taking in alsoWangaratta,Benalla,andKyabram.The southern reaches extend as far asToolambaandViolet Town.[1]

History of contact

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Some Pangerang were among the estimated 26 indigenous people killed by troopers atMoira Swamp/Lake Barmahon the 15 December 1843.[2]

Social structure

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According to Norman Tindale, the Bangerang collective of tribes, or nation, also known as theYorta Yorta,consists of eighthordes,though others have been included in the list.

  • Moiraduban
  • Waningotbun(atKotupna)
  • Maragan(perhapsMaraban)
  • Owanguttha[a]

We know somewhat more about the fish-loving Wongatpan and the opossum-hunting Towroonban, two Pangerang clans, simply because they happen to have been the tribes inhabiting the area where the ethnographerEdward Micklethwaite Currtook over his pastoral run.[4]

Alternative names

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  • Panggarang, Pangorang, Pangurang, Pine-gorine, Pine-go-rine, Pinegerine, Pinegorong
  • Bangerang, Banjgaranj
  • Pallaganmiddah
  • Jabalajabala(from the wordjabalameaningno), a name applied to western Pangerang hordes)
  • Yaballa, Yabula-yabula
  • Waningotbun
  • Maragan
  • Owanguttha
  • Yurt(exonymused by northerners and the Ngurelban, fromjurta,meaningno)
  • Yoorta
  • Moiraduban
  • Moitheriban[3]
  • Bangarang[5][b]

Notes

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  1. ^"There were eight well-defined hordes the names of which generally terminated in [-pan] or [-ban]. Curr and Mathews both show that Pangerang hordes extended a little way downriver from Echuca on both banks; these western hordes were called Jabalaljabala by downriver tribes. Three of Curr's Pangerang hordes are separated as the Kwatkwat. The hordes shown by Curr north of the Murray River belong to other tribes."[3]
  2. ^Mentioned by Tindale[5]as derived fromJohn Fraser(1892).[6]According toPeter Suttonthis spelling came fromR.H. Mathews.[7]

Citations

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Sources

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