Mirning

Along the cliffs and plains of the Great Australian Bight, on both sides of the border between Western Australia and South Australia, lies the coastal country of the Mirning, a people also known as the Ngandatha. Their name comes from their word for "man". Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain, one of the continent's oldest art sites, is sacred to them.

Norman Tindale estimated Mirning lands at about 39,000 square miles (roughly 101,000 square kilometres), running east from Point Culver to White Well in South Australia. The northern edge was usually where the coastal country gives way to the bare limestone of the Nullarbor, though in good seasons people travelled further north. Two groups are known: the Wonunda-mirnung of the Hampton plateau, west of the sand patch at Wonunda, and the Jirkala-mirning around Jirkala, the place now called Eucla. The two came together for ceremonies at Jadjuuna, just south of Cocklebiddy.

The Mirning language is part of the Pama–Nyungan family; its own name, Ngandatha, was said to mean "What is it?". It had a close sister in Ngadjunmaya. Nineteenth-century observers recorded a kinship system of four classes named after the root, the digger, the dingo and the wombat, and described an unusual marriage arrangement that A. W. Howitt called "very peculiar". Initiation included circumcision and subincision. The Mirning also have a long cultural relationship with whales, mentioned in a planned 1994 documentary and in the 2006 film Whaledreamers.

Europeans first met the Jirkala-mirning in 1872, counting just 30 people. Settlers arriving in Wonunda-mirnung country in 1877 put that group at no more than 80. Writing in 1931, the anthropologist A. P. Elkin reported that the Jirkala group no longer existed as a distinct tribe. Mirning families nevertheless kept their identity and their tie to the Bight.

Koonalda, a vast sinkhole cave on the Nullarbor, holds thousands of square metres of finger-marked lines and patterns. The markings have been dated to around 20,000 years ago, and analysis of the deposits shows people were using the cave about 22,000 years ago; excavations in the 1960s revealed that they mined flint there. Reports in December 2022 revealed that vandals had defaced part of the art. Mirning people called for stronger protection, and in March 2023 the federal government pledged $400,000 for security at the site.

Our maps draw Mirning territory along the Bight in 1600, 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783, 1800 and 1815; the outline is approximate. The Wirangu lie to the east, the Wudjari further west along the coast, and the Mandjindja far to the north in the Western Desert. See also Australia.