Paakantyi (Barkindji)

The Darling River of far western New South Wales is the Baaka, and the Aboriginal Australian people who live along it are the Paakantyi, also spelt Barkindji or Barkandji: literally "belonging to the river". They call themselves wiimpatya. Today many Paakantyi live in and around Wilcannia, and in 2015 the Federal Court recognised their native title over a vast stretch of the far west.

The Paakantyi lived along the Darling from Wilcannia downstream almost to Wentworth, and some 20 to 30 miles inland on either side, as well as in the back country around the Paroo River and Broken Hill. Tindale put their lands at about 7,500 square miles (roughly 19,400 square kilometres), a country of red sandhills and grey clay flats where drought was common. In dry times people withdrew to the few permanent springs and hunted the animals that came there to drink. The modern Barkindji nation brings together several groups that were once distinct, among them the Baarundji, Wilyakali, Pulakali, Pantjikali, Wanyuparlku, Thankakali and Marawara, linked by a shared language and by intermarriage.

In Paakantyi tradition the river and its surrounding landscape were made by Ngatji, the rainbow serpent, who is said still to move underground between waterholes and should not be disturbed. Some say there are two Ngatji, male and female; whirlwinds that ruffle the river are taken as signs of the serpent's presence.

The explorer Thomas Mitchell probably met Paakantyi people near Wilcannia; Tindale suggested his "Occa" tribe was a mishearing of Baaka. Elders recalled an epidemic around 1850 that killed perhaps a third of the Paakantyi and the neighbouring Naualko, causing survivors to flee to the Paroo. Pastoralists followed. Frederic Bonney, who ran stock at Momba Station, photographed Paakantyi life from the mid-1860s to 1880 and wrote of them with respect. By the mid-twentieth century they were being described as a "vanishing tribe", yet their descendants remain a large community on the river. Overgrazing, rabbits and the Federation drought stripped vegetation and degraded the soil, while introduced fish and, later, upstream extraction of water for cotton farming have harmed the river itself.

Paakantyi, also called the Darling language, belongs to the Pama–Nyungan family; much of what is known of it comes from the work of the linguist Luise Hercus. A 2012 report found only two fluent speakers, yet 111 people said they spoke Paakantyi at home in the 2021 census. Elsie Jones, an elder and teacher, produced children's books and an alphabet book in the language between 1978 and 1989.

The Barkindji lodged their native title claim in 1997, assembling evidence from traditional owners and from anthropologists, historians and linguists. In 2015, after 18 years, the Federal Court under Justice Jayne Jagot recognised native title over about 128,000 square kilometres, stretching from the South Australian border east to Tilpa, south to Wentworth and north to Wanaaring. About 68% of Wilcannia's roughly 600 residents are of Paakantyi descent.

Our maps draw approximate Paakantyi territory, labelled Barundji after one of its constituent groups, in 1600, 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783 and 1800. The Wangaaypuwan lie to the south-east, with the Wiradjuri beyond them. See also Australia.