An Aboriginal Australian people of the Riverland, South Australia
TheErawirung (Yirawirung,Jirawirung) people, also known asYirau,Juju and other names, were anAboriginal Australian people whose traditional territory was located in what is today theRiverland ofSouth Australia. They consisted of sub-groups or clans, includingJeraruk,Rankbirit andWilu, and have been referred to asMeru people, which was a larger grouping which could also include theNgawait andNgaiawang peoples.[1][2][unreliable source?]
The Erawirung appear to have spoken a dialect of theYuyu language common to their neighbours.[3] This language group is alternatively called the Meru language group, and is included under this name on the AIATSIS language map.[4]
According toNorman Tindale, Erawirung traditional lands covered about 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2), around the eastern bank of theMurray River, reaching from north ofParinga pastLoxton into the sandy stretches some 24 kilometres (15 mi) to its south. Their western boundary reached from Rufus Creek into the vicinity of theOverland Corner.[5]
Chert mining in two of their localities, atSpringcart Gully and at a site south ofRenmark, formed an important element of the Erawirung economy, and the areas were strongly defended from neighbouring tribes.[5]
Early ethnographers often classified the small Erawirung tribe as one of a collective group named the Meru people.[5] The Erawirung were not mentioned by the nearbyJarildekald when interviewed byRonald Murray Berndt in the late 1930s – early 1940s.[8]
Shaw;Taplin, George (1879)."Overland Corner Tribe, River Murray"(PDF).Folklore, manners, customs and languages of the South Australian aborigines. Adelaide: E Spiller, Acting Government Printer. pp. 28–29.
