- Source: Ngalia (Western Desert)
The Ngalia, or Ngalea, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Western Desert cultural bloc resident in land extending from Western Australia to the west of South Australia. They are not to be confused with the Ngalia of the Northern Territory.
Country
The Ngalia's traditional lands are around the salt lake areas, such as the Serpentine Lakes in the Great Victoria Desert, northwest of Ooldea, South Australia, in what is now the Mamungari Conservation Park. Norman Tindale estimated their tribal lands as covering an extension of some 15,000 square miles (39,000 km2).
Language
The Ngalia language, also known as Ooldean, is a dialect of the Western Desert language.
Alternative names
Nangga ('men' in the sense that they had undergone circumcision)
Nanggaranggu
Nanggarangku (Pitjantjatjara exonym bearing the meaning of 'hostile men')
Ngalia, Ngalija
Ngaliawongga
Tangara
Willoorara ((people of the) 'west')
Windakan (applied to their language, and also to the Wirangu)
Source: Tindale 1974, p. 215
Notable people
Kado Muir, artist, anthropologist and politician