Mardu Essay

The Western Desert Aborigines or ‘Mardu’ meaning ‘man people’ refer to the linguistic groups whose home territories lie in the areas surrounding Lake Disappointment on the western side of the Gibson Desert and who often use the word mardu as one of their words for people, (map?) These groups are predominantly the Gardujarra, Budijarra, Manyjilyjarra and Giyajarra speakers. The homelands of these groups were virtually abandoned by the late 1960s for settlements on the desert fringe, due to white settlement. In the last two decades, movement back to the homelands has occurred. However, there are no Gurajarra speakers left, few Budijarra or Giyarra, leaving only the predominant languages of the Manyjilyjarra and Gardujarra, albethem low in numbers,

Mardu traditional culture systems relating to language, religion, economics, technology, and social construction will be addressed, giving an insight into this one of the last groups of Aboriginal people living their traditional way after white invasion.
1. Cultural System Social (Family, education, Kinship and social control(300)
57pMardu see world creative acts of spiritual power and Dreaming as one with upholding their kinship system, marriage rules, and social categories as vital. Furthermore, Mardu culture produces neither revolutionaries nor sceptics suggesting a close connection with environmental, forms, practices and social organization and religious ideology. Kinship is a system of social relationships and is the basic organizing principal in small scale societies such as Aborigines. In familistic societies of this kind, sex and age are the two major determinants of an individual’s status. With kinship assuming a central role in regulation. This is in contrast to industrialised societies, whereby a person has daily dealings with many people other than family. Within the Mardu society the moral universe surrounds kin. The social universe of the Mardu include kin and