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=== Before European settlement === [[File:Kaurnaland.png|thumb|upright|alt= Area to the east of Gulf St Vincent highlighted|The approximate extent of Kaurna territory, based on the description by Amery (2000)]] The area around modern-day Adelaide was originally inhabited by the [[Kaurna]] people, one of many [[Aboriginal Australian|Aboriginal]] tribes in South Australia. The city and [[Adelaide park lands|parklands]] area also known as ''Tarntanya'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/subjects/kaurna-people|title=Kaurna people|website=Adelaidia|date=20 March 2017 |access-date=28 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908065802/http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/subjects/kaurna-people|archive-date=8 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Tandanya'' (now the short name of [[Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute]]), ''Tarndanya'',<ref>{{cite web | title=Reconciliation | website=Adelaide City Council | url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/placenames/council/areas/map_tarndanyangga.html | access-date=5 July 2021 | archive-date=12 July 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712144205/https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/placenames/council/areas/map_tarndanyangga.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> or ''Tarndanyangga'' (now the dual name for [[Victoria Square, Adelaide|Victoria Square]] in the [[Kaurna language]]).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://kaurnaplacenames.com/primary.php?id=4697 |title=Kaurna Name: Tarndanyangga |access-date=28 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312102340/http://kaurnaplacenames.com/primary.php?id=4697 |archive-date=12 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> The name means 'male red kangaroo rock', referring to a rock formation on the site that has now been destroyed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Do you know what Aboriginal land you're on today? |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/do-you-know-what-aboriginal-land-youre-on-today/ytff85vi1 |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=NITV |language=en}}</ref> The surrounding area was an open, grassy plain with patches of trees and shrubs, which had been managed by hundreds of generations. Kaurna country encompassed the plains stretching north and south of Tarntanya, as well as the wooded foothills of the [[Mount Lofty Ranges|Mt Lofty Ranges]]. The River Torrens was known as the Karrawirra Pari (Red Gum forest river). About 300 Kaurna populated the Adelaide area, and were referred to by the settlers as the Cowandilla.<ref name="KaurnaSA">{{cite web|url=https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au:443/subjects/kaurna-people?hh=1&|website=SA History Hub|title=Kaurna People|access-date=29 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428075730/http://sahistoryhub.com.au/subjects/kaurna-people|archive-date=28 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The more than 20 local clans across the plain lived seminomadic lives, with extensive [[Mound|mound settlements]] where huts were built repeatedly over centuries and a complex social structure, including a class of sorcerers separated from regular society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Owen |first1=Timothy |last2=Pate |first2=Donald |date=2014-12-01 |title=A Kaurna burial, Salisbury, South Australia: Further evidence for complex late Holocene Aboriginal social systems in the Adelaide region |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03122417.2014.11682018 |journal=Australian Archaeology |language=en |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=45β53 |doi=10.1080/03122417.2014.11682018 |s2cid=148063575 |issn=0312-2417}}</ref> Within a few decades of [[European settlement of South Australia]], Kaurna culture was almost completely lost. The last speaker of [[Kaurna language]] died in 1929.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/adelaide_history/adelaide_brief_history.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515205647/http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/adelaide_history/adelaide_brief_history.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Adelaide: A Brief History (SA Govt)|archive-date=15 May 2013}}</ref> Extensive documentation by early missionaries and other researchers has enabled a modern revival of both,<ref name=Amery>{{cite book |title=Warrabarna Kaurna! β Reclaiming an Australian Language |last=Amery |first=Rob |year=2000 |publisher=Swets & Zeitlinger |location=The Netherlands |isbn=90-265-1633-9}}</ref> which has included a commitment by local and state governments to rename or include Kaurna names for many local places.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://adelaideparklands.com.au/parks-and-squares/victoria-square-tarntanyangga|title=Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga|website=City of Adelaide|access-date=27 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427083524/https://adelaideparklands.com.au/parks-and-squares/victoria-square-tarntanyangga|archive-date=27 April 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/placenames/council/|website=Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi|title=Adelaide City Council Placenaming Initiatives|access-date=27 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427083521/https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/placenames/council/|archive-date=27 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>
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