The Kaurna people were a
hunter-gatherer society, who changed their dwellings according to climatic conditions: in summer they would camp near the coastal springs fishing for
mulloway. With the onset of winter, they would retire to the woodlands, often using hollowed out fallen
redgums along creeks, with bark extensions as shelters. Sudden downpours could quench their fires, the maintaining of which was old women's work, with deadly consequences. At times they would have to impose themselves on otherwise despised tribes, such as the
Ngaiawang and
Nganguruku to trade goods like their cloaks, quartz flints and red ochre in order to obtain firesticks. Among their customs was the practice of
fire-stick farming (deliberately lit
bushfires for hunting purposes) in the
Adelaide Hills, which the early European settlers spotted before the Kaurna were displaced. These fires were part of a scrub clearing process to encourage grass growth for
emu and
kangaroo. This tradition led to conflict with the colonists as the fires tended to cause considerable damage to farmland. In an official report, Major
Thomas O'Halloran claimed the Kaurna also used this as a weapon against the colonists by lighting fires to deliberately destroy fences, survey pegs and to scatter livestock. Due to this regular burning by the time the first Europeans arrived, the foothills' original
stringybark forests had been largely replaced with grassland. Since the late 1960s, restrictions on foothills subdivision and development have allowed regeneration of native trees and bush to a "natural" condition that would not have existed at the time of European occupation.
Artefacts Items of Kaurna material culture, such as traditional objects, spears, boomerangs and nets etc. are extremely rare. Interest in collecting and conserving Kaurna culture was not common until their display at the
1889 Paris Exhibition spurred an interest in Indigenous culture, by which time the Kaurna traditional culture was no longer practised. Many hundreds of objects were sent to the Paris exhibition and these were never returned to Australia. The Kaurna collection held by the
South Australian Museum contains only 48 items. In September 2002, a
Living Kaurna Cultural Centre was opened at
Warriparinga in the southern suburbs area of Adelaide.
Tribal organisation The Kaurna people lived in family groups called bands, who lived in defined territories called
pangkarra which were "passed" from father to son upon his initiation. Pangkarra always had access to the coastline and ran extensively inland. The coastline was essential for seafood hunting and the inland territories provided food, clothing and protection for the people during bad weather. The pangkarra were also grouped into larger areas of land called
yerta. As all the members of a band were related, marriage between a man and a woman within the same band was forbidden. Bands were
patrilineal and
patrilocal: a woman always lived with her husband's band following her marriage. Each band was also composed of two
exogamous moieties, the Karuru and Mattari, which traced their descent
matrilineally to an ancestral
totemic being. All the children of a marriage would take their mother's moiety as children were considered to have "inherited" their "flesh and blood" from their mothers alone. Marriage within the same moiety was forbidden. Girls became marriageable at
puberty, usually around 12 years of age. Conversely, men were only allowed to marry after the age of 25. Sexual relations were relatively free and uninhibited, regardless of marital status. Kaurna ownership of property was communal; the reproductive organs were seen no differently from any other form of property, and thus
adultery was practically ubiquitous. The visitation of men from distant tribes was seen as a good opportunity to enhance the
gene pool. The practice of
milla mangkondi or
wife stealing was also common, for the same reason. Although this custom was hated by some victims, as
arranged marriages were the norm, some women saw it as an opportunity to choose their own partners and actively encouraged a preferred suitor; all Kaurna bands are said to have engaged in the practice regularly.
Rites and mythology Very little is known of Kaurna rites and mythology as colonial written records are fragmentary and rare. Physically, the Kaurna practised chest
scarification and performed
circumcision as an initiatory
rite and were the southernmost Indigenous language group to do so.
Waterfall Gully has been linked to initiation rites. Historical accounts of Kaurna burial rites are unreliable as any gathering of Kaurna was thought to be for a funeral. As soon as a person died the body was wrapped in the clothes they had worn in life. The body was then placed on a
wiralli (crossed sticks that form the radii of a circle) and an inquest was held to determine cause of death. The body was then buried. Children under four years were not buried for some months, but were wrapped and carried by their mothers during the day with the bundle being used as a pillow at night. Burial by bodies of water was common with the use of sandy beaches, sand dunes and banks of rivers. A large number of graves have been found on
Glenelg beach and at
Port Noarlunga. Similarly, an unusually complex burial at Kongaratti was found. The grave was rectangular and lined with
slate, the base was also lined with slate which had been covered with a bed of grass. An elderly woman was lying on her side, draped in a fishing net and wrapped in a Kangaroo skin cloak. The grave was topped with a layer of grass covered by marine sponges. The general theme of these stories surrounding the two peaks is the importance of community and the notion of unselfishness as a practice which supports community. A legend recounted variously by
Unaipon and Milerum concerns a culture hero called
Tjilbruke has topographical features that locate it in Kaurna territory. In Tindale's version Tjilbruke is associated with the
glossy ibis; the name actually refers to the
blue crane. The "Tjilbruke Dreaming Tracks" have been mapped from the
Bedford Park area (
Warriparinga), down the
Fleurieu Peninsula, and efforts have been made to preserve and commemorate it where possible.
Munaitjerlo is an ancestral being who created the Moon and stars before himself becoming the Sun. The word
Munaitjerlo was believed by Teichelmann to also refer to the Kaurna
Dreamtime itself. The mythology of the Mura-Muras, ancestral beings who created landscape features and introduced laws and initiation, can be found in southwest
Queensland, the
Northern Territory and in the
Flinders Ranges through to
Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. As it is known that the Kaurna shared a common Dreaming with these peoples it is likely they shared the Mura-Muras as well. By way of contrast, the travels of Tjilbruke are well known from
Norman Tindale's research. • Warltati, the hot season, from January to March (
warlta = hot, heat and warmth) • Parnati, the windy season, from April to June (
waitpi = windy) • Kudlila, the wet season, from July to September (
kudlinthi = to wash the earth) • Wirltutu, the mild warm season, October to December (indicated by the position of
wirltu, the eagle's foot constellation, or
Southern Cross, in the sky) ==Cultural revival==