Ngardi (Ngarti)

Ngardi is presented in the sources as an ethnonym for a distinct Aboriginal group and language community rather than a mythological origin narrative. Scholarly discussion has debated their classificatory placement: Arthur Capell considered the term to refer to a branch of the Warlpiri, while Norman Tindale argued Ngardi were a distinct tribal group with a discrete territorial range. Contemporary records describe Ngardi people as traditional owners of country spanning parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia and as participants in land claims and negotiated agreements in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Not applicable as a supernatural entity; sources describe the Ngardi in terms of territory and settlement patterns. According to Norman Tindale's mapping, Ngardi traditional country covered roughly 25,000 square miles (65,000 km2) of sandhill country west of the Tanami Track, including areas around Chilla Well, the Granites, Gardiner Range, across the border into Western Australia at Ima Ima, and presence at Sturt Creek and the Pallottine Mission area at Balgo Hill, with southern extensions across mulga scrubland north of Lake Mackay (Milidjipi and Tekkari). The sources also note places of co-residence such as Balgo Mission and Lajamanu where people of multiple language groups intermingled.

Not applicable in supernatural terms. The sources document sociocultural and legal activities: Ngardi are speakers of the Ngarti language, participants in joint land claims (e.g., a 1980 claim submitted on behalf of Warlpiri, Kukatja and Ngarti peoples under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976), and participants in modern negotiated agreements—such as the 2006 co-existence/mining agreement wherein Ngardi were grouped with Worrorra under a Dambimangari (Dambima/Worrorra-Ngardi) designation for legal and economic purposes. This indicates roles in asserting traditional land tenure, intergroup cultural exchange, and contemporary economic negotiations.