Massacre of Running Waters

The massacre of Running Waters was the killing of 80 to 100 Arrernte (formerly known as Aranda) men, women and children of the Southern Aranda language group of Aboriginal Australians by a raiding party of 50 to 60 Matuntara warriors in 1875. The massacre took place at Irbmangkara, a permanent water stretch of the Finke River about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.

The Matuntara planned the attack as a punishment for an act of sacrilege by the neighbouring southern Arrernte.

The account of what occurred at Irbmangkara is based on the writings of Lutheran anthropologist, linguist and genealogist Carl Strehlow, but the people of Hermannsburg have stated that the events have remained a shaping factor in the area's local politics.

Events

The massacre was triggered by a middle-aged man called Kalejika, who belonged to a Central Aranda local group. Kalejika paid a visit to Irbmangkara, and then told some Upper Southern Aranda men that Ltjabakuka, the aged and highly respected ceremonial chief of Irbmangkara, together with some of his assistant elders, had committed sacrilege by giving uninitiated boys men's blood to drink from a shield into which it had been poured for ritual purposes. Sacrilege was an offence always punished by death.

According to historian Geoffrey Blainey, the party of Aboriginal warriors was sent to avenge the sacrilege and selected Running Waters as the place where the Southern Arrernte could be readily be surprised, "and timed their secret raid for... when their enemies were cooking their meals before making their beds on the ground".

Three parties of warriors, hidden among the bushes of the nearby mountain slopes and in the undergrowth in the river bed at their foot, were watching the men and women of Irbmangkara returning to their camp; the armed men [then]...