The Murinbata of Australia

The Murinbata of Australia, numbering approximately 4,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are described as an Aboriginal Australian people of the Wadeye region of the Northern Territory whose traditional country lies between the Moyle and Fitzmaurice river systems and who absorbed the neighboring Muringura into their society They are an Indigenous people, with Murinbata as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Aboriginal Australians people cluster of the Pacific Islander Peoples. Their primary religion is Roman Catholicism. They primarily speak Murrinh-Patha.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Murinbata

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Pacific Islander Peoples
Country: Australia
People Cluster: Aboriginal Australians
Primary Language(s): Murrinh-Patha (mwf)
Primary Religion(s): Roman Catholicism
Population: 4,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG008009
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Murinbata of Australia

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

45%
%
Roman Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Murrinh-Patha
Language Family: Southern Daly

45%
%
Murrinh-Patha Speakers

Media Resources in Murrinh-Patha:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Murrinh-Patha:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Murrinh-Patha bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Murinbata are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Murinbata:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Murinbata of Australia

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
readExodus 2:23-24

As the lost among them labor, groan, and cry out under false religions and sin, pray God will have mercy on them and hear their cries, that He will be their Rescuer from the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light.

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
readLuke 2:17

Pray that the lost will receive the good news of salvation in God's Son, have hearts eager to share it with others, and that all who hear will respond with wonder and faith!

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
readPhilippians 1:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be assured that God will complete the good work He has begun in them until the day of Christ's return.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
readJohn 3:16

Pray that God will send and sustain believers to cross cultures and share the gospel with the lost. Ask that He will give them His heart for the lost and that many will believe in Him and not perish but have eternal life.

Murinbata Across Countries (ROP3 - 106924) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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