Pitjantjatjara
Encyclopedia
Pitjantjatjara is the name of both an Aboriginal
people of the Central Australia
n desert, and their language (for which see Pitjantjatjara language). They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara
and Ngaanyatjarra
and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert Language
).
They refer to themselves as Anangu
(people). Pitjantjatjara country is mostly in the north-west of South Australia
, extending across the border into the Northern Territory
to just south of Lake Amadeus
, and west a short distance into Western Australia
. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to Anangu.
They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in spite of increasing influences from the broader Australia
n community.
Today there are still about 4,000 Anangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia
with Aboriginal Traditional Owners.
and Ngaatjatjarra but in that case the names contrast the two languages based on their words for 'this' (respectively, ngaanya and ngaatja). The two languages Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara may be grouped together under the name Nyangatjatjara (indicating that they have nyangatja for 'this') which then contrasts them with Ngaanyatjarra
and Ngaatjatjarra
.
for the Pitjantjatjara in 1921 after they lost much land due to hostile encroachment by hunters and ranchers.
Extended droughts in the 1920s and between 1956 to 1965 in their homelands in the Great Victoria
and Gibson Desert
s led many Pitjantjatjara, and their traditionally more westerly relations, the Ngaanyatjarra
, to move east towards the railway between Adelaide
and Alice Springs in search of food and water, thus mixing with the most easterly of the three, the Yankunytjatjara. They refer to themselves as Anangu
, which originally just meant people in general, but has now come to imply an Aboriginal person or, more specifically, a member of one of the groups that speaks a variety of the Western Desert Language.
In response to continuing outside pressures on the Anangu, the South Australia
n Government gave its support to a plan by the Presbyterian Church to set up the Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Ranges
as a safe haven. This mission, largely due to the actions of their advocate, Dr. Charles Duguid
, was ahead of the times in that there was no systematic attempt to destroy Aboriginal culture, as was common on many other missions.
From 1950 onwards, many Anangu were forced to leave their homelands due to British nuclear tests at Maralinga
. Some Anangu were subsequently contaminated by the nuclear fallout
from the atomic tests, and many have died as a consequence.
Their experience of issues of land rights
and native title
in South Australia has been unique. After four years of campaigning and negotiations with government and mining groups, the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act was passed on 19 March 1981, granting freehold title over 103,000 square kilometres of land in the northwestern corner of South Australia
.
The Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act, 1984 (SA) granted freehold title of an area of 80,764 square kilometres to Maralinga Tjarutja
. The subsequently named Mamungari Conservation Park) with 21,357.8 km² was transferred to the Maralinga Tjarutja in 2004.
The sacred sites of Uluru
(Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta
(the Olgas) possess important spiritual and ceremonial significance for the Anangu with more than forty named sacred sites and eleven separate Tjurkurpa (or 'Dreaming') tracks in the area, some of which lead as far as the sea. Ayers Rock and The Olgas are separated from the Pitjantjatjara Lands by the border between the Northern Territory
and South Australia
and have become a major tourist attraction and a National Park
. The Central Land Council
laid claim to the Ayers-Rock-Mount Olga National Park
and some adjoining vacant Crown land in 1979, but this claim was challenged by the Northern Territory
government.
After years of intensive lobbying by the Land Council, on 11 November 1983, Prime Minister Bob Hawke
announced that the Federal Government intended to transfer inalienable freehold title to them. He agreed to ten main points they had demanded in exchange for a lease-back arrangement to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service in a "joint-management" régime where Anangu would have a majority on the Board of Management. This was implemented in 1985, after further negotiations extended the lease period from 50 to 99 years and agreement was reached on the retention of tourists' access to Ayers Rock.
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
people of the Central Australia
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...
n desert, and their language (for which see Pitjantjatjara language). They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara
Yankunytjatjara language
Yankunytjatjara is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages, belonging to the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family...
and Ngaanyatjarra
Ngaanyatjarra language
Ngaanyatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family...
and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert Language
Western Desert Language
Western Desert Language is the name used to refer to an otherwise un-named Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family.-Location and list of communities:...
).
They refer to themselves as Anangu
Anangu
Anangu, more accurately "Aṉaŋu" or "Arnangu" is a word found in a number of eastern varieties of the Western Desert Language , an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken in the desert regions of western and central Australia. Before the arrival of non-Aboriginal people in...
(people). Pitjantjatjara country is mostly in the north-west of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, extending across the border into the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
to just south of Lake Amadeus
Lake Amadeus
Lake Amadeus is a huge salt lake in the southwest corner of Australia's Northern Territory, about 50 km north of .-Physical features and nearby landmarks:...
, and west a short distance into Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to Anangu.
They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in spite of increasing influences from the broader Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n community.
Today there are still about 4,000 Anangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
with Aboriginal Traditional Owners.
Etymology
The name Pitjantjatjara derives from the word pitjantja, a form of the verb 'go' which, combined with the comitative suffix -tjara means something like ' pitjantja-having' (i.e. the variety that uses the word pitjantja for 'go'). This distinguishes it from its near neighbour Yankunytjatjara which has yankunytja for the same meaning. This naming strategy is also the source of the names of NgaanyatjarraNgaanyatjarra language
Ngaanyatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family...
and Ngaatjatjarra but in that case the names contrast the two languages based on their words for 'this' (respectively, ngaanya and ngaatja). The two languages Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara may be grouped together under the name Nyangatjatjara (indicating that they have nyangatja for 'this') which then contrasts them with Ngaanyatjarra
Ngaanyatjarra
Ngaanyatjarra is an Indigenous Australian cultural group in the Western Desert, Central Australia.-Meaning and origin of the name:Ngaanya literally means 'this' and -tjarra means 'with/having' ; the compound term means 'those that use "ngaanya" to say "this"'...
and Ngaatjatjarra
Ngaatjatjarra
Ngaatjatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal dialect of the Western Desert language. It is spoken in the Western Desert cultural bloc which covers about 600 000 square kilometres of the arid central and central-western desert...
.
Pronunciation
The name Pitjantjatjara is usually pronounced (in normal, fast speech) with elision of one of the repeated syllables -tja-, thus: pitjantjara. In more careful speech all syllables will be pronounced.Some major communities
See WARU community directory for a complete list- in South Australia type 2
- in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara YankunytjatjaraAnangu Pitjantjatjara YankunytjatjaraAnangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara is a large Aboriginal local government area located in the remote north west of South Australia...
, including:- Ernabella also called Pukatja
- Amata
- KalkaKalka, South AustraliaKalka is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia administered under the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act. At the 2006 census, Kalka had a population of 114.-Geography:...
- PipalyatjaraPipalyatjara, South AustraliaPipalyatjara is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands"...
- Yalata
- Oak Valley
- in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
- In the Northern Territory
- Docker River
- Areyonga
- MutitjuluMutitjulu, Northern TerritoryMutitjulu in Australia's Northern Territory, pop. approx. 150, is an Indigenous Australian community at the eastern end of Uluru . It is named after a knee-shaped water-filled rock hole at the base of Uluru, and is located in the world-famous Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park...
- In Western Australia
- WingellinaWingellina, Western AustraliaWingellina or Irrunytju Community is a small Indigenous Australian community in Western Australia located about east of Perth near the Western Australian-South Australian border in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia....
also called Irruntju
- Wingellina
History
A 73,000 square kilometre tract of land was established in the north west of South AustraliaSouth Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
for the Pitjantjatjara in 1921 after they lost much land due to hostile encroachment by hunters and ranchers.
Extended droughts in the 1920s and between 1956 to 1965 in their homelands in the Great Victoria
Great Victoria Desert
The Great Victoria Desert is a barren and sparsely populated desert area of southern Australia.-Location and description:The Great Victoria is the biggest desert in Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles and salt lakes...
and Gibson Desert
Gibson Desert
The Gibson Desert covers a large dry area in the state of Western Australia and is still largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the 5th largest desert in Australia, after the Great Sandy, Great Victoria, Tanami and Simpson deserts.-Location and description:The Gibson...
s led many Pitjantjatjara, and their traditionally more westerly relations, the Ngaanyatjarra
Ngaanyatjarra language
Ngaanyatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family...
, to move east towards the railway between Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Alice Springs in search of food and water, thus mixing with the most easterly of the three, the Yankunytjatjara. They refer to themselves as Anangu
Anangu
Anangu, more accurately "Aṉaŋu" or "Arnangu" is a word found in a number of eastern varieties of the Western Desert Language , an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken in the desert regions of western and central Australia. Before the arrival of non-Aboriginal people in...
, which originally just meant people in general, but has now come to imply an Aboriginal person or, more specifically, a member of one of the groups that speaks a variety of the Western Desert Language.
In response to continuing outside pressures on the Anangu, the South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
n Government gave its support to a plan by the Presbyterian Church to set up the Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Ranges
Musgrave Ranges
Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia and the Northern Territory , extending into Western Australia. It is between the Great Victoria Desert to the south and the Gibson Desert to the north...
as a safe haven. This mission, largely due to the actions of their advocate, Dr. Charles Duguid
Charles Duguid
Charles Duguid was a Scottish-born medical practitioner and Aboriginal rights campaigner who recorded his experience working among the Australian Aborigines in a number of books.-Early career:...
, was ahead of the times in that there was no systematic attempt to destroy Aboriginal culture, as was common on many other missions.
From 1950 onwards, many Anangu were forced to leave their homelands due to British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
. Some Anangu were subsequently contaminated by the nuclear fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
from the atomic tests, and many have died as a consequence.
Their experience of issues of land rights
Land rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...
and native title
Native title
Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
in South Australia has been unique. After four years of campaigning and negotiations with government and mining groups, the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act was passed on 19 March 1981, granting freehold title over 103,000 square kilometres of land in the northwestern corner of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
.
The Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act, 1984 (SA) granted freehold title of an area of 80,764 square kilometres to Maralinga Tjarutja
Maralinga Tjarutja
The Maralinga Tjarutja are the Indigenous Australian people who traditionally inhabit the remote western areas of South Australia. They are a Southern Pitjantjatjara people.The lands of the Maralinga Tjarutja bear their own name...
. The subsequently named Mamungari Conservation Park) with 21,357.8 km² was transferred to the Maralinga Tjarutja in 2004.
Recognition of sacred sites
Uluru
Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
(Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuta, sometimes written Tjuṯa , and also known as Mount Olga , are a group of large domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia...
(the Olgas) possess important spiritual and ceremonial significance for the Anangu with more than forty named sacred sites and eleven separate Tjurkurpa (or 'Dreaming') tracks in the area, some of which lead as far as the sea. Ayers Rock and The Olgas are separated from the Pitjantjatjara Lands by the border between the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
and South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and have become a major tourist attraction and a National Park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
. The Central Land Council
Central Land Council
The Central Land Council is an Indigenous Land Council that represents the indigenous people of the southern half of the Northern Territory of Australia, predominantly in land issues...
laid claim to the Ayers-Rock-Mount Olga National Park
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park is UNESCO World Heritage-listed in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located 1431 kilometres south of Darwin by road and 440 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs along the Stuart and Lasseter Highways...
and some adjoining vacant Crown land in 1979, but this claim was challenged by the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
government.
After years of intensive lobbying by the Land Council, on 11 November 1983, Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
announced that the Federal Government intended to transfer inalienable freehold title to them. He agreed to ten main points they had demanded in exchange for a lease-back arrangement to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service in a "joint-management" régime where Anangu would have a majority on the Board of Management. This was implemented in 1985, after further negotiations extended the lease period from 50 to 99 years and agreement was reached on the retention of tourists' access to Ayers Rock.
External links
- Ngapartji Online course of Pitjantjatjara language, and related performance event
- Web portal for Anangu Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra peoples, communities and organisations
- Yalata Land Management
- Pitjantjatjara entry in the AusAnthrop database
- Pitjantjatjara People at Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS)