 Ngaanyatjarra children, 2006 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,600-2,700 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Australia (Northern Territory) | |
| Languages | |
| Ngaanyatjarra, English, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara | |
| Religion | |
| Aboriginal mythology |
The Ngaanyatjarra, also known (along with the Pini) as the Nana, [lower-alpha 1] are an Indigenous Australian cultural group of Western Australia. They are located in the Goldfields-Esperance region, as well as Northern Territory.
Ngaanyatjarra is a Western Desert language belonging to the Wati branch of the Pama-Nyungan languages. [1] Ngaatjatjarra is mutually intelligible with Ngaanyatjarra, and both are treated as dialects of the one language. [2]
Ngaanya literally means "this" (that is, the demonstrative pronoun) and -tjarra means "with/having" (the comitative suffix); the compound term means "those that use 'ngaanya' to say 'this'". The neighbouring Ngaatjatjarra use ngaatja for "this". Many Ngaanyatjarra are multilingual, not only speaking English but also a number of other dialects in the area. [3]
Ngaanyatjarra lands cover roughly 3% of the Australian landscape, [4] a territory as large as that of the United Kingdom. Predominantly desert, they lie 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away from the two nearest towns of Alice Springs and Kalgoorlie. [5] The neighbouring tribes are the Martu and the Pitjantjatjara. [6] They extend through parts of the North Western and Little Great and Little Sandy Deserts, the southeast Gascoyne region, the Gibson Desert, the Central Central Great Victoria Desert and the Western Central Ranges. [4]
The Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku covers 159,948 square kilometres (61,756 sq mi), and the Shire council is the local government authority responsible for the provision of services to the communities. [7] The associated Ngaanyatjarra Council operates various services for the communities.
There are 10 small local centres within the Ngaanyatyarra Lands: [8] [4]
Kiwirrkurra and Yilka (Cosmo Newbery) lie outside the Lands, but are served by the Shire. [9] [10]
On July 1 2024, the Ngaanyatjarra Lands standardised on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST). [11] Previously the lands operated on two time zones: Yilka/Cosmo, Mantamaru/Jameson, Patjarr, Tjirrkarli, Wanarn and Warburton used AWST, while Blackstone, Kiwirrkurra, Tjukurla, Warakurna, and Irrunytju/Wingellina were on Australian Central Standard Time. [12]
The area inhabited by the Ngaanyatjarra people (yarnangu) [13] has a record of human habitation going back some 10,000 years. [1] In traditional society, the Ngaanyatjarra comprised numerous bands, usually constituted by a group of a dozen people. Males only reached marriageable age at around 30, after a thorough training and graduation through a complex initiatory system, that transformed tjilku (male children) into wati (men). [14] Passage to this status was marked by the right to wear a red headband, though as post-initiates (tjawarratja) they were still required to dwell apart from the main camp as elders continued to instruct them. Learning the lore required that the initiates had to supply their elders with foodstuffs like meat, a scarce resource in the area. In this sense, the tjukurrpa system also functioned as a cross-generational mode of exacting obedience and an income from the younger men. [15] Females entered into wedlock just after the onset of puberty. [16] Ceremonial induction consisted of learning to absorb the complex details of tjukurrpa, namely the lore/law of the dreamtime. [17] [18] The process is graded so that full knowledge only comes after 50 the normal age after which one can begin gain recognition as a wati yirna or tjilpi, a thoroughly knowledgeable elder, though even 60-year-olds can still be denied that recognition. [14]
The Ngaanyatjarra had a moiety system divided into sun-side (Tjirntulukultul(pa)) and shade-side (Ngumpalurrungkatja), with a 6 section classification. [19]
Sun-side
Shade-side
Estimates of the number of Ngaanyatjarra range from 1,600, [21] referring to permanent residents and 2,700, including a more mobile people of Ngaanyatjarra descent, [22] who often visit the area. [1] Though life is generally peaceful, the adaptation to modern society has produced considerable trauma and alienation, as the genealogical continuity of family structures has suffered disruption from numerous accidents or family violence, including sexual abuse and assault, and suicide. [23] The area is "dry" meaning that the destructive effects of excessive alcoholic consumption are not in evidence throughout their communities, and longevity has been a characteristic of the people. [6] However, incarceration rates, predominantly for offences of sexual or domestic violence or reckless driving, are high, 14 times higher than the non-indigenous rate. Ngaanyatjarra councils have lobbied, with some success, to get more police stationed in their areas to address the problem. [24]
Until the establishment of the Warburton Mission in 1934 there had been no external agency established on their lands. [21] Until the 1960s, contact with the outside world had been sparse and relatively benign, with none of the disruption of displacement from their traditional terrain typically suffered by Aborigines generally. [25] The mission sowed the seeds of Christian culture which continues to this day, particularly in the form of charismatic evangelism. [6]
The Ngaanyatjarra made a claim to native title, and on 29 June 2005 their lands were the subject of the largest native title determination in Australian history, according to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, [26] when a Federal Court hearing presided by Justice Michael Black ruled on the claim to 187,000 square kilometres (72,000 sq mi) in Western Australia. [27]
General information on the region:
Arts Organisations Websites:
| Authority control databases: National |
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The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about 1,350 km (840 mi) of washaways, heavy corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway connects Victory Downs in the Northern Territory to Carnegie Station in Western Australia. Some sources incorrectly show the highway extending west to Wiluna.
Warburton or Warburton Ranges is an Aboriginal Australian community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road and Gunbarrel Highway. At the 2016 census, Warburton had a population of 576.
The Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku is a remote local government area in Western Australia near the Northern Territory/South Australian border. It is 1,542 km (958 mi) from Perth.
The Western Desert language, or Wati, is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama–Nyungan family.
Ngaanyatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the dialects of the Western Desert Language and is very similar to its close neighbour Ngaatjatjarra, with which it is highly mutually intelligible.
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. It is very similar to its close neighbours Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Pintupi, with which it is highly mutually intelligible.
Kiwirrkurra, gazetted as Kiwirrkurra Community, is a small community in Western Australia in the Gibson Desert, 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) east of Port Hedland and 700 kilometres (430 mi) west of Alice Springs. It had a population of 165 in 2016, mostly Aboriginal Australians. It has been described as the most remote community in Australia.
Wingellina or Irrunytju Community is a small Indigenous Australian community in Western Australia located about 1,700 kilometres (1,056 mi) north east of Perth near the Western Australian-South Australian border in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia. The local language of Wingellina is Pitjantjatjara.
Papulankutja is a large Aboriginal community located in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku.
Tjukurla is an Aboriginal community, located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku.
Tjirrkarli is a medium-sized Aboriginal community, located in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku.
Warakurna is a large Aboriginal community, located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku and is situated on the Great Central Road. It is at the western end of the Rawlinson Ranges. At the 2016 census, Warakurna had a population of 268, including 237 who identified as Aboriginal Australians, most of whom speak Ngaanyatjarra at home.
Patjarr is a small Aboriginal community, located near the Clutterbuck Hills between Lake Cobb and Lake Newell, 243 kilometres by road north west of Warburton in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia.
The Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council is a community-based community organisation formed in 1980 delivering services to the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara women in the central desert region of Australia across the borders of the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia with its headquarters in Alice Springs. It provides a range of community, family, research and advocacy services.
Jimmy Donegan is an Aboriginal Australian artist. His painting Papa Tjukurpa munu Pukara won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2010. He speaks Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. His work is held in several major private galleries in Australia and Europe; the only major public gallery to hold one of his works is the National Gallery of Victoria.
Pulpurru Davies is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. Most of her early life was spent living nomadically in the desert, until she and her family were settled at Warburton in the late 1960s. Part of her life in the bush was featured in the documentary People of the Australian Western Desert (1966). She has since become one of the earliest and most successful Ngaanyatjarra artists.
Maringka Baker is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She lives in the Pitjantjatjara community of Kaṉpi, South Australia, and paints for Tjungu Palya, based in nearby Nyapaṟi.Maringka is known for her paintings. Maringka paints sacred stories from her family's Dreaming (spirituality). As well as the important cultural meanings they carry, her paintings are known for being rich in colour and contrast. She often paints the desert landscape in bright green colours, and contrasts it against reds and ochres to depict landforms. She also uses layers of contrasting colours to show the detail of the desert in full bloom.
The Ngaatjatjarra are an Indigenous Australian people of Western Australia, with communities located in the north eastern part of the Goldfields-Esperance region.
Tjapartji Kanytjuri Bates (c.1933–2015), also spelt Taparti, was an Australian Aboriginal artist based in Warakurna, Wanarn, and Warburton communities in the Gibson Desert. She was of the Ngaanyatjarra people. Known to be active from 1991, her work incorporates media of paint, canvas, glass and felt, and is particularly centred around interpretations of Tjukurrpa from her mother and father.
