Pitjantjatjara

{{Short description|Aboriginal people of Central Australia}}

{{about|the Australian Indigenous group|their language|Pitjantjatjara dialect|the lands act concerning them|Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}

{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}

{{Citation style|date=February 2024}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

| image = Anangu ranger at Uluru.png

| native_name = Aṉangu

| caption = Pitjantjatjara ranger at Uluru

| group = Pitjantjatjara

| population =

| region1 = {{Flag|Australia}}

| pop1 =

| ref1 =

| region2 = Central Australia:

| pop2 = {{circa|4,000}}

| ref2 =

| region3 = {{Plainlist|

  • {{Flag|South Australia}}
  • {{Flag|Northern Territory}}

}}

| pop3 =

| ref3 =

| region4 =

| pop4 =

| ref4 =

| region5 = Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara

| pop5 =

| ref5 =

| languages = Pitjantjatjara
English (Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English)

| religions = Traditional, Christianity

| related = Ngaanyatjarra, Yankunytjatjara

| footnotes =

}}

The Pitjantjatjara ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|ɪ|tʃ|ən|tʃ|ə|ˈ|tʃ|ɑːr|ə}};{{cite book |first=Laurie |last=Bauer |year=2007 |title=The Linguistics Student's Handbook |location=Edinburgh}} {{IPA|pjt|ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa|lang}} or {{IPA|pjt|ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa|}}) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. 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). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest 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 aṉangu.{{sfn|Kimber|1986|loc=chapter 12}}

Pronunciation

The ethnonym 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.{{sfn|Goddard|1985}}

Etymology

The name Pitjantjatjara derives from the word pitjantja, a nominalised form of the verb "go" (equivalent to the English "going" used as a noun). Combined with the comitative suffix -tjara, it means something like "pitjantja-having" (i.e. the variety that uses the word pitjantja for "going"). This distinguishes it from its near neighbour Yankunytjatjara which has yankunytja for the same meaning.{{sfn|Goddard|2010|p=871}} This naming strategy is also the source of the names of Ngaanyatjarra 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.{{sfn|Goddard|1985}}

Language

Pitjantjatjara language is used as a general term for a number of closely related dialects which together, according to Ronald Trudinger were "spoken over a wider area of Australia than any other Aboriginal language".{{sfn|Trudinger|1943|p=205}} With Yankunytjatjara it shares an 80% overlap in vocabulary.{{sfn|Goddard|2010|p=871}}

Some major communities

See WARU community directory{{sfn|WARU community directory}} for a complete list

History

From 1950 onwards, many aṉangu were forced to leave their traditional lands due to British nuclear tests at Maralinga. Some aṉangu were subsequently contaminated by the nuclear fallout from the atomic tests, and many{{quantify|date=February 2024}} have died as a consequence.{{sfn|Tame|Robotham|1982}} 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 1981 was passed on 19 March 1981, granting freehold title over {{cvt|103,000|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} of land in the northwestern corner of South Australia.

= Recognition of sacred sites =

File:Uluru 1.JPG) live in the area around Uluru / Ayers Rock and south to the Great Australian Bight.]]

The sacred sites of Uluru / Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuṯa / Mount Olga possess important spiritual and ceremonial significance for the Anangu with more than 40 named sacred sites and 11 separate Tjukurpa (or "Dreaming") tracks in the area, some of which lead as far as the sea. Uluru / Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga 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.

Notable people

{{div col|colwidth=25em}}

{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} shortly after becoming Minister of Aboriginal Affairs

{{div col end}}

See also

{{Portal|Australia}}

  • Wiltja, a shelter made by the Pitjantjatjara people and other indigenous Australian groups

Notes

{{notelist}}

=Citations=

{{Reflist|20em}}

Sources

{{refbegin|30em}}

  • {{Cite journal | title = Aborigines of the West Coast of South Australia; vocabularies and ethnological notes

| last = Bates | first = Daisy

| author-link = Daisy Bates (author)

| journal = Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia

| location = Adelaide

| via = BHL

| year = 1918 | volume = 42 | pages = 152–167

| url = https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42802106

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite journal | title = Tribal Migrations and Myths Centring on Ooldea, South Australia

| last = Berndt | first = Ronald M.

| author-link = Ronald Berndt

| journal = Oceania

| date = September 1941 | volume = 12 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–20

| doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1941.tb00343.x | jstor = 40327930

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Doctor and the Aborigines

| last = Duguid | first = Charles | year = 1972

| publisher = Rigby

| url = https://archive.org/details/doctoraborigines0000dugu | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive

| isbn = 0-85179-411-4

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite journal | title = Kinship in Western Central Australia

| last = Fry | first = H. K.

| journal = Oceania

| date = June 1934 | volume = 4 | issue = 4 | pages = 472–478

| doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1934.tb00123.x | jstor = 27976165

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Ngaanyatjarra texts. New Revised edition of Pitjantjatjara texts (1969)

| last1 = Glass | first1 = Amee

| last2 = Hackett | first2 = Dorothy

| year = 1979

| publisher = Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies | location = Canberra

| url = https://archive.org/details/ngaanyatjarratex0000glas | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive

| isbn = 0-391-01683-0

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = A Grammar of Yankunytjatjara

| last = Goddard | first = Cliff | year = 1985

| publisher = Institute for Aboriginal Development Press

| isbn = 0-949659-32-0

}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English Dictionary

| last = Goddard | first = Cliff | year = 1996

| publisher = IAD Press | location = Alice Springs

| isbn = 0-949659-91-6

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite encyclopedia| title = Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara

| last = Goddard | first = Cliff | year = 2010

| encyclopedia = Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World

| editor1-last = Brown | editor1-first = Keith

| editor2-last = Ogilvie | editor2-first = Sarah

| publisher = Elsevier

| pages = 871–876

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC&pg=PA871

| isbn = 978-0-080-87775-4

}}

  • {{Cite book| title = The People in Between: The Pitjantjatjara People of Ernabella

| last = Hilliard | first = Winifred M. | year = 1976

| orig-year = First published 1968

| publisher = Seal Books

| isbn = 0-7270-0159-0

}} (reprint){{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Desert Crafts: Anangu Maruku Punu

| last = Isaacs | first = Jennifer | year = 1992

| publisher = Doubleday

| isbn = 0-86824-474-0

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Minyma Tjuta Tjunguringkula Kunpuringanyi: Women Growing Strong Together

| last = Kavanagh | first = Maggie | year = 1990

| publisher = Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara Women's Council 1980–1990

| isbn = 0-646-02068-4

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Man from Arltunga

| last = Kimber | first = R. G. | year = 1986

| publisher = Hesperian Press | location = Carlisle

| at = chapter 12

}}

  • {{cite web| title = Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act 1984

| publisher = Government of South Australia, Attorney-General's Department

| url = https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/lz/c/a/maralinga%20tjarutja%20land%20rights%20act%201984.aspx

| access-date = 16 August 2016

| ref = {{harvid|Government of South Australia}}

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{cite book| title = MARALINGA: British A-Bomb Australian Legacy

| last1 = Tame | first1 = Adrian

| last2 = Robotham | first2 = F.P.J.

| publisher = Fontana / Collins | location = Melbourne

| date = 1982

| isbn = 0-00-636391-1

}}

  • {{Cite book| chapter = Pitjandjara (SA)

| last = Tindale | first = Norman Barnett | year = 1974

| author-link = Norman Tindale

| title = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names

| publisher = Australian National University Press

| chapter-url = http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/pitjandjara.htm

| isbn = 978-0-708-10741-6

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Growing Up the Country: The Pitjantjatjara struggle for their land

| last1 = Toyne | first1 = Phillip

| last2 = Vachon | first2 = Daniel

| year = 1984

| publisher = Penguin Books

| isbn = 0-14-007641-7

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite journal | title = Grammar of the Pitjantjatjara Dialect, Central Australia

| last = Trudinger | first = Ronald M.

| journal = Oceania

| date = March 1943 | volume = 13 | issue = 3 | pages = 205–223

| doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1943.tb00381.x | jstor = 40327992

}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Killing Me Softly: The Destruction of a Heritage

| last1 = Wallace | first1 = Phil

| last2 = Wallace | first2 = Noel

| year = 1977

| publisher = Thomas Nelson | location = Melbourne

| isbn = 0-17-005153-6

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

  • {{Cite web| title = WARU community directory

| url = http://waru.org/directory.php | url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20140219/http://waru.org/directory.php

| archive-date = 19 February 2014

| ref = {{harvid|WARU community directory}}

}}

  • {{Cite book| title = Competing Interests: Aboriginal Participation in National Parks and Conservation Reserves in Australia - A Review

| last1 = Woenne-Green | first1 = Susan

| last2 = Johnston | first2 = Ross

| last3 = Sultan | first3 = Ros

| last4 = Wallis | first4 = Arnold

| year = 1993

| publisher = Australian Conservation Foundation | location = Fitzroy, Victoria

| isbn = 0-85802-113-7

}}{{unused source|date=January 2025}}

{{refend}}