Western Desert cultural bloc
Encyclopedia
The Western Desert cultural bloc or just Western Desert is a cultural region in Australia
covering about 600,000 square kilometres, including the Gibson Desert
, the Great Victoria Desert
, the Great Sandy
and Little Sandy Desert
s in the Northern Territory
, South Australia
and Western Australia
. The Western Desert can be said to stretch from the Nullarbor in the south to the Kimberley
in the north, and from the Percival Lakes in the west through to the Pintupi
lands in the Northern Territory
.
This term is often used by anthropologists and linguists when discussing the 40 or so Aboriginal groups that live there, who speak dialects of one language, often called the Western Desert language
.
Apart from the Canning Stock Route
and the Rabbit-proof fence
, white contact with this part of Australia was very rare, up until the 1960s:
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...
covering about 600,000 square kilometres, including the 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...
, the Great Victoria Desert
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...
, the Great Sandy
Great Sandy Desert
The Great Sandy Desert is a desert located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of...
and Little Sandy Desert
Little Sandy Desert
The Little Sandy Desert is a desert located in Western Australia south of the Great Sandy Desert and west of the Gibson Desert. It is to the east of Great Northern Highway south of Newman and approximately 200 kilometres north of Wiluna...
s in 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...
, 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 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 Western Desert can be said to stretch from the Nullarbor in the south to the Kimberley
Kimberley region of Western Australia
The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts, and on the east by the Northern Territory.The region...
in the north, and from the Percival Lakes in the west through to the Pintupi
Pintupi
Pintupi refers to an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose homeland is in the area west of Lake MacDonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved into the Aboriginal communities of Papunya and Haasts Bluff in the west of the...
lands in 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...
.
This term is often used by anthropologists and linguists when discussing the 40 or so Aboriginal groups that live there, who speak dialects of one language, often called 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:...
.
Apart from the Canning Stock Route
Canning Stock Route
The Canning Stock Route is one of the toughest and most remote tracks in the world. It runs to Halls Creek from Wiluna, both in Western Australia. With a total distance of around it is also the longest historic stock route in the world...
and the Rabbit-proof fence
Rabbit-proof fence
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the No. 1 Rabbit-proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits and other agricultural pests, from the east, out of Western Australian pastoral...
, white contact with this part of Australia was very rare, up until the 1960s:
No one had been out there. The desert, as far as the Department [WA Dept of Suppy] was concerned... was an unknown, as it was to the whole of Western Australia. The Warburton RangesWarburton, Western AustraliaWarburton or Warburton Ranges is an Indigenous Australian community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road and Gunbarrel Highway...
[were] as far as anybody got. People in those days knew absolutely nothing about Aborigines.
Dialect groups
- Antekarinja
- Kukatja
- LuritjaLuritjaLuritja is a name used to refer to several dialects of the Indigenous Australian Western Desert Language, and thereby also to the people who speak these varieties, and their traditional lands.-Origin and meaning of Luritja:...
- Mandjildjara
- MartuMartu (Indigenous Australian)Mardu are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Western Desert. Their lands include the Percival Lakes and Pilbara regions in Western Australia...
- NgaatjatjarraNgaatjatjarraNgaatjatjarra 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...
- NgaanyatjarraNgaanyatjarraNgaanyatjarra 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"'...
- Nyanganyatjarra
- Pitjantjatjara
- PintupiPintupiPintupi refers to an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose homeland is in the area west of Lake MacDonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved into the Aboriginal communities of Papunya and Haasts Bluff in the west of the...
- Spinifex peopleSpinifex peopleThe Spinifex people, or Pila Nguru, are an Indigenous Australian people, whose traditional lands are situated in the Great Victoria Desert,, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002-08-03. Retrieved 2007-04-21. in the Australian state of Western Australia, adjoining the border with South Australia, to the...
- WongathaWangaiWangai, Wongai or Wankai is the name given by themselves to the 26 Aboriginal groups of the Goldfields of Western Australia. It comes from the word meaning "Speaker"...
- Yankunytjatjara
Further reading
- Berndt, Ronald M.Ronald BerndtRonald Murray Berndt was an Australian anthropologist. With his wife Catherine Berndt, they worked in the Northern Territory, in the Daly River....
(1959). The concept of 'The Tribe' in the Western Desert of Australia, Oceania, 30(2): 81-107. - Davenport, S, Johnson, P and Yuwali, Cleared Out: First Contact in the Western Desert, Aboriginal Studies Press, 2005 ISBN 0-85575-457-5
- Dusset, Laurent (2005). Assimilating Identities: Social Networks and the Diffusion of Sections. Sydney: Oceania Publications, Monograph 57.
- Morgan, Margaret (1999). Mt Margaret: A Drop in a Bucket. Lawson, NSW: Mission Publications of Australia ISBN 9780646342207 (out of print).
- Harrington-Smith on behalf of the Wongatha People v State of Western Australia (No 9) Page 4 of 112 http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2007/31.html 5/17/2007 accessed 5 September 2009