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Ngiṉṯaka
Ngiṉṯaka (), also spelled Ngintaku, is a giant perentie lizard Ancestral Being from Aṉangu and Pitjantjatjara religion and mythology. It is associated with Angatja, an area along an important songline. Ngiṉṯaka is one of the two major reptile Ancestral Beings associated with Uluru, the other being Milpali. Myth Ngiṉṯaka's songline is known as ''Inma Ngiṉṯaka''. It tells of his journey of the creation of over 500 km via a song whose stanzas follow his travels through the land. In the songline, Ngiṉṯaka is presented with human characteristics. In the myth, Ngiṉṯaka travels from his home near the Western Australia border to the camp of another lizard tribe, near Oodnadatta, in search of a better grindstone. He stole the Anangu grindstone and carried it home, chased by the Anangu people. In one spot along his journey, he digs up tjanmatjas (bush onions), creating large boulders. As he traveled, he created many landforms in the Musgrave and Mann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mann Ranges
The Mann Ranges are a mountain range in central Australia. It is located in the far northwest of South Australia, with a small section running over the border into the Northern Territory. It is part of the geological region known as the Musgrave Block, which also includes the Petermann and Musgrave Ranges. Mountains in this region were formed in the Petermann Orogeny (600–550 million years ago). This area is part of the traditional country of the Pitjantjatjara nation. They associate it with the Dreaming of , a major creation spirit. He is said to have created the landforms while travelling through the area in the Dreamtime, and his route forms a network of songlines that are spiritually important to native people. The largest communities in the area are Kaṉpi and Nyapaṟi. The first European person to visit the area was William Gosse in 1873. With the help of local Aboriginal people, Gosse and his team explored the Mann Ranges after seeing the range from the top ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perentie
The perentie (''Varanus giganteus'') is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia. It is one of the largest living lizards on earth, after the Komodo dragon, Asian water monitor, crocodile monitor, and intersecting by size with Nile monitor. Found west of the Great Dividing Range in the arid areas of Australia, it is rarely seen, because of its shyness and the remoteness of much of its range from human habitation. The species is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its status in many Aboriginal cultures is evident in the totemic relationships, and part of the Ngiṉṯaka dreaming, as well as bush tucker. It was a favoured food item among desert Aboriginal tribes, and the fat was used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. Taxonomy British zoologist John Edward Gray described the perentie in 1845 as ''Hydrosaurus giganteus'', calling it the "gigantic water lizard". George Albert Boulenger moved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aṉangu
Aṉangu is the name used by members of several Aboriginal Australian groups, roughly approximate to the Western Desert cultural bloc, to describe themselves. The term, which embraces several distinct "tribes" or peoples, in particular the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara groups, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable: . The term The original meaning of the word is "human being, person", "human body" in a number of eastern varieties of the Western Desert Languages (which are in the Pama–Nyungan group of languages), in particular Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. It is now used as an Aboriginal endonym by a wide range of Western Desert Language (WDL) peoples to describe themselves. It is rarely or never applied to non-Aboriginal people when used in English, although the word now has a dual meaning in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. It has come to be used also as an exonym by non-Aboriginal Australians to refer to WDL-speaking groups or ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of . It is the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. the state has 2.76 million inhabitants percent of the national total. The vast majority (92 percent) live in the south-west corner; 79 percent of the population lives in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated. The first Europeans to visit Western Australia belonged to the Dutch Dirk Hartog expedition, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616. The first permanent European colony of Western Australia occurred following the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oodnadatta
Oodnadatta is a small, remote outback town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia, located north-north-west of the state capital of Adelaide by road or direct, at an altitude of . The unsealed Oodnadatta Track, an outback road popular with tourists, runs through the town. In the , there were 74 dwellings and the population was 318. Town facilities include a hotel, caravan park, post office, general stores, police station, hospital, fuel and minor mechanical repairs. The old railway station now serves as a museum. From the 1880s to the 1930s, Oodnadatta was a base for camel drivers and their animals, which provided cartage when the railway was under construction and along outback tracks before roads were established. After the railway line was lifted, Oodnadatta's role changed from that of a government service centre and supply depot for surrounding pastoral properties to a residential freehold town for Aboriginal families who, moving from cattle work, bought e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musgrave Ranges
Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) and the Northern Territory (MacDonnell Shire), extending into Western Australia. It is between the Great Victoria Desert to the south and the Gibson Desert to the north. They have a length of and many peaks that have a height of more than , the highest being Mount Woodroffe at . Inhabitants They were originally inhabited by the indigenous Yankunytjatjara people. The English explorer William Gosse and his team were the first white people to visit the region in the 1870s. Gosse named the mountains after Anthony Musgrave, then Governor of South Australia. At the start of the 20th century, Yankunytjatjara people began migrating east, and groups of Pitjantjatjara moved into the Musgrave region from the west. Today, the majority of the families in the communities of Amata and Kaltjiti identify as Pitjantjatjara. In a historic decision freehold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ngarutjaranya
Ngarutjaranya, also known as Mount Woodroffe (officially Ngarutjaranya/Mount Woodroffe), is a mountain in the Australian state of South Australia, located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in the state's northwest. It is South Australia's highest peak, at . Cultural significance The name of the mountain comes from the Pitjantjatjara language. In Pitjantjatjara mythology, the mountain embodies the mythological creature Ngintaka. Geography Ngarutjaranya is located in the far northwest of South Australia, in the Musgrave Ranges. The mountain range rises some 700–800 metres from the surrounding plains and comprises massifs of granite and gneiss. History William Ernest Giles was the first European man to pass through the area and camped to the south of Woodroffe on September 7, 1873. William Christie Gosse had previously named it Mt Woodroffe on July 20 that same year. Woodroffe was named after George Woodroffe Goyder, Surveyor-General of South Austral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and second smallest state by population. It has a total of 1.8 million people. Its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second-largest centre, has a population of 33,233. South Australia shares borders with all of the other mainland states, as well as the Northern Territory; it is bordered to the west by Western Australia, to the north by the Northern Territory, to the north-east by Queensland, to the east by New South Wales, to the south-east by Victoria, and to the south by the Great Australian Bight.M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Aboriginal Deities
The following is a list of Australian Indigenous Australian deities and spirits. New South Wales *Baiame, creator god of the peoples of New South Wales *Baloo, Kamilaroi moon god who keeps three pet snakes * Birrahgnooloo, Kamilaroi goddess of fertility who would send floods if properly asked to *Daramulum, sky hero and son of Baiame and Birrahngnooloo *Dirawong, Bundjalung creator being *Ganhanbili, second wife of Baiame * Wurrunna, culture hero *Yhi, Kamilaroi solar goddess associated with light and creation Northern Territory * Adnoartina, the lizard guard of Uluru *Altjira, Arrernte sky god who created the earth * Ankotarinja, first man of Arrernte mythology * Onur, Karraur lunar deity *Bamapana, Yolngu trickster spirit who creates discord * Banaitja, creator deity *Barnumbirr, Yolngu creator spirit * Barraiya, creator of the first vagina *Bobbi-Bobbi, benevolent Binbinga snake deity *Djanggawul, three creator-siblings of northeast Arnhem Land mythology *Galeru, rainb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
