Balgo, previously Balgo Hills and Balgo Mission, is a community in

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 th ...

that is linked with both the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

and the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored b ...

. The community is in the

Shire of Halls Creek The Shire of Halls Creek is one of the four local government areas in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, covering an area of , most of which is sparsely populated. The Shire's seat of government is the town of Halls Creek. Man ...

, off the

Tanami Road __NOTOC__ The Tanami Road, also known as the Tanami Track, Tanami Highway, and the McGuire Track, is a road in Australia that runs between the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory and the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia. It is a ...

, and was established by German missionaries in 1939. In the Balgo's population numbered 430.

History

The community was established following the arrival of German

Pallottine The Pallottines officially named the Society of the Catholic Apostolate ( la, Societas Apostolatus Catholici), abbreviated SAC is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right for men in the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1835 by the Roman C ...

Catholic missionaries in the region in 1939. Following the

outbreak of World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the Australian government designated the missionaries "

enemy aliens In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

" and their radio transmitter and firearms were confiscated by police. After earlier sites proved to be unsatisfactory, the present site was chosen, in 1942. The settlement was funded by the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

as an outstation during the 1980s, along with Yagga Yagga outstation.PDF
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Indigenous people and language

The name Balgo may have been derived from the Kukatja language word , meaning rice grass, which grows nearby. The Kukatja dialect of the Western Desert Language is the first language for many people at Balgo, with the name deriving from the Kukatja (Gugadja) people. There is a Kukatja dictionary published by Luurnpa Catholic School, and at the school's Walkala Centre,

audio book An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

s are created in both Kukatja and English. Balgo is a multicultural community of

Aboriginal peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, with seven other

language groups A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

besides Kukatja represented: there are

Ngardi The Ngardi, also spelled Ngarti, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Name and grouping Arthur Capell took the term ''Ngardi'' to refer, not to a distinct tribe, but to a branch of the Warlpiri, a ...

Djaru The Djaru people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language Djaru is a member of the Ngumbin language family, and is related to Walmajarri. Country The Djaru people ranged along Margar ...

, Warlpiri,

Walmajarri The Walmadjari (Walmajarri) people, also known as Tjiwaling and Wanaseka, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Name The two names reflect different Walmadjari preferences. Their western bands accept ...

, Wangkajunga,

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into the ...

and

Ngaatjatjarra The Ngaatjatjarra (otherwise spelt Ngadadjara) are an Indigenous Australian people of Western Australia, with communities located in the north eastern part of the Goldfields-Esperance region. Name The ethnonym Ngaatjatjarra, in line with a gener ...

residents. In 2019, scientists from the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

were undertaking a research project on the Kukatja language, the local

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

which is fluently spoken "by residents of all ages and across at least seven tribal groups". Researchers were recording conversations and mapping the language, believing that Kukatja could provide clues to how languages are spread around the world. Dr Luis Miguel Rojas Berscia believed that the mission, as in other places such as the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

could be the common thread, bringing different ethnic groups together in isolated spots. Work was being done on developing a dictionary and teacher's guide.

Artists

During the 1980s, Balgo became famous for its artists' cooperative which was established when some of the original members of the

Papunya Tula Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative ...

movement were allowed to leave

Papunya Papunya (Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, ...

. Some of the artists from Balgo include

Susie Bootja Bootja Napaltjarri Susie Bootja Bootja Napaltjarri (also referred to as Susie Bootja Bootja Napangardi, Napangarti, or Napangati) (c. 1935 – 16 January 2003) was an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born south-west of Balgo, Western Au ...

, Topsy Gibson Napaljarri, Eubena Nampitjin, Elizabeth Nyumi, Boxer Milner, Tjumpo (Bill) Tjapanangka and "Helicopter" Tjungurrayi. Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation was established in Balgo 1987, and represents more than 300 artists in Balgo, Kururrungku (Billiluna), and

Mulan Hua Mulan () is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century CE) of Chinese history. According to legend, Mulan took her aged father's place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as ...

, who work in a variety of media and styles. The art centre, which is the oldest of its kind in Western Australia, celebrated its 35th anniversary with a special exhibition, ''Ngurra Kutjuwarra (On Country Together)'', in August 2022, after being isolated for most of the two and a half years of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

. the manager is UK-born Poppy Leaver. John Carty of the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

has had a relationship with Warlayirti Arts since around 2002. In the early 1980sm a group of Kukatja and Warlpiri men in Balgo painted their stories on wooden boards, which somehow disappeared for years. In 2019, more than 20 of these works by were discovered by chance in a sea container in Wyndham, away. After the South Australian Museum (SAM) was advised of the find, the paintings, which were in very poor condition, were carefully restored by Artlab in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. In October 2021 they were included in an exhibition at the museum called ''Balgo Beginnings'', which also included new works by descendants of the original artists. Sales of a monograph, ''Balgo: Creating Country'', by John Carty of the SAM, was launched along with the exhibition, with

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

being donated towards providing a dialysis service in Balgo.

Governance

The community is managed by Wirrimanu Aboriginal Corporation, which was incorporated on 6 September 1984 under the ''Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976''. Balgo falls within the determined Tjurabalan People (WCD2001/001)

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

claim area. The

town plan Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

, ''Balgo Layout Plan No. 3'', was prepared in accordance with State Planning Policy 3.2 and was endorsed by the community and the

Western Australian Planning Commission The Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) is an independent statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia that exists to coordinate strategic and statutory planning for future urban, rural and regional land use. The authori ...

in 2005.

Facilities

It has a petrol station, supermarket, Catholic parish, Luurnpa Catholic School (K–10), Kutjungka Trade Training Centre, clinic and police station. Balgo Hill Airport is located south of Balgo. In January 2020 the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

announced an upgrade to the Tanami Road and its feeder roads. Conversion of the main road from

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

into a

sealed road A sealed road is a road whose surface has been permanently sealed by the use of one of several pavement treatments, often of composite construction. In some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, this surface is generically referred to as "s ...

will improve safety and comfort for drivers on the stretch from the

Halls Creek Halls is a plural of the word hall. Halls may also refer to: People * Walter Halls (1871–1953), British trade unionist and politician * Ethel May Halls (1882–1967), American actress * Julian Halls (born 1967), British field hockey player * ...

junction, which is the only route to nearby regional centres and for the transport of essential supplies to the community. Work on a new tourist road in Balgo has already begun, which will be used by local tour guides taking visitors to sacred lands.

History

Indigenous people and language

Artists

Governance

Facilities

References

Further reading