The Kunapa are a clan of
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
families of
Central Australia
Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...
who traditionally lived to the north of
Tennant Creek
Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...
,
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
.
Language
The Kunapa speak a
Warumungu
The Warumungu (or Warramunga) are a group of Aboriginal Australians of the Northern Territory. Today, Warumungu are mainly concentrated in the region of Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
Language
Their language is Warumungu, belonging to the ...
dialect.
Country
The Kunapa's traditional lands lie on the
Western Barkly Tablelands of Central Australia, and include territory in the areas of the
Banka Banka, Brunchilly, and Elroy Downs pastoral leases.
History
The Kunapa were alienated from their original homelands with the development of pastoralism. and subsequently were concentrated in towns like
Tennant Creek
Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...
. In the last decades two Kunapa communities, the ''Ngurrara'' and ''Kurnturlpara,'' have been re-establishing outstations in houses they had once owned in the western areas of Barkly Tableland.
Destruction of a sacred site
The mining corporation, OM Manganese, was fined $150,000 in 2013 for having desecrated a site known as "Two Women Sitting Down" at the Bootu Creek Manganese Mine. The Kunapa are one of the traditional custodians of this area.
Native title
Kunapa land claims are represented by the Manungurra Aboriginal Corporation.
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Manungurra Aboriginal Corporation
{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory