The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an
Aboriginal Australian people of the
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 ...
. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the
Arrernte people
The Arrernte () people, sometimes referred to as the Aranda, Arunta or Arrarnta, are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the Arrernte lands, at ''Mparntwe'' (Alice Springs) and surrounding areas of the Central Australia regi ...
, with their lands covering some . Their language is the Luritja dialect, a
Western Desert language.
Name
The name Kukatja or Kukatj is one shared by four other distinct tribes throughout Australia. The root of the word seems to suggest pride in being "meat eaters" rather than people who scrounge for vegetables for sustenance.
The Northern Territory Kukatja were often referred to in the
ethnographical
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
literature by
Arerrnte exonyms for them, either ''Loritja'' or ''Aluritja'', which bore pejorative connotations.
According to Kenny (2013), "The people living to the immediate west of the Western Aranda called themselves Kukatja or Loritja at the turn of the twentieth century. Today they call themselves Luritja or Kukatja-Luritja when referring to their ancestry and history.
Country
According to an estimate made by
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist.
Life
Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
, the Kukatja of the Northern Territory (Luritja) had tribal lands covering some . Their territory is immediately west of the Derwent River, that formed their frontier with the Arrernte. He defined them as dwelling west of the
Gosse Range and
Palm Valley on the south
MacDonnell Ranges
The MacDonnell Ranges, or Tjoritja in Arrernte, is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory. MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an interim Australian bioregion broadly encompassing the mountain range, with an area of .< ...
. Their southern limits went as far a
Tempe Downs and they ranged southwest to
Lake Amadeus
Lake Amadeus (together with Lake Neale, Pitjantjatjara: ''Pantu'' ("salt lakes")) is a large salt lake in the southwest corner of Northern Territory of Australia, about north of Uluru. The smaller Lake Neale is adjacent to the northwest. It ...
, the
George Gill Range
George Gill Range is a mountain range in the southern part of Australia's Northern Territory, southwest of Alice Springs. It is an extension of the MacDonnell Ranges and consists mainly of sandstone.
In the southern part of the range there are ...
, th
Merandji (the Cleland Hills) and Inindi near Mount Forbes They were also present roun
Palmer, Walker and Rudall creeks.
According to
AUSTLANG
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...
, two areas of Luritja speakers have been distinguished: southern groups, whose language is influenced by
Yankunytjatjara language
Yankunytjatjara (also Yankuntatjara, Jangkundjara, or Kulpantja) is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages, belonging to the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the many varieties of the Western Desert Langu ...
, living south of
Hermmannsburg, and another group, referred to as
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 ...
-Luritja, whose traditional land lies north-west and west of Hermannsburg, including
Haasts Bluff
Haasts Bluff, also known as Ikuntji, is an Aboriginal Australian community in Central Australia, a region of the Northern Territory. The community is located in the MacDonnell Shire local government area, west of Alice Springs. At the 2006 ce ...
,
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 ...
,
Mt Liebig
Mount Liebig is a mountain with an elevation of in the southern part of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the highest peaks of the MacDonnell Ranges and was named by the explorer Ernest Giles after the German chemist Justus von ...
and
Kintore.
Land rights
The Luritja people established the Luritja Land Association in 1974, which was the first
Aboriginal land rights
Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenou ...
organisation in
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 ...
. In December 1993, around of land was purchased on behalf of the
traditional owners
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...
, including the
pastoral lease
A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands.
Australia
Pastoral lease ...
s, Tempe Downs and Middleton Ponds. Over 350 Luritja people lived or intended to live on the land.
Ethnography
The first sustained, fundamental
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
work on the Kukatja was done by the Lutheran missionary
Carl Strehlow, who produced six monumental volumes in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
on them and the neighbouring Arerrnte, published between 1907 and 1920.
The Luritja, together with other central Australian peoples, were the object of the first attempt to undertake an examination of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
's
psychoanalytic theories concerning "primitive" society in Australia when
Géza Róheim
Géza Róheim ( hu, Róheim Géza; September 12, 1891 – June 7, 1953) was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and anthropologist.
Considered by some as the most important anthropologist-psychoanalyst, he is often credited with founding the field of ...
did fieldwork among them for eight months in 1929.
Alternative names
* ''Aluratja.'' (
Iliaura
The Alyawarre, also spelt Alyawarr and also known as the Iliaura, are an Aboriginal Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. The Alyawarre are made up of roughly 1,200 associated peoples and actively engage in local tra ...
exonym)
* ''Aluratji.'' (
Ngalia exonym)
* ''Aluridi.'' (
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
Pitjantjatjara
The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) 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 vari ...
exonym)
* ''Aluridja''
* ''Gogadja''
* ''Gugada''
* ''Gugadja''
* ''Juluridja''
* ''Kukacha''
* ''Kukadja''
* ''Kukata'' (error)
* ''Lo-rit-ya''
* ''Loorudgee''
* ''Loorudgie''
* ''Loritja'' (
Aranda pejorative
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
)
* ''Luridja''
* ''Luritja, Luritcha, Loritcha''
* ''Lurritji''
* ''Uluritdja''
* ''Western Loritja''
Source:
Language
Luritja people speak the
Luritja language. The following are designated as Luritja words by
R. H. Mathews.
* ''kanala.'' (grey kangaroo)
* ''katu'' (father)
* ''malu.'' (red kangaroo)
* ''papa inura.'' (wild dog).
* ''papa.'' (tame dog)
* ''yako.'' (mother)
Notable people
*
Harold Thomas (born 1947), designer of the
Aboriginal flag
*
Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri
Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri (1954–2011) was a Pintupi- and Luritja-speaking Aboriginal artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings are held in major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia.
Life
Molly Juga ...
(1954–2011), an artist.
Footnotes
References
Sources
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{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory