The Matuntara are an

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 ...

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 ...

Language

Though called "Southern Luritja", the Matuntara seems to have been Antakarinya.

Country

Norman Tindale estimated the Matuntara tribal lands to cover approximately . Their nomadic lives were spent south of the Levi Range around the Palmer River tributary of the Finke River. Their eastern extension ran over to Erldunda, while their westerly boundary lay at Curtin Springs. Their lands extended across what is now the border, into

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 ...

. Their neighbours to the south were the Antakirinja. Their neighbours to the northwest were the

Gugadja The Kukatja people, also written Gugadja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Country The Kukatja's traditional lands were, according to Norman Tindale, roughly , centering around Lake Gregory, an ...

, with whom they are sometimes confused, being considered by some early explorers to have been a southern

horde Horde may refer to: History * Orda (organization), a historic sociopolitical and military structure in steppe nomad cultures such as the Turks and Mongols ** Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s ** Wings of the Golden Hord ...

of the latter.

History

The Matuntara at one point in time, around the turn of the 19-20 century, absorbed a branch of the

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 ...

known as the ''Maiulatara''clan, when the latter migrated eastwards to Tempe Downs from their grounds that lay to the north of the Petermann Range.

Alternative names

* ''Matutara'' * ''Matjutu'' * ''Maduntara''(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, ...

). * ''Madutara, Maiulatara'' ( Antakirinja and

Yankuntjatjarra The Yankunytjatjara people, also written Yankuntjatjarra, Jangkundjara, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. Language Yankunytjatjara is a Western Desert language belonging to the Wati lan ...

) * ''Maiuladjara'' * ''Southern Loritja'' * ''Aluna'' (Pitjantjatjara name for those who spoke the Matuntara language) * ''Ku'dadji'' (Again a Pitjantjatjara term distinguishing them from the Mangawara)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory