Mimili is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in

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 ...

, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being

Amata According to Roman mythology, Amata (also called Palanto) was the wife of Latinus, king of the Latins, and the mother of their only child, Lavinia. In the Aeneid of Virgil, she commits suicide during the conflict between Aeneas and Turnus over ...

Pukatja Pukatja (formerly Ernabella) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Pipalyatjara, Fregon/Kaltjiti, ...

Kaltjiti Kaltjiti, formerly and also still known as Fregon, is an Aboriginal community in Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Ernabella/ ...

Indulkana Indulkana (also known as Iwantja, from Iwantja Creek) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Ernabella/Puka ...

and Pipalyatjara). At the 2016 Australian census, Mimili had a population of 243. After European settlement in the 19th century, there was a

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stat ...

on the land, which was named Everard Park. The station was purchased by the

South Australian government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

in 1972 before transferring it to 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 right ...

Geography

Mimili is situated in South Australia, within the APY, about west of the

Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; a distance of . Its northern and southern extremities are segments of Aus ...

and south of Alice Springs.

History and significance

According to the local

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 va ...

people, Mimili is the original name. The community grew around the Everard Park cattle station, and is surrounded by the rocky

Everard Ranges The Everard Ranges, officially known as The Everard Ranges, is a range of low rounded granite hills located in the Australian state of South Australia in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands about west of Mintabie. It is of Pa ...

. The land was handed back to the traditional owners in 1972. The settlement was funded by the federal government as an outstation during the 1980s.PDF
/ref>

Significance

The site, surrounded by the mountains, is a special place, or

sacred site Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...

, to the local Pitjantjatjara people, believed to be the site of the '' maku'' (witchetty grub) Dreaming. The maku is the local school's emblem.

Climate

Based upon the climate records of the nearest weather station at Marla Police Station, Mimili experiences summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.1 °C in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.7 °C in June. Overnight lows range from a mean minimum temperature of 21.8 °C in January to 5.0 °C in June. Annual rainfall averages 222.6 millimetres.

Demographics

, Mimili's population was 243. 69.8% of the people identified as

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

, 2.8% as

Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...

. 92.5% were born in Australia. 65% reported speaking

at home; 9.6% spoke only English at home. Of those available in the

work force The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic regio ...

, all were employed, about half of those being part-time. Roughly a quarter of those employed were managers, a quarter community and personal service workers and a quarter professionals.

Facilities

Mimili has an airstrip and a health facility known as Nganampa Health Mayatjar. There are council facilities. Diesel power generation facilities supply power to the community. Water is provided from 5 bores and placed in storage tanks for pumping to the community. The Mimili Anangu School has an enrolment of approximately 60 children. Attendance at the school benefited from the construction of a swimming pool in a joint Commonwealth / State Government initiative that was operational in September 2006 and officially opened the following month on 28 October 2006 by Minister Assisting the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

for Families, Communities and Indigenous Affairs

Mal Brough Malcolm Thomas Brough ( ; born 29 December 1961) is a former Australian politician. He represented the Liberal Party in the House of Representatives (1996–2007, 2013–2016) and held ministerial office in the Howard and Turnbull Governments. ...

. Mimili was the first community in the APY Lands to create a bush foods garden. The garden was a source of training and education for students of

technical and further education Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

(or "TAFE") in the Mimili area. Mimili has a permanent

South Australian 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 ...

police station, open seven days a week. A mobile polling booth visits Mimili for elections every four years to elect the

Parliament of South Australia The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly ( lower house) and the 22-seat Legislative Council (upper house). General elections are ...

. A permit is required for a member of the public to visit any community on the APY Lands, as they are freehold lands owned by the

Aboriginal people 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 ...

Art centre

Mimili Maku Arts is one of ten Indigenous-owned and -governed enterprises that go to make up the

APY Art Centre Collective Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or ''the Lands'', is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the aṉangu ...

, established in 2013. Its name derives from the Maku (

witchetty grub The witchetty grub (also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub) is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths. In particular, it applies to the larvae of the cossid moth ''Endoxyla leucomochla'', which fee ...

)

Tjukurpa The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his c ...

, which is found in the paintings of senior artists like Betty Kuntiwa Pumani (winner

National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) is Australia's longest running Indigenous art award. Established in 1984 as the National Aboriginal Art Award by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darw ...

-winner 2015 & 2016 and winner of the 2017

Wynne Prize The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. As one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne. Now held concurrently with the Sir John Sulman Prize ...

), Ngupulya Pumani (finalist NATSIAA 2015, finalist Wynne Prize 2017), Tuppy Goodwin (finalist NATSIAA 2018) and Puna Yanima.

People

*Zaachariaha Fielding of

Electric Fields Electric Fields are an Aboriginal Australian electronic music duo made up of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboard player and producer Michael Ross. Electric Fields combine modern electric-soul music with Aboriginal culture and sing in Pi ...

References

Further external links

* * * {{authority control Towns in South Australia Aboriginal communities in South Australia Australian Aboriginal missions Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara