The Yankunytjatjara people, also written Yankuntjatjarra, Jangkundjara, and other variants, are an

Aboriginal Australian 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 Islands ...

people of the state of

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 ...

Language

Yankunytjatjara 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 la ...

is a Western Desert language belonging to the Wati language family of the Pama-Nyungan languages.

Country

According to the estimation of

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 Yankunytjatjara's tribal lands covered approximately . These lands took in the areas of the

Musgrave Ranges Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) and the Northern Territory ( MacDonnell Shire), extending into Western Australia. It is between the Grea ...

, with their eastern frontier around the

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 ...

Social organisation

Yankunytjatjara

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

terminology shares many common terms with the words for kinship in the

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 ...

dialects.

Alternative names

* ''Alinjera''. ('north') * ''Ankundjara'' * ''Everard Range Tribe'' * ''Jangkundjadjara'' * ''Jangundjara, Jankundjadjara, Jankunzazara'', ''Jankuntjatjara, Jankuntjatara, Jankundjindjara''. * ''Kaltjilandjara''. (a

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, ...

, but referring to the most southwestern of the Yankuntjatjarra hordes). * ''Nankundjara'' (typo?) * ''Wirtjapakandja'' * ''Yankunjara, Yangundjadjara, Janggundjara, Jangwundjara''. (typo)

Notable people

Eileen Kampakuta Brown Eileen Kampakuta Brown (born 1 January 1938) is an Aboriginal elder from Australia. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003Goldman Environmental Prize''Eileen Kampakuta Brown'' (Retrieved on 2 December 2007) together with E ...

, anti-nuclear activist and

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...

winner *

Yami Lester James Yami Lester (1941 – 21 July 2017) was a Yankunytjatjara man, an Indigenous person of northern South Australia. Lester, who survived nuclear testing in outback Australia, is best known as an anti-nuclear and indigenous rights advocate. M ...

, anti-nuclear and indigenous rights advocate *

Tali Tali Pompey Tali Tali Pompey (about 1945/47 – 16 November 2011) was an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She had a short career as an artist, beginning only in 2002. During this time, however, her work was taken in by several major public ga ...

, artist *

Whiskey Tjukangku Whiskey Tjukangku is an Australian Aboriginal artist from South Australia. He paints for Iwantja Arts, the community co-operative at Indulkana on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. He is an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people, ...

Language

Country

Social organisation

Alternative names

Notable people

Notes

Citations

Sources