The Kartudjara 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

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a g ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

Country

The Kartudjara's traditional lands extended over from ''Madaleri'', north of

Kumpupintil Lake Kumpupintil Lake (pronounced ''goom-bu-pin-dil''), formerly known as Lake Disappointment, is an endorheic salt lake located in the Little Sandy Desert, east of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Description Kumpupintil Lake is about lon ...

around Well 22 down southwest towards ''Pulpuruma'' (Well 12). Their western boundary lay on the southern side of the

Rudall River The Rudall River ( Wanman: ''Karlamilyi'') is an ephemeral river in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The entire length of the river is located within the boundaries of the Karlamilyi National Park, which straddles the Little Sandy Des ...

(''Karlamilyi'') as far as the Robertson Range and the eastern headwaters of both the

Jigalong Jigalong is a remote Aboriginal community of approximately 333 people located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Location Jigalong is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, approximately east of the town of Newman in the Sh ...

and Savory Creeks. The country was characterized by endemic parallel sand-dune formations.

History

Around the 1890s the Kartudjara pressured the

Niabali The Niabali, otherwise written ''Nyiyaparli,'' are an indigenous Australia tribe of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Language Their language is called Nyiyaparli. It was customary to classify it as one of the Ngayarda languages until Alan ...

to their northwest, off Savory Creek, forcing them to move roughly to Balfour Downs. The Kartudjara thereafter went on to water at the

, which became in time their northern frontier. Their neighbours beyond the mulga were the spinifex plainsmen, the

Wanman One-person operation (OPO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one-man operation (OMO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), similarly to Driver Controlled Operation, is operation of a train, bus ...

and the Nyangumarta. The Kartudjara became, in recent times, one of the two core constituent tribal groups forming the Martu. That term actually signified 'northerners', but originally was used primarily to denote people who had undergone initiation rites to become fully-fledged tribesmen. Some Kartudjara were received as 'lawmen' by the coastal peoples to their west in the post-war period, since they, like other desert tribes, had conserved the traditional ceremonial lore that had been lost to tribes on the Indian Ocean's coastal areas.

Alternative names

* ''Katudjara, Katatjara, Kardudjara.'' * ''Gadudjara.'' * ''Walmala.'' * ''Orailku.'' * ''Ngadari.''('strangers'.)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Canning Stock Route Mid West (Western Australia)