The Mandjildjara, also written ''Manyjilyjarra,'' 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

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

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 ...

's estimation the Mandjildjara's lands extended over some , running along what was later known as the

Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is the longest historic stock rou ...

, from Well 30 (''Tjundu'tjundu'') to Well 38 (''Watjaparni.'') It extended southwards some 50 miles as far the Tjanbari hill, and watering places they variously called ''Kolajuru, Karukada, Keweilba, and Kunkunba.'' They roamed eastwards as far as an unidentified waterhole known as ''Ngila.''

History of contact

According to Tindale, in 1964, the patrol officer,

Walter MacDougall Walter Batchelor MacDougall (6 April 1907 – 5 May 1976) was an Australian missionary and patrol officer who worked with the indigenous peoples in the desert regions of Western Australia and South Australia Biography MacDougall was born in Morni ...

came across a group of 9 aboriginal women at a place called Imiri in the area known as

Percival Lakes The Percival Lakes form a string of "S" shaped ephemeral salt lakes in the north of Western Australia. They lie at the southern region of the Great Sandy Desert and east of Karlamilyi National Park. They stretch in an east-west direction for and ...

, who identified themselves as Mandjildjara. At the time the whole area had suffered from severe drought conditions for over a decade, leading large numbers of desert peoples, often identified generically as

Pintubi 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 ...

, to trek or straggle eastwards to places like Balgo and Papunya.

Alternative names

* Mandjiltjara, Mantjiltjara, Mandjildara, Mantjildjara, Manjiljara. * Manyjilyjarra.

Notes

Citations

Sources

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