Ngangkari are the

traditional healer A folk healer is an unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional practices, herbal remedies and the power of suggestion. The healer may be a highly trained person who pursues their specialties, learning by study, observa ...

s of the Anangu, the

Aboriginal peoples 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 ...

who live mostly in the

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara 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 ...

(APY Lands) of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, 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 o ...

and the Western Desert region, which includes parts of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

and

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 th ...

. The word in the

Arrernte language Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are ...

s of Central Australia is ngangkere. Ngangkari have been part of Aboriginal culture for thousands of years, and attend to the physical and psychic health of Anangu.

Background

Ngangkari have nurtured the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of their people for thousands of years. The term applies to traditional healers of the Anangu, who live mostly in the APY Lands, which encompass about of South Australia, and are part of the

Western Desert cultural bloc The Western Desert cultural bloc or just Western Desert is a cultural region in central Australia covering about , including the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory, So ...

of Aboriginal peoples. The variant spelling, ngangkere, is used in translating the Arrernte languages. To become a ngangkari you must be "born into" the ability, and both the ability and knowledge are passed on through family lines. Elders choose ngangkari at birth, and pass on their cultural knowledge. The powers ngangkari are given, called ''mapanpa'', heal spiritual as well as physical ailments. Before

colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

the Anangu were fit, happy and healthy; living their traditional lifestyle of hunting, gathering and eating traditional foods. In these times the ngangkari were primarily needed for simple injuries such as burns and people who had been in the sun too long, but that role has changed significantly. Following colonisation, and the introduction of a number of

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

s, being moved off

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

, and the introduction of drugs and alcohol (and associated issues), ngangkari are having to work harder than ever to help their people and adjust to these new demands.

Contemporary application

The ngangkari tradition continues to the present day, with ngangkari continuing to help people from their communities as well as in hospitals,

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, English language in England, standard English, Australian English, Australian, and Huron Historic Gaol, historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention cen ...

s, hostels and a variety of health services. Ngangkari also work in partnership with the western health system in order to deliver the best health and wellbeing outcomes for their people. Using ngangkari in partnership with

western medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

has proven to be very successful and in some places, including the

Royal Adelaide Hospital The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), colloquially known by its initials or pronounced as "the Rah", is South Australia's largest hospital, owned by the state government as part of Australia's public health care system. The RAH provides tertiary hea ...

. Ngangkari healers are popular with clients from different backgrounds, assisting with

pain management Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain (pain relief, analgesia, pain control) in various dimensions, from acute and simple to chronic and challenging. Most physicians and other health professionals pr ...

and relief and, especially for Aboriginal patients, improving attendance rates at medical appointments.

Word of the year shortlisting

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 va ...

word ''ngangkari'', defined as an

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

practitioner of bush medicine, was short-listed for the

Macquarie Dictionary The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' () is a dictionary of Australian English. It is generally considered by universities and the legal profession to be the authoritative source on Australian English. It also pays considerable attention to New Zealand ...

2019 word of the year.

Notable ngangkari

Ngangkari include Pitjantjatjara artists

Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, (circa 1920–2008) was an Pitjantjatjara artist from Central Australia who didn't start painting on canvas until he was 85 years old. He painted from his adopted home of Mount Liebig and soon became internationally succ ...

and Betty Muffler of

Iwantja Arts 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/ Puk ...

, whose work was featured in the 2020 Tarnanthi exhibition as well as on the cover of the September 2020 issue of ''

Vogue Australia ''Vogue'' ''Australia'' is the Australian edition of ''Vogue'' magazine. ''Vogue Australia'' became the 4th edition of Vogue in 1959 after '' Vogue'', ''British Vogue'' and ''Vogue Paris''. Prior to becoming a stand-alone issue, the Australian edi ...

''. Muffler has a reputation of being one of the best ngangkari in the APY lands, and her healing powers have been in demand to help with anxiety caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

(2020–2021).{{cite web , title=Betty Muffler: hope and healing. , website= National Gallery of Australia , first1=Kelli, last1= Cole, first2= Aidan, last2= Hartshorn , date=5 January 2021 , url=https://medium.com/national-gallery-of-australia/betty-muffler-hope-and-healing-146f4bf0430c , access-date=12 July 2021, quote=This interview was first published in the Spring 2020 edition of ''Artonview''.

References

Indigenous Australian culture