The Ngurrara and Ngururrpa are overlapping groupings of

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 Isl ...

peoples of the Great Sandy Desert, in the central

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 ...

and southern Kimberley regions of Western Australia. Both groups are represented by various

Aboriginal corporation A Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) is a corporation nominated by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people for the purposes of native title in Australia, to represent their native title rights and interests, once that ...

s which look after their

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

interests.

Name

The ethnonym ''Ngurrara'' signifies "home". ''Ngururrpa'' means "our country in the middle".

Country and people

The word Ngurrara refers to their native country, properly called ''Mawurritjiyi'', the word for the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored b ...

. The Ngurrara comprise the

Walmajarri The Walmadjari (Walmajarri) people, also known as Tjiwaling and Wanaseka, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Name The two names reflect different Walmadjari preferences. Their western bands accept ...

, Wangkatjunga (aka Martu Wangka),

Mangala Mangala (Sanskrit: मङ्गल, IAST: ) is the personification, as well as the name for the planet Mars, in Hindu literature. Also known as Lohita (), he is the celibate deity of anger, aggression, as well as war. According to Vaishnavism, ...

and Juwaliny (a dialect of Walmajarri) language groups. Peoples of the Walmajarri, Wangkatjunga,

Ngarti The Ngardi, also spelled Ngarti, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Name and grouping Arthur Capell took the term ''Ngardi'' to refer, not to a distinct tribe, but to a branch of the Warlpiri, a ...

and Kukatja language groups have called their country Ngururrpa.

Native title

Ngurrara

In ''Kogolo v Western Australia'' (2007) the Ngurrara won recognition of their

rights to . They presented their case by drawing a large painting of their land, Ngurrara, inscribed with figures from their mythological history associated with various points. Their land is under the custodianship of the Yanunijarra Aboriginal Corporation. There are several other native title claims under the Ngurrara name, some overlapping or shared with other groups, such as the Martu people. ''Helicopter Tjungarrayi and Ors on behalf of the Ngurra Kayanta People v The State of Western Australia'' (2012) and ''Bobby West & Anor v State of Western Australia'' (2015), jointly known as the Ngurra Kayanta claim, was determined in 2016/7, granting native title over an area of in the Great Sandy Desert north of Karratha. Ngurra Kayanta (Aboriginal Corporation) RNTBC is the trustee for this land.

Ngururrpa

Ngururrpa is the name used for a native title claim to land in the Great Sandy Desert, nearer the border with 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 ...

. In the case ''Payi Payi on behalf of the Ngururrpa People v The State of Western Australia'' (FCA 2113) on 18 October 2007, the Federal Court of Australia recognised the Ngururrpa people's exclusive native title rights over an area of over . The Parna Ngururrpa (Aboriginal Corporation) is the

RNTBC A Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) is a corporation nominated by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people for the purposes of native title in Australia, to represent their native title rights and interests, once tha ...

which acts as the trustee for the land.

Indigenous Protected Areas

The

Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area The Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area (Ngururrpa IPA), covering an area of in the far eastern area of the Pilbara region, in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia, was declared in October 2020. It includes all of the land included in the ...

(IPA), covering an area of in the far eastern side of the Pilbara, in the Great Sandy Desert, was declared in October 2020. The IPA comprises the whole of the 2007 Ngururrpa Native Title Determination.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Kimberley (Western Australia) Pilbara {{IndigenousAustralia-stub