Kitja (WA)

LocationOn Salmond, Chamberlain, and Wilson rivers; Macphee Creek north to Sugarloaf Hill, always on top of the plateau; west to the edge of the Bluff Face Range; east over the Durack Range to Lissadell and Turkey Creek Stations, south to High Range and headwaters of Stony River about Fig Tree Pool; on upper Margaret River above gorge in Ramsay Range; east to Hall Creek and Alice Downs. The terms Kitja and Lungga are of about equal status in the naming of this tribe and a source of some confusion to anthropologists. Capell (1940:404) uses them to denote separate tribes; inquiries suggest this is not correct. The Djaru usually call these people Lungga and a few accept the term without question; most of the others prefer Kitja. Color plate 41 is relevant.
Co-ordinates127°30'E x 17°15'S
Area12,500 sq. m. (32,500 sq. km.)
ReferencesMathews, 1899 (Gr. 6445), 1900 (Gr. 6447, 5975), 1901 (Gr. 6549, 6453), 1905 (Gr. 6545), 1908 (Gr. 6578); Giglioli, 1911; Bates, 1913; Terry, 1926; Radcliffe-Brown, 1930; Elkin, 1931, 1933; Kaberry, 1937, 1939; Davidson, 1938; Capell, 1939, 1940, 1956, 1963; Hernandez, 1941; Worms, 1950; Tindale, 1953 MS; Birdsell, 1954 MS; Davidson and McCarthy, 1957; Australian Encyclopedia, 1958; Maddox, n.d.; Playford, 1960; Berndt and Berndt, 1964; C. Berndt, 1965.
Alternative NamesKidja, Gidja, Ku:tji, Kuitji, Kuitj (of Ngarinjin), Gi:dj, Kwitj, Gwidji, Guidj, Guwidji, Kisah, Keha, Kisha, Kityu, Liej (? faulty hearing), ['Lunggar] (of Walmadjari, their name means 'rock wallabies'), Lungga (of southern tribes), Longga, Loonga, Langgu, Lunga, Lungu, Paljarri (a variant of one of the class terms in their social organization), Djarak (modern northern term for Kitja based on a white settler's family name, Djerag, Durackra (lapsus calami for Durack Range, based on early white settler family of that name), Tjarak (modern postcontact Ngarinjin name), Waringari (Ngarinjin term, means 'cannibals'; a general term also applied to Ola), Warrangari, Kutnalawaru (of western neighbors, has a rude meaning-['kudna] = dung), Miwa (language name ascribed to Kitja by Ngarinjin-means 'salt water'), Walki.
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