Pitjandjara (SA)

Ngadlu tampinthi ngadlu Kaurna Miyurna yartangka. Munaintya puru purruna ngadlu-itya. Munaintyanangku yalaka tarrkarriana tuntarri.

We acknowledge we are on Kaurna Miyurna land. The Dreaming is still living. From the past, in the present, into the future, forever.

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Pitjandjara (SA)

Archive Collections / Language Groups / Pitjandjara (SA)

Location: Mann and Tomkinson Ranges northwest to the eastern end of the Rawlinson Range, W. Aust.; west to the east side of Mount Hinckley and Wingelina; southwest to Mount Blyth, Birksgate Range, and near the north side of Lake Wright; east to Mounts Kintore and Caroline, Butler Dome, and Stevenson Peak; north to Lakes Amadeus, Neale, and Hopkins; in the western Musgrave Ranges east only to Oparinna. Kalaiapiti in the Mount Sir Thomas Range was their ultimate refuge prior to the 1914-1916 period of major drought during which they were driven to usurp the eastern Musgrave Ranges from the Jangkundjara, who were in turn by 1917 forced to shift southward, making the Everard Ranges their principal home; some then shifted south toward Ooldea and are now (1971) living at Yalata. The map shows their pre-1917 eastern boundary. In the 1940 map, because of an incorrect identification of the location of a native place name, I showed the western boundary too far to the west; this is now corrected. The presence of Pitjandjara at Areyonga and Tempe Downs in the Northern Territory is a late postcontact event. Five hordes are recognized-the Mulatara, Kurujulta, Maiulatara, Pibiri, and Wirtjapakandja; it was the last-named group that first usurped Jangkundjara territory. Sixteen mm films of two University of Adelaide Anthropological Expeditions in 1933 show activities of these people. Color plates 23, 28, and 40 are relevant. In a description of social organization (Tindale, 1972: 254), a typographical error on line 30 should be corrected to read '. . . Six separate terms belonging to differing four-class systems are known to them.'

Co-ordinates: 129°55'E x 26°0'S

Area: 23,000 sq. m. (59,800 sq. km.)

References: Wells, 1893; Basedow, 1908, 1925; C. Strehlow, 1910; Bates, 1918; Tindale, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1972, also, 1933, 1935, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1966 MSS; Fry, 1934; Finlayson, 1935 (2 references), 1958; Hackett, 1937; H. L. Taylor, 1939 MS; Wakerly in Berndt, 1941; Trudinger, 1943; Love, 1945; Mountford, 1948; Worms, 1951; Rose, 1956; Berndt, 1959; Meggitt, 1961; Tindale and Lindsay, 1963; Kirk et al., 1963; Capell, 1965; T. G. H. Strehlow, 1965; R. Berndt, 1965; C. Berndt, 1965; Jones, 1965; Munn, [1967]; Gale, 1966; Hilliard, 1968; Macfarlane, 1969; Tindale and George, 1971.

Alternative Names: Pitjandjadjara (extended form), Pitjantjatjara, Pidjandjara, Pitjindjatjara, Pitjinjara, Pitjentara, Pitjintara, Pitjendadjara, Pidjandja, Pitjanjarra, Pijandarra, Bidjandja, Bidjandjara, Bidjandjadjara, Bidjuwongga, Pitjinjiara, Pitjanzazara (z = arbitrary and unauthorized editorial substitution in Oceania for dj symbol), Wongapitjira, Wongga-pitja (Pitja speakers), Wongapitcha, Pitjantjara (simplified form adopted by Ernabella Mission in 1941), Pitdjandjara [sic], Peechintarra (daily press rendering in 1958), Pitjintjitjira (? typographical error), Wanudjara (name applied to Jangkundjara also, by Ngadadjara), Mulatara (Tomkinson and Blyth Ranges horde), Tjitiadjara (name applied by Ngadadjara), Wirtjapakandja (an eastern horde; name based on verb ['wirtjapakandji], to run, hence has the implication of 'refugees,' i.e., those who shifted their living area under pressure. The same term has been applied to some Jangkundjara people now living in the south), Partutu (name applied by the Pintubi), Nangatadjara (of the Warara Ngadadjara of the Rawlinson Range area), Mamu ('evil beings,' a name sometimes applied to them by the Jangkundjara), Mamoo, Pituari (a rarely used form), Ituarre (probably a faulty hearing of Pituari).