Luritja
(Redirected from
Kukatja (Northern Territory)
)
The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an
Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte people, with their lands covering some 27,000 square kilometres (10,300 sq mi). Their language is the Luritja dialect, a Western Desert language
.
Name
The name Kukatja or Kukatj is one shared by four other distinct tribes throughout Australia. The root of the word seems to suggest pride in being "meat eaters" rather than people who scrounge for vegetables for sustenance.[2]
The Northern Territory Kukatja were often referred to in the
ethnographical literature by Arerrnte exonyms for them,[b] either Loritja or Aluritja, which bore pejorative connotations.[2][c]
According to Kenny (2013), "The people living to the immediate west of the Western Aranda called themselves Kukatja or Loritja at the turn of the twentieth century. Today they call themselves Luritja or Kukatja-Luritja when referring to their ancestry and history.[3]
Country
According to an estimate made by
Gosse Range[4] and Palm Valley
on the south
MacDonnell Ranges. Their southern limits went as far as Tempe Downs, and they ranged southwest to Lake Amadeus, the George Gill Range, the Merandji (the Cleland Hills) and Inindi near Mount Forbes. They were also present round Palmer, Walker, and Rudall creeks.[1]
According to
Land rights
The Luritja people established the Luritja Land Association in 1974, which was the first
traditional owners, including the pastoral leases, Tempe Downs and Middleton Ponds. Over 350 Luritja people lived or intended to live on the land.[6]
Ethnography
The first sustained, fundamental
ethnographic work on the Kukatja was done by the Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow, who produced six monumental volumes in German
on them and the neighbouring Arerrnte, published between 1907 and 1920.
The Luritja, together with other central Australian peoples, were the object of the first attempt to undertake an examination of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories concerning "primitive" society in Australia when Géza Róheim did fieldwork among them for eight months in 1929.[7]
Alternative names
- Aluratja. ( Iliaura exonym)
- Aluratji. (Ngalia exonym)
- Aluridi. (Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara exonym)
- Aluridja
- Gogadja
- Gugada
- Gugadja
- Juluridja
- Kukacha
- Kukadja
- Kukata (error)
- Lo-rit-ya
- Loorudgee
- Loorudgie
- Loritja (exonym)
- Luridja
- Luritja, Luritcha, Loritcha
- Lurritji
- Uluritdja
- Western Loritja
Source: Tindale 1974, p. 229
Language
Luritja people speak the
Luritja language. The following are designated as Luritja words by R. H. Mathews.[8]
- kanala (grey kangaroo)
- katu (father)
- malu (red kangaroo)[e]
- papa inura (wild dog).
- papa (tame dog)[f]
- yako (mother)
Notable people
- Aboriginal flag
- Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri (1954–2011), an artist.
Footnotes
- ^ For the distinction see Tindale's remarks. (Tindale 1974, pp. 137–138)
- ^ "Kukatja ist hier Eigennamen; es ist aber auch der Stammes-Name, den sich die Loritja beilegen. Loritja werden sie von den Aranda genannt." (Strehlow 1907, p. 57, n.9)
- ^ "Suggestive of everything that is barbarian, crude, savage and generally speaking, non-Aranda." (Strehlow 1947, p. 52,cf.177)
- ^ Kenny states that those Kukatja in these border lands had a greater overlap with their eastern neighbours:'Róheim (1974: 126) called these people 'Lurittya Merino', and noted that they were seen as 'half Aranda'. People who belong to this border area are still today fluent speakers of both Aranda and Loritja and share ancestors as well as traditional laws and customs.' (Kenny 2013, p. 20)
- ^ Willshire's marloo. (Willshire 1891b, p. 44)
- ^ Willshire's pup-pa. (Willshire 1891b, p. 44)
References
- ^ a b c Tindale 1974, p. 229.
- ^ a b Tindale 1974, p. 137.
- ^ a b Kenny 2013, p. 20.
- ^ Hamacher & Goldsmith 2013, p. 304.
- ^ C7.1 Luritja at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ "Luritja Land Fight wins Tempe Downs". Central Land Council, Australia. December 1993. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ Morton 2017, pp. 202–206.
- ^ Mathews 1906, p. 120
Sources
- Eylmann, Erhard (1908). Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien (PDF). Berlin: D.Reimer.
- Hamacher, Duane W.; Goldsmith, John (2013). "Aboriginal Oral Traditions of Australian Impact Craters" (PDF). Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 16 (3): 295–311. S2CID 118556709.
- Kenny, Anna (2013). The Aranda's Pepa: An introduction to Carl Strehlow's Masterpiece Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien (1907-1920) (PDF). JSTOR j.ctt5hgz6k.10.
- Leonhardi, M. von (1908). "Ueber einige Hundefiguren des Dieristammes in Zentral-Australien". Globus. 91: 378–380.
- S2CID 259733139.
- Morton, John (2017). "Sigmund Freud, Géza Róheim and the Strehlows: Oedipal tales from Central Australian anthropology". In Peterson, Nicolas; Kenny, Anna (eds.). German Ethnography in Australia. JSTOR j.ctt1ws7wn5.17.
- ISBN 9780465010424.
- Schulze, L. (1891). "Aborigines of the Upper and Middle Finke River". Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia. 14: 210–246.
- Spencer, Sir Baldwin; Gillen, Francis J. (1899). Native tribes of Central Australia (PDF). Macmillan Publishers.
- Strehlow, C. (1907). Leonhardi, Moritz von (ed.). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien: Part 1 Mythen, Sagen und Märchen des Aranda –Stammes (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1908). Leonhardi, Moritz von (ed.). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien: Part 2. Mythen, Sagen und Märchen des Loritja–Stämmes (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1910). Leonhardi, Moritz von (ed.). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien Part 3 (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1913a). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien Part 4: Abteilung (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1913b). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien.: Part 4. 1 Abteilung: Stammbaum Tafeln (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1920). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien: Part 5 (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Melbourne University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
- Willshire, W. H. (1891a). The Aborigines of Central Australia: with vocabularies of the dialects spoken by the natives of Lake Amadeus and of the western territory of Central Australia (PDF). Adelaide: C. E. Bristow, Government printer. pp. 1–38.
- Willshire, W. H. (1891b). Vocabulary of the Dialect Spoken by the Natives of the Country adjacent to Lake Amadeus in Central Australia (PDF). Adelaide: C. E. Bristow, Government printer. pp. 44–46.