Luritja facts for kids

A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920)

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.

The Northern Territory Kukatja were often referred to in the ethnographical literature by Arerrnte exonyms for them, either Loritja or Aluritja, which bore pejorative connotations.

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."

Country

According to an estimate made by Norman Tindale, the Kukatja of the Northern Territory (Luritja) had tribal lands covering some 10,300 square miles (27,000 km²). Their territory is immediately west of the Derwent River, that formed their frontier with the Arrernte. He defined them as dwelling west of the Gosse Range 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.

According to AUSTLANG, two areas of Luritja speakers have been distinguished: southern groups, whose language is influenced by Yankunytjatjara language, living south of Hermmannsburg, and another group, referred to as Pintupi-Luritja, whose traditional land lies north-west and west of Hermannsburg, including Haasts Bluff, Papunya, Mt Liebig and Kintore.

Land rights

The Luritja people established the Luritja Land Association in 1974, which was the first Aboriginal land rights organisation in Central Australia. In December 1993, around 4,750 square kilometres (1,830 sq mi) of land was purchased on behalf of the traditional owners, including the pastoral leases, Tempe Downs and Middleton Ponds. Over 350 Luritja people lived or intended to live on the land.

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.

Alternative names

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 229

Language

Luritja people speak the Luritja language. The following are designated as Luritja words by R. H. Mathews.

• kanala (grey kangaroo)
• katu (father)
• malu (red kangaroo)
• papa inura (wild dog)
• papa (tame dog)
• yako (mother)

Notable people

• Harold Thomas (born 1947), designer of the Aboriginal flag
• Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri (1954–2011), an artist