The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporarily formed grouping of several distinct
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
peoples of the northern
Flinders Ranges
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna.
The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhab ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. The
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the
Wailpi but the contemporary grouping also includes the
Guyani,
Jadliaura,
Pilatapa and sometimes the
Barngarla
The Barngarla, (historically also spelled as Parnkalla or Pangkala), are an Indigenous people of South Australia and the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula. Their language, Barngarla is a Yura language and part of a revival effo ...
peoples. The origin of the name is in the words "adnya" ("rock") and "matha" ("group" or "group of people").
Adnyamathanha
The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporarily formed grouping of several distinct Aboriginal Australian peoples of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi but th ...
is also used to refer to their traditional language, although Adnyamathanha people themselves call their language "yura ngarwala" (roughly translated as "our speech") and refer to themselves as "yura".
There is a community of Adnyamathanha people at
Nepabunna
Nepabunna, also spelt Nipapanha, is a small community in the northern Flinders Ranges in north-eastern South Australia, about north of Adelaide. It is located just west of the Gammon Ranges, and the traditional owners are the Adnyamathanha peopl ...
, just west of the
Gammon Ranges, which was established as a
mission station
A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...
in 1931. The Adnyamathanha people have run
Nantawarrina IPA, the first
Indigenous Protected Area
An Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is a class of protected area used in Australia; each is formed by voluntary agreement with Indigenous Australians, and declared by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander representative organisation ...
in Australia, since 1998.
Country
According to
David Horton's map "Aboriginal Australia" (largely based on that of
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...
), the Adnyamathanha lands lie on the west banks of
Lake Frome
Lake Frome / Munda is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, long and wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total s ...
and extend south and west over the northern
Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park and northwards over the
Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park. One Adnyamathanha account describes their lands as "from the Northern Flinders south to
Port Augusta
Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...
and as far east as
Broken Hill
Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...
".
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...
estimated the ancestral country to cover approximately .
On the northern edges of the Adnyamathanha tribal lands are the
Diyari
The Diyari (), alternatively transcribed as Dieri (), is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre.
Language
Diyari is classified as one of the ...
lands, on the western edges are the
Kokatha
The Kokatha, also known as the Kokatha Mula, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. They speak the Kokatha language, close to or a dialect of the Western Desert language.
Country
Traditional Kokatha lands extend ov ...
lands. To the south are the
Barngarla
The Barngarla, (historically also spelled as Parnkalla or Pangkala), are an Indigenous people of South Australia and the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula. Their language, Barngarla is a Yura language and part of a revival effo ...
(also sometimes included in the Adnyamathanya group),
Nukunu
Nukunu are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia, living around the Spencer Gulf area. In the years after British colonisation of South Australia, the area was developed to contain the cities of Port Pirie, South Australia, Port Piri ...
, and
Ngadjuri
The Ngadjuri people are a group of Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lie in the mid north of South Australia with a territory extending from Gawler in the south to Orroroo in the Flinders Ranges in the north.
Name
Their ethn ...
. To the east are the
Malyangapa
The Malyangaapa are an Indigenous Australian people who live in the far north western areas of the state of New South Wales.
Language
The Malyangapa spoke a dialect of the Yarli language.
Country
Malyangaapa country extends over some with its ...
.
On 30 March 2009, the Adnyamathanha people were recognised by the
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indictable (mo ...
as having
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 to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of ab ...
rights over about running east from the edge of
Lake Torrens
Lake Torrens ( Kuyani: ''Ngarndamukia'') is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf.
...
, through the northern Flinders Ranges, approaching the South Australian border with
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
.
Nantawarrina IPA, the first Indigenous Protected Area in Australia, was established in 1998, with extensive work done by
Indigenous ranger
Indigenous ranger programs enable First Nations people across Australia to protect and manage their land, sea and culture through a combination of traditional knowledge with Western science and conservation practices.
Introduced by the Australia ...
s to restore the land and protect the native
flora and fauna
An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been pro ...
since then.
In 2016,
Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park was renamed from Flinders Ranges National Park in recognition of its Adnyamathanha heritage. The word ''ikara'' means "meeting place" in
Adnyamathanha language
The Adnyamathanha language (pronounced ), also known as yura ngarwala natively and Kuyani, also known as Guyani and other variants, are two closely related Australian Aboriginal languages. They are traditional languages of the Adnyamathanha of ...
, and refers in this instance to
Wilpena Pound
Wilpena Pound ("Ikara" in the Adnyamathanha language) is a major natural amphitheatre of mountains located north of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia in the heart of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. Its fringe is accessible by a sea ...
(situated within the park), a traditional meeting place of the Adnyamathanha people.
People
The ethnonym Adnyamathanha was, according to Tindale, an alternative name for the
Wailpi, but the contemporarily formed grouping also includes the
Guyani (Kuyani),
Jadliaura (Yardliyawara),
Pilatapa, and, according to the people themselves, the
Pangkala (Barngarla) peoples.
The name Adnyamathanha means "rock people", with "adnya" meaning "rock" and "matha", a "group" or "group of people", in the
Adnyamathanha language
The Adnyamathanha language (pronounced ), also known as yura ngarwala natively and Kuyani, also known as Guyani and other variants, are two closely related Australian Aboriginal languages. They are traditional languages of the Adnyamathanha of ...
, and is a term referring to the Lakes Culture societies living in that area. They share common ancestral bonds of language and culture, they call ''Yura Muda''. Adnyamathanha people often refer to themselves as "yura", and non-Aboriginal people as "udnyu".
Language
Adnyamathanha is a member of the
Thura-Yura language family and the only one which still has fluent native speakers.
Mythology and astronomy
Traditional mythology of the origins of the Adnyamathanha is told through
creation stories
A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Cre ...
, passed down from generation to generation. The primordial
creator figure of the
rainbow serpent
The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the Creator deity, creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many List of Australian Aboriginal group names, different Aborigina ...
is, among them, known as ''akurra''.
The
Pleiades
The Pleiades (), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an Asterism (astronomy), asterism of an open cluster, open star cluster containing young Stellar classification#Class B, B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Tau ...
(Seven Sisters) are known to them as the ''Makara'', seen as a group of
marsupial
Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...
-like women with pouches, while the
Magellanic Clouds
The Magellanic Clouds (''Magellanic system'' or ''Nubeculae Magellani'') are two irregular dwarf galaxies in the southern celestial hemisphere. Orbiting the Milky Way galaxy, these satellite galaxies are members of the Local Group. Because both ...
are known as ''Vutha Varkla'', seen as two male lawmen also known as the ''Vaalnapa''.
Traditionally, the Adnyamathanha bear strong respect for lizards such as geckoes and
goannas. This is explained in myth as the cannibal sun goddess
Bila having been defeated by the
Lizard Men Kudnu and Muda.
History of contact
Pastoralist from the British colonies reached Adnyamathanha lands prior to 1850. In 1851, the first colonial leases were granted for colonists to settle some of the area. One recent account claims this led to many conflicts because Adnyamathanha people were pushed off their land by the Europeans, who lived on
pastoral lease
A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands.
Austral ...
s established by the
colonial government. In response to the loss of their land, food and water, Aboriginal people stole sheep, which in turn led to retaliatory killings. Contrary to this account, Adnyamathanha people soon became
stockmen and housekeepers and Adnyamathanha people adopted western dress and ways by the 1900s.
Some Adnyamathanha retained strong links to their language and culture and would gather at the campsite and
ration
Rationing is the controlled distribution (marketing), distribution of scarcity, scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resourc ...
depot at Mount Serle Station (Atuwarapanha), a
significant cultural site to speak in their languages and pass on their lore. After rations stopped, they relocated to Ram Paddock Gate (Minerawuta) during the 1920s. After the
Nepabunna Mission was established by the
United Aborigines Mission
The United Aborigines Mission (UAM) (also known as UAM Ministries, United Aborigines' Mission (Australia), and United Aborigines' Mission of Australia) was one of the largest missions in Australia, having dozens of missionary, missionaries and st ...
in 1931, most of the residents of Ram Paddock moved there. Some Nepabunna Mission residents worked at
R. M. Williams's workshop nearby, where
Williams developed his trademark boots and horse-riding equipment, helping to build his business in the first two years of its existence.
In 2011, on the 80th anniversary of the establishment of Nepabunna, there were a few people alive who had been born when it was a mission, the eldest being Ronald Coulthard, then aged 80.
Records of culture
A
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...
anthropological expedition travelled to Nepabunna in May 1937 led by
J.B. Cleland
Sir John Burton Cleland Order of the British Empire, CBE (22 June 1878 – 11 August 1971) was a renowned Australian natural history, naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist and ornithologist. He was Professor of Pathology at the University of ...
and including
Charles P. Mountford as
ethnologist
Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology).
Scien ...
and
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs.
Duties and types of photograp ...
, botanist
Thomas Harvey Johnston
Thomas Harvey Johnston (9 December 1881 – 30 August 1951) was an Australian biologist and parasitologist. He championed the efforts to eradicate the invasive Opuntia, prickly pear.
Life and times
Johnston was born in 1881 at Balmain, Sydney, ...
, virologist
Frank Fenner
Frank John Fenner (21 December 1914 – 22 November 2010) was an Australian scientist with a distinguished career in the field of virology. His two greatest achievements are cited as overseeing the eradication of smallpox, and the attempted cont ...
and others. Mountford was especially interested in the Adnyamathanha people's art,
mythology
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
and
rituals
A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
. He came back later in the year and many times thereafter, recording
Adnyamathanha language
The Adnyamathanha language (pronounced ), also known as yura ngarwala natively and Kuyani, also known as Guyani and other variants, are two closely related Australian Aboriginal languages. They are traditional languages of the Adnyamathanha of ...
and culture. The
Mountford-Sheard Collection in the
State Library of South Australia
The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research li ...
(inscribed in
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
's
Memory of the World
UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...
programme in 2008) has a large collection of handwritten
journals
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
, photographs,
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...
and film recordings gathered by him from and about the people.
Exhibition
An exhibition entitled "Unsettled: Colonial Ruin in the Flinders Ranges", described as "a critical examination of settler-colonial nostalgia in the Flinders Ranges, within an artistic context", was mounted by the
State Library of South Australia
The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research li ...
in partnership with the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association in March–May 2017. It included many photographs taken by Mountford on the 1937 and subsequent trips to the Flinders. The photos were complemented by story-telling by descendants of the people represented, including Terrence Coulthard (see Notable people, below).
Coulthard design flag
In 2011, a flag was created by Vince Coulthard and has been mistakenly claimed to be the flag of the Adnyamathanha peoples but was only adopted by the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association. The flag was raised at Nepabunna on the 80th anniversary of its establishment.
Notable people
*
Adam Goodes
Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, d ...
, four-time
All-Australian
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...
AFL
AFL may refer to:
Education
* Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity
* Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi''
* Assessment for learning
Military
* ...
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
, stated he is an Adnyamathanha and
Narungga man.
*
Rebecca Richards, the first Aboriginal
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Esta ...
, is an Adnyamathanha and
Barngarla
The Barngarla, (historically also spelled as Parnkalla or Pangkala), are an Indigenous people of South Australia and the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula. Their language, Barngarla is a Yura language and part of a revival effo ...
woman.
*
Regina McKenzie is an artist who, in 2006, had two pieces acquired by the
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...
of Adnyamathanha Dreaming Storylines and who, in 2016, was awarded the Peter Rawlinson award for her outstanding contribution to protection of country by the
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability.
One high-profi ...
.
*
Juanella McKenzie, artist and daughter of Regina McKenzie, had two works (containing similar storylines subject matter) acquired by the
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...
in 2008, and in early 2019 at the age of 29, Juanella was acquired into the National Museum of Scotland with a bark painting she did using traditional methods depicting women's business. She won an Achievement award from
TAFE NSW
TAFE NSW is an Australian vocational education and training provider. Annually, the network trains over 500,000 students in campus, workplace, online, or distance education methods of education. It was established as an independent statutory bod ...
in 2019, a category of the Gili (pronounced kill-ee) Awards which celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal students, as well as the accomplishments of TAFE NSW employees and innovative programs that have empowered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. She won
Country Arts SA
Country Arts SA is statutory corporation created by the South Australian government under the provisions of the ''South Australian Country Arts Trust Act (1992)'', for the purpose of delivering arts to regional South Australia. Responsibility for ...
’s 2020 Breaking Ground visual arts development award, and her work ''Yurndu (Sun)'' which uses the traditional technique of weaving
emu
The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...
feathers, was selected as a finalist for the
Ramsay Art Prize at the
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...
in 2021.
*
Terrence and
Josephine Coulthard, authors of the first Adnyamathanha/English
bilingual dictionary
A bilingual dictionary or translation dictionary is a specialized dictionary used to Translation, translate Word (linguistics), words or phrases from one language to another. Bilingual dictionaries can be ''unidirectional'', meaning that they list ...
, published in November 2020. The family runs the Iga Warta
cultural tourism
Cultural tourism is a type of tourism in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the cultural attractions and products offered by a tourist destination. These attractions and products relate to the ...
enterprise, near Nepabunna.
*
Faith Thomas AM (née Coulthard; 1933 – 15 April 2023) was an Australian cricketer and hockey player.
She was also a nurse in regional South Australia. Thomas is known for being the first Indigenous woman to represent Australia in any sport as well as her distinguished service to the Australian Indigenous community.
See also
*
List of Indigenous Australian group names
This list of Australian Aboriginal group names includes names and collective designations which have been applied, either currently or in the past, to groups of Aboriginal Australians. The list does not include Torres Strait Islander peoples, wh ...
*
Nepabunna, South Australia
*
Adnyamathanha language
The Adnyamathanha language (pronounced ), also known as yura ngarwala natively and Kuyani, also known as Guyani and other variants, are two closely related Australian Aboriginal languages. They are traditional languages of the Adnyamathanha of ...
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
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{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of South Australia
Flinders Ranges