Balgo, previously Balgo Hills and Balgo Mission, is a community in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

that is linked with both the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

and the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbr ...

. The community is in the Shire of Halls Creek, off the Tanami Road, and was established by German missionaries in 1939. In the Balgo's population numbered 430.

History

The community was established following the arrival of German Pallottine Catholic missionaries in the region in 1939. Following the

outbreak of World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Australian government designated the missionaries "

enemy aliens In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

" and their radio transmitter and firearms were confiscated by police. After earlier sites proved to be unsatisfactory, the present site was chosen, in 1942. The settlement was funded by the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

as an outstation during the 1980s, along with Yagga Yagga outstation.PDF
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Indigenous people and language

The name Balgo may have been derived from the Kukatja language word , meaning rice grass, which grows nearby. The Kukatja dialect of the Western Desert Language is the first language for many people at Balgo, with the name deriving from the Kukatja (Gugadja) people. There is a Kukatja dictionary published by Luurnpa Catholic School, and at the school's Walkala Centre,

audio book An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

s are created in both Kukatja and English. Balgo is a multicultural community of Aboriginal peoples, with seven other

language groups A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in ...

besides Kukatja represented: there are

Ngardi The Ngardi, also spelled Ngarti, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Name and grouping Arthur Capell took the term ''Ngardi'' to refer, not to a distinct tribe, but to a branch of the Warlpiri ...

Djaru The Djaru people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language Djaru is a member of the Ngumbin language family, and is related to Walmajarri. Country The Djaru people ranged along Ma ...

Warlpiri Warlpiri may refer to: * Warlpiri people, an indigenous people of the Tanami Desert, Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Au ...

, Walmajarri, Wangkajunga,

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into ...

and Ngaatjatjarra residents. In 2019, scientists from the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = ...

were undertaking a research project on the Kukatja language, the local lingua franca which is fluently spoken "by residents of all ages and across at least seven tribal groups". Researchers were recording conversations and mapping the language, believing that Kukatja could provide clues to how languages are spread around the world. Dr Luis Miguel Rojas Berscia believed that the mission, as in other places such as the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mau ...

could be the common thread, bringing different ethnic groups together in isolated spots. Work was being done on developing a dictionary and teacher's guide.

Artists

During the 1980s, Balgo became famous for its artists' cooperative which was established when some of the original members of the

Papunya Tula Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative ...

movement were allowed to leave

Papunya Papunya ( Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art ...

. Some of the artists from Balgo include Susie Bootja Bootja Napaltjarri, Topsy Gibson Napaljarri,

Eubena Nampitjin Eubena Nampitjin (July 1, 1921 – March 11, 2013) was an Australian Aboriginal painter. Born on the Canning Stock Route in remote Western Australia, she was the third of six children, and was taught to be a traditional healer by her mother; as ...

, Elizabeth Nyumi, Boxer Milner, Tjumpo (Bill) Tjapanangka and "Helicopter" Tjungurrayi. Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation was established in Balgo 1987, and represents more than 300 artists in Balgo, Kururrungku (Billiluna), and Mulan, who work in a variety of media and styles. The art centre, which is the oldest of its kind in Western Australia, celebrated its 35th anniversary with a special exhibition, ''Ngurra Kutjuwarra (On Country Together)'', in August 2022, after being isolated for most of the two and a half years of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 January ...

. the manager is UK-born Poppy Leaver. John Carty of the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cu ...

has had a relationship with Warlayirti Arts since around 2002. In the early 1980sm a group of Kukatja and

men in Balgo painted their stories on wooden boards, which somehow disappeared for years. In 2019, more than 20 of these works by were discovered by chance in a

sea container Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the ...

in Wyndham, away. After the South Australian Museum (SAM) was advised of the find, the paintings, which were in very poor condition, were carefully restored by Artlab in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. In October 2021 they were included in an exhibition at the museum called ''Balgo Beginnings'', which also included new works by descendants of the original artists. Sales of a monograph, ''Balgo: Creating Country'', by John Carty of the SAM, was launched along with the exhibition, with royalties being donated towards providing a dialysis service in Balgo.

Governance

The community is managed by Wirrimanu Aboriginal Corporation, which was incorporated on 6 September 1984 under the ''Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976''. Balgo falls within the determined Tjurabalan People (WCD2001/001)

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 under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, t ...

claim area. The town plan, ''Balgo Layout Plan No. 3'', was prepared in accordance with State Planning Policy 3.2 and was endorsed by the community and the

Western Australian Planning Commission The Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) is an independent statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia that exists to coordinate strategic and statutory planning for future urban, rural and regional land use. The author ...

in 2005.

Facilities

It has a petrol station, supermarket, Catholic parish, Luurnpa Catholic School (K–10), Kutjungka Trade Training Centre, clinic and police station. Balgo Hill Airport is located south of Balgo. In January 2020 the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...

announced an upgrade to the Tanami Road and its feeder roads. Conversion of the main road from

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

into a sealed road will improve safety and comfort for drivers on the stretch from the Halls Creek junction, which is the only route to nearby regional centres and for the transport of essential supplies to the community. Work on a new tourist road in Balgo has already begun, which will be used by local tour guides taking visitors to sacred lands.

History

Indigenous people and language

Artists

Governance

Facilities

References

Further reading