Kiwirrkurra, gazetted as Kiwirrkurra Community, is a small community in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in the

Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, largely in an almost pristine state. It is about in size, making it the fifth largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami and Simpson deserts. The ...

, east of

Port Hedland A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

and west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

. It had a population of 165 in 2016, mostly

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...

, 2075.0 – Census of Population and Housing – Counts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2016 (Microsoft Excel spreadshee

/ref> It has been described as the most remote community in Australia. The main service provider is

Ngaanyatjarra The Ngaanyatjarra, also known (along with the Pini) as the Nana, are an Indigenous Australian cultural group of Western Australia. They are located in the Goldfields-Esperance region, as well as Northern Territory. Language Ngaanyatjarra is ...

Council area, although outside of the boundary of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.

History

It was established around a bore in the early 1980s as a

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 th ...

settlement, as part of the

outstation movement An outstation, homeland or homeland community is a very small, often remote, permanent community of Aboriginal Australian people connected by Aboriginal kinship, kinship, on land that often, but not always, has social, cultural or economic signi ...

, and became a permanent community in 1983. It was one of the last areas with

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

Aboriginal people until about that time, the

Pintupi Nine The Pintupi Nine are a group of nine Pintupi people who remained unaware of European colonisation of Australia and lived a traditional desert-dwelling life in Australia's Gibson Desert until 1984, when they made contact with their relatives ne ...

. It was flooded in early 2000, and further flooding between 3 and 5 March 2001 forced the evacuation of its population of 170, first briefly to Kintore and then for four weeks to

NORFORCE The NORFORCE (North-West Mobile Force) is an infantry regiment of the Australian Army Reserve. Formed in 1981, the regiment is one of three Regional Force Surveillance Units (RFSUs) employed in surveillance and reconnaissance of the remote areas ...

's base in

and finally to Morapoi Station in the Goldfields of Western Australia, SSW of Kiwirrkurra. The stay in Alice Springs and Morapoi brought the community into contact with alcohol for the first time and led to violence and social disruption. By late 2002 the community had moved back to Kiwirrkurra. On 19 October 2001 the Kiwirrkurra people gained

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 ...

over of the surrounding land and waters. On 19 June 2009, a 26-year-old man from Kiwirrkurra was the first Australian to die of the

2009 flu pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1/swine flu/influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, was the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918� ...

; he was initially treated in Alice Springs hospital but he died in

Royal Adelaide Hospital The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), colloquially known by its initials or pronounced as "the Rah", is South Australia's largest hospital, owned by the state government as part of Australia's public health care system. The RAH provides tertiary hea ...

. A

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Catholic boys' school,

CBC Fremantle Christian Brothers College Fremantle is an Independent Catholic secondary school for young men, located in Ellen Street site, in the coastal community surrounding Fremantle, Western Australia. The school traces its origins back to 1882, and in ...

, has established an immersion partnership program with the local Kiwirrkura community to further Indigenous relations, improve local facilities and further the students' social and pastoral developments. Students and teachers organise trips about once a year. The Kiwirrkura community worked to establish the Kiwirrkurra

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 ...

, which was formally launched in September 2014.

Location and description

The settlement is located in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia, east of Port Hedland and west of Alice Springs. Although it is situated outside of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, Kiwirrkurra is affiliated with the Ngaanyatjarra Council. It is one of 11 communities in the council area. Although situated in a desert, it is in a low-lying area without drainage, and thus prone to flooding. The residents of the settlement are

, and speak the

Pintupi language Pintupi () is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the varieties of the Western Desert Language (WDL). Pintupi is a variety of the Western Desert Language spoken b ...

, one of several

Western Desert language The Western Desert language, or Wati, is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama–Nyungan family. The name ''Wati'' tends to be used when considering the various varieties to be distinct languages, ''Western Desert'' w ...

Naming

Although the community name is gazetted as "Kiwirrkurra Community" and this is the usual spelling, a more accurate reflection of the way the Pintupi speaking community members say the name (according to the standard Pintupi orthography) is "Kiwirrkura" and this spelling is used in many printed materials especially technical works dealing with the language.

Facilities

There is a school campus called Kiwirrkurra Campus, with three teachers and 24 students as of 2021. The school teaches Pintupi language and culture. One school principal manages the school along with nine others across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in the Western Desert region of WA, collectively known as Ngaanyatjarra Lands School.

Notable people

Takariya Napaltjarri Takariya Napaltjarri (also known as Takirriyanya or Doris) (born ) is an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has painted with Papunya Tula artists' cooperative. First exhibited in 1996, her work is held in the collectio ...

(born ) – Indigenous artist *

Ningura Napurrula Ningura Napurrula (born c.1938 – 2013) was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert, whose work was internationally acclaimed. Her works included a site-specific commission for the ceiling of the Musée du Quai ...

( – 2013) – Indigenous artist

References

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Indigenous Protected Areas of Western Australia Aboriginal communities in Pilbara