The Matuntara are an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

people of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Language

Though called "Southern Luritja", the Matuntara seems to have been Antakarinya.

Country

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 Matuntara tribal lands to cover approximately . Their nomadic lives were spent south of the Levi Range around the Palmer River tributary of the

Finke River The Finke River, or Larapinta in the Indigenous Arrernte language, is a river in central Australia, whose bed courses through the Northern Territory and the state of South Australia. It is one of the four main rivers of Lake Eyre Basin and is th ...

. Their eastern extension ran over to

Erldunda Erldunda is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. History The property was established in the 1870s by Richard Warburton who stocked it in 1884, and the property re ...

, while their westerly boundary lay at

Curtin Springs Curtin Springs, formerly Mount Conner Station, is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in the Central Australia, Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Geography Occupying an area of , the working cattle statio ...

. Their lands extended across what is now the state border, into

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 ...

. Their neighbours to the south were the Antakirinja. Their neighbours to the northwest were the

Gugadja The Kukatja people, also written Gugadja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Country The Kukatja's traditional lands were, according to Norman Tindale, roughly , centering around Lake Gregory, and ...

, with whom they are sometimes confused, being considered by some early explorers to have been a southern

horde Horde may refer to: History * Orda (organization), a historic sociopolitical and military structure in steppe nomad cultures such as the Turks and Mongols ** Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s ** Wings of the Golden Hor ...

of the latter.

History

Some time around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Matuntara absorbed a branch of the

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...

known as the ''Maiulatara'' clan, when the latter migrated eastwards to Tempe Downs from their grounds that lay to the north of the Petermann Range. A notable Matuntara person is Tjintji-wara, who was a leader of her people.

Alternative names

* ''Matutara'' * ''Matjutu'' * ''Maduntara'' (pejorative

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

) * ''Madutara, Maiulatara'' ( Antakirinja and

Yankuntjatjarra The Yankunytjatjara people, also written Yankuntjatjarra, Jangkundjara, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. Language Yankunytjatjara is a Western Desert language belonging to the Wati lang ...

) * ''Maiuladjara'' * ''Southern Loritja'' * ''Aluna'' (Pitjantjatjara name for those who spoke the Matuntara language) * ''Ku'dadji'' (Again a Pitjantjatjara term distinguishing them from the Mangawara)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory