Loritja
The Loritja or Luritja people, also known as Kukatja, are an Indigenous 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 10,300 square miles (27,000 km2). Their language is the Luritja dialect, a Western Desert language.
Name
The name Kukatja is one shared by 4 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.[2]
The Northern Territory Kukatja were often referred to in the ethnographical literature by Arerrnte exonyms for them,[lower-alpha 2] either Loritja or Aluritja, which bore pejorative connotations.[2][lower-alpha 3] In recent times, the use of Luritja or Kukatja-Luritja to define themselves and refer to their culture has become commonplace.[3]
Country
According to an estimate made by Norman Tindale, the Kukatja of the Northern Territory had tribal lands covering some 10,300 square miles (27,000 km2).[1] Their territory is immediately west of the Derwent River, that formed their frontier with the Arrernte.[3][lower-alpha 4] He defined them as dwelling west of the Gosse Range[4] 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.[1]
The Kukatja divided the year into four seasons, not by months, but in terms of heat or its absence: lurba/lurbaka was the cold period, followed by the warming period called mballangata. The hottestpeak, in summer, was known as mballaka/albobuka, followed by lurbagata.[5]
Ethnography
The first sustained, fundamental work on the Kukatja was done by the Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow who produced 6 monumental volumes in German on them and the neighbouring Arerrnte that were published between 1907 and 1920.
The Kukatja, together with other central Australian tribes, 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.[6]
Alternative names
- Aluratja. ( Iliaura exonym)
- Aluratji. (Ngalia exonym)
- Aluridi. (Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara exonym)
- Aluridja
- Gogadja
- Gugada
- Gugadja
- Juluridja
- Kukacha
- Kukadja
- Kukata (error)
- Lo-rit-ya
- Loorudgee
- Loorudgie
- Loritja (Aranda pejorative exonym)
- Luridja
- Luritja, Luritcha, Loritcha
- Lurritji
- Uluritdja
- Western Loritja
Source: Tindale 1974, p. 229
Some words
The following are designated as Kukatja (Loritja) words by R. H. Mathews.
- kanala. (grey kangaroo)
- katu (father)
- malu. (red kangaroo)[lower-alpha 5]
- papa inura. (wild dog).
- papa. (tame dog)[lower-alpha 6]
- yako. (mother)
Source: Mathews 1906, p. 120
Notes
- For the distinction see Tindale's remarks. (Tindale 1974, pp. 137–138)
- "Kukatja ist hier Eigennamen; es ist aber auch der Stammes-Name, den sich die Loritja beilegen. Loritja werden sie von den Aranda genannt." (Strehlow 1907, p. 57, n.9)
- "Suggestive of everything that is barbarian, crude, savage and generally speaking, non-Aranda." (Strehlow 1947, p. 52,cf.177)
- Kenny states that those Kukatja in these border lands had a greater overlap with their eastern neighbours:'Róheim (1974: 126) called these people 'Lurittya Merino', and noted that they were seen as 'half Aranda'. People who belong to this border area are still today fluent speakers of both Aranda and Loritja and share ancestors as well as traditional laws and customs.' (Kenny 2013, p. 20)
- Willshire's marloo. (Willshire 1891b, p. 44)
- Willshire's pup-pa. (Willshire 1891b, p. 44)
Citations
- Tindale 1974, p. 229.
- Tindale 1974, p. 137.
- Kenny 2013, p. 20.
- Hamacher & Goldsmith 2013, p. 304.
- Schulze 1891, p. 213.
- Morton 2017, pp. 202–206.
Sources
- Eylmann, Erhard (1908). Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien (PDF). Berlin: D.Reimer.
- Hamacher, Duane W.; Goldsmith, John (2013). "Aboriginal Oral Traditions of Australian Impact Craters" (PDF). Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 16 (3): 295–311.
- Kenny, Anna (2013). The Aranda's Pepa: An introduction to Carl Strehlow's Masterpiece Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien (1907-1920). Australian National University. ISBN 978-1-921-53677-9. JSTOR j.ctt5hgz6k.10.
- Leonhardi, M. von (1908). "Ueber einige Hundefiguren des Dieristammes in Zentral-Australien". Globus. 91: 378–380.
- Mathews, R. H. (1906). "Notes on some native tribes of Australia". Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 40: 95–129.
- Morton, John (2017). "Sigmund Freud, Géza Róheim and the Strehlows: Oedipal tales from Central Australian anthropology". In Peterson, Nicolas; Kenny, Anna (eds.). German Ethnography in Australia. Australian National University. pp. 195–222. ISBN 978-1-760-46132-4. JSTOR j.ctt1ws7wn5.17.
- Róheim, Géza (1976) [First published 1974]. Werner, Muensterberger (ed.). Children of the Desert: The Western Tribes of Central Australia. Volume 1. Harper Torchbooks.
- Schulze, L. (1891). "Aborigines of the Upper and Middle Finke River". Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia. 14: 210–246.
- Spencer, Sir Baldwin; Gillen, Francis J. (1899). Native tribes of Central Australia (PDF). Macmillan Publishers.
- Strehlow, C. (1907). Leonhardi, Moritz von (ed.). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien: Part 1 Mythen, Sagen und Märchen des Aranda –Stammes (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1908). Leonhardi, Moritz von (ed.). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien: Part 2. Mythen, Sagen und Märchen des Loritja–Stämmes (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1910). Leonhardi, Moritz von (ed.). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien Part 3 (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1913a). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien Part 4: Abteilung (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1913b). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien.: Part 4. 1 Abteilung: Stammbaum Tafeln (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, C. (1920). Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien: Part 5 (PDF). Joseph Baer & Co.
- Strehlow, T. G. H. (1947). Aranda traditions. Melbourne University Press.
- Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Kukatja (NT)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
- Willshire, W. H. (1891a). The Aborigines of Central Australia: with vocabularies of the dialects spoken by the natives of Lake Amadeus and of the western territory of Central Australia (PDF). Adelaide: C. E. Bristow, Government printer. pp. 1–38.
- Willshire, W. H. (1891b). Vocabulary of the Dialect Spoken by the Natives of the Country adjacent to Lake Amadeus in Central Australia (PDF). Adelaide: C. E. Bristow, Government printer. pp. 44–46.