Western Desert cultural bloc
- Western Desert cultural bloc
The Western Desert cultural bloc or just Western Desert is a cultural region in Australia covering about 600 000 square kilometres, including the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. The Western Desert can be said to stretch from the Nullarbor in the south to the Kimberley in the north, and from the Percival Lakes in the west through to the Pintupi lands in the Northern Territory.
It is often used by anthropologists when discussing the 40 or so Aboriginal groups that live there, who speak dialects of one language, called Wati or Western Desert language.
Apart from the Canning Stock Route and the Rabbit-proof fence, white contact with this part of Australia was very rare, up until the 1960s:
::"No one had been out there. The desert, as far as the Department [WA Dept of Suppy] was concerned... was an unknown, as it was to the whole of Western Australia. The Warburton Ranges [were] as far as anybody got. People in those days knew absolutely nothing about Aborigines." [Terry Long, Native Patrol Officer employed by Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) to help "clear" the desert beneath the trajectory of the Blue Streak missile, quoted in Davenport et al, below.]
Dialectal groups
* Antekarinja
* Kukatja
* Luritja
* Mandjildjara
* Mardu
* Ngaatjatjarra
* Ngaanyatjarra
* Nyanganyatjarra
* Pitjantjatjara
* Pintupi
* Spinifex people
* Wongatha
* Yankunytjatjara
References
Further reading
* Bendt, Ronald M. (1959). "The concept of 'The Tribe' in the Western Desert of Australia", Oceania, 30(2): 81-107.
* Davenport, S, Johnson, P and Yuwali, "Cleared Out: First Contact in the Western Desert", Aboriginal Studies Press, 2005 ISBN 0-85575-457-5
* Dusset, Laurent (2005). "Assimilating Identities: Social Networks and the Diffusion of Sections". Sydney: Oceania Publications, Monograph 57.
* Morgan, Margaret (1999). "Mt Margaret: A Drop in a Bucket". Lawson, NSW: Mission Publications of Australia ISBN 9780646342207 (out of print).
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