A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920)
The LuritjaorLoritja people, also known as KukatjaorKukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal 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 27,000 square kilometres (10,300 sq mi). Their language is the Luritja dialect, a Western Desert language.
The name Kukatja or Kukatj is one shared by four 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,[b] either LoritjaorAluritja, which bore pejorative connotations.[2][c]
According to Kenny (2013), "The people living to the immediate west of the Western Aranda called themselves Kukatja or Loritja at the turn of the twentieth century. Today they call themselves Luritja or Kukatja-Luritja when referring to their ancestry and history.[3]
According to an estimate made by Norman Tindale, the Kukatja of the Northern Territory (Luritja) 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][d] 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 Luritja people established the Luritja Land Association in 1974, which was the first Aboriginal land rights organisation in Central Australia. In December 1993, around 4,750 square kilometres (1,830 sq mi) of land was purchased on behalf of the traditional owners, including the pastoral leases, Tempe Downs and Middleton Ponds. Over 350 Luritja people lived or intended to live on the land.[6]
The first sustained, fundamental ethnographic work on the Kukatja was done by the Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow, who produced six monumental volumes in German on them and the neighbouring Arerrnte, published between 1907 and 1920.
^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)
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. ISBN978-1-760-46132-4. JSTORj.ctt1ws7wn5.17.
