The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-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.
Name
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 Loritja or Aluritja, 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]
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]
Ethnography
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.