Anmatyerr

For other uses, see Anmatyerre (disambiguation).

The Anmatyerre (or Anmatjera , also Anmatyerr, Anmatjirra, or Amatjere) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory, who speak one of the Upper Arrernte languages.

Language

The Anmatyerre are said to speak dialects of Upper Arrernte, broken into the phonetically distinct Eastern Anmatyerr and Western Anmatyerr.

Country

In 1974 the traditional lands of the Anmatyerre people in N.B. Tindale's Aboriginal Tribes of Australia were described as covering an area of 11,200 square miles (29,000 km²). He specifies its central features as encompassing the Forster Range, Mount Leichhardt (Arnka), Coniston, Stuart Bluff Range to the east of West Bluff; the Hann and Reynolds Ranges (Arwerlt Atwaty); the Burt Plain north of Rembrandt Rocks and Connor Well. Their eastern frontier went as far as Woodgreen. To the northeast, their borders lay around central Mount Stuart (Amakweng) and Harper Springs.

People

Anmatyerre communities located within the region include Nturiya (Old Ti Tree Station), Ti-Tree Pmara Jutunta (6 Mile), Willowra, Laramba (Napperby Station) and Alyuen. What is today known as the Anmatyerre region has significant overlap with Warlpiri, Arrernte and Alyawarr language communities. Many people come from two or three different language groups. The Utopia community, 250 km north east of Alice Springs, and set up in 1927, is partly on Alyawarre land, partly on land of the Anmatyerre.

As a specialist in Arandic culture and language T. G. H Strehlow also worked with Anmatyerr people throughout his career, recording much of their ceremonial traditions.

Alternative names

• Nmatjera
• Unmatjera (mainly an Aranda exonym)
• Imatjera
• Anmatjara
• Urmitchee
• Janmadjara/Janmadjari (Warlpiri exonym)
• Janmatjiri. (Pintupi exonym)
• Yanmedjara, Yanmadjari.

Notable Anmatyerre

• Gwoya Jungarai, aka "One Pound Jimmy", was the first named Aboriginal person to appear on an Australian postage stamp, in 1950.
• Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, stepsons of Gwoya Jungarai, were Anmatyerr artists credited as leaders of the Contemporary Indigenous Australian art movement.
• Emily Kngwarreye was an Anmatyerr artist who lived at Utopia community.
• Kathleen Petyarre, Gloria Petyarre, and Jeanna Petyarre and two other sisters, nieces of Emily Kngwarreye, are well-known Alyawarre / Eastern Anmatyerre artists, also at Utopia.
• Minnie Pwerle was an Alyawarre / Anmatyerre artist.

Sources

• Breen, Gavan (2001). "Chapter 4: The wonders of Arandic phonology". In Simpson, Jane; Nash, David; Laughren, Mary; Austin, Peter; Alpher, Barry (eds.). Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages (pdf). Pacific Linguistics 512. ANU. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. (Pacific Linguistics). pp. 45–69. ISBN 085883524X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Meggitt, M. J. (September 1955). "Notes on the Malngjin and Gurindgi aborigines of Limbunya, Northern Territory". Mankind. 5 (2): 45–50. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1955.tb01418.x. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Meggitt, M. J. (August 1961). "The Bindibu and Others". Man. 61: 143. JSTOR 2796739. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred (1911). "Marriage and descent in North Australia". Science of Man. 13–14 (3–4). Sydney: 63–64, 81–82. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Spencer, Sir Baldwin; Gillen, Francis J. (1904). Northern Tribes of Central Australia (PDF). Macmillan Publishers. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Strehlow, T. G. H. (1947). Aranda traditions. Melbourne University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Strehlow, T. G. H. (1965). "Culture, social structure, and environment". In Berndt, R. M.; Berndt, C. H. (eds.). Aboriginal Man in Australia. Angus & Robertson. pp. 121–145. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Anmatjera (NT)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Northern Territory Govt
• Anmatjerre Community Government Council