Draft:Desert Cultural Area

Desert Cultural Area

The Desert Cultural Area is one of 17 cultural areas in Australia, located entirely within the Outback. It is home to 42 Aboriginal tribes, grouped as a culturally similar entity with a lifestyle distinct from those in surrounding cultural areas. Named "Desert" due to its location in arid regions, it includes the Simpson Desert, Gibson Desert, Great Sandy Desert, and several smaller deserts.^[1]

Living conditions in the desert created differences from other cultural areas, affecting food sources, camp mobility, and roaming areas. Variations exist within the cultural area, particularly between the Western Desert and the Central Desert around Alice Springs. Harsher conditions in the Western Desert led tribes to migrate in smaller groups over longer distances compared to the relatively water-rich Central Desert. Linguistic differences also exist between Western Desert languages and other languages in the cultural area.^[1]

Despite differences among Aboriginal cultures across regions, similarities include a predominantly nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, stone tools without metalworking, a spiritually complex life centered on the Dreamtime and totems, and a structured kinship system with defined marriage rules and land responsibilities.^[2]

European settlement began 100–150 years later than in most of Australia, starting around 1870 and, in some areas, as late as 1930. Encounters with Europeans involved dispossession, violent conflicts, and attempts at assimilation into towns. From the 1970s, laws enabled Aboriginal people to reclaim land, and the 1980s Outstation Movement saw many return from settlements. Due to late settlement and inhospitable conditions, traditional culture and languages persist in parts of the Desert Cultural Area, unlike in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, where much traditional knowledge has been lost.^[2]

Delimitation

Plain approximately 40 km east of Mount Conner

In the 1976 proposal for cultural areas of Australia, the Western Desert was a separate cultural area, while the Central Desert, largely overlapping with the Red Centre, was part of the Eyre cultural area. Anthropologist Nicolas Peterson used watercourse routes to define cultural areas, arguing that spaces between watercourses act as natural barriers, fostering social and cultural exchange within areas but limiting it between them. The Western and Central Deserts are now combined due to their shared aridity, which shapes living conditions.^[3]

The Desert Cultural Area spans about 40% of Australia's mainland, with a diameter over 2,000 km. It covers large parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, northwest South Australia, and a small part of Queensland. It is the largest cultural area by surface area but has the lowest population density at 0.05 inhabitants per km².^[3]

Permanent water sources are scarce, mainly in the MacDonnell Ranges, near Uluṟu and Kata Tjuṯa, and along rivers like the Finke River, which retains surface waterholes in dry seasons. The Central Desert accesses the Great Artesian Basin. Aridity limited food supply, with few large animals like kangaroos and emus available. Lizards, snakes, and witchetty grubs were primary protein sources, while women collected seeds from plants like mulga for flour and baked goods, alongside bush tomatoes and fruits like bush plums, integral to bush food.^[3]

History

Background

Spinifex hut at a base camp

The Kimberley region in northwest Australia is considered the starting point of Aboriginal settlement. The deserts were likely settled from Kimberley around 35,000 years ago during a warmer period of the last Ice Age, when Australia and New Guinea formed Sahul via a land bridge.^[4]

Rock overhangs, known as rock shelters, provided protection

Artifacts, primarily stone spearheads and axes, indicate settlement. Early examples were hewn, later ones polished with fastening grooves. The Puritjarra site, 75 km west of the MacDonnell Ranges, yielded stone tools and ochre dated to 35,000 years ago by thermoluminescence dating and 32,400 years ago by radiocarbon dating. Fewer artifacts from 22,000–13,000 years ago suggest reduced use during the high aridity of the Younger Pleistocene. From 6,000 years ago, artifacts like handled axes and fixed grinding stones indicate increased settlement.^[4]

Other sites, like Puntutjarpa and Serpents Glen in the Gibson Desert, show early settlement but no evidence from the Ice Age maximum. The desert was likely inhabited 35,000–30,000 BP, abandoned around 24,000 BP except in refuges like the MacDonnell and Warburton Ranges, and re-inhabited for about 10,000 years.^[4]

Couple with child; the woman carries a coolamon, the man holds a spear and woomera

Linguists suggest the Western Desert was settled within the last 1,000 years from the west coast, meeting the Arrernte tribe. The Western Desert Language shares only 20% of its vocabulary with the Arrernte language, supported by blood group genetic studies indicating distinct populations. Tools and rock carvings show no significant regional differences.^[4]

Over the last 1,000–1,500 years, a more sedentary lifestyle emerged, with groups of up to 200 meeting at base camps near water for ceremonies and trade, exchanging items like shell beads from the north coast to South Australia. Therreyererte in the Simpson Desert was a key site for initiation rites post-rainy season. Smaller groups of 5–20 migrated along sparse water sources, camping for days or weeks.^[4]

First reports from Europeans

Processed Riji shells traveled across Australia on trade routes

Until 1930, few Europeans ventured into central Australia. Diseases like the 1789 smallpox epidemic, likely from Makassar, Indonesia, reached the desert, as did epidemics in 1820, 1860, and 1870, but low population density reduced their impact.^[5]

A Western Arrernte man

The first European expedition, led by Charles Sturt with John McDouall Stuart from August 1844 to December 1845, sought an inland sea. In 1848, Ludwig Leichhardt disappeared while seeking a Queensland–Perth route. Stuart's expeditions (1858–1862) aimed to find cattle land and a route for the Trans-Australian Telegraph Line. Encounters with Aborigines were rare, with Stuart noting their avoidance through signs like fires and burnt grass.^[5]

Other explorers, including William Gosse, Ernest Giles, and Peter Warburton in the 1870s, reported hostile encounters, with Aborigines attacking with spears.^[5]

Settlement by white people, first scientific work

The telegraph line, built in 1870–1871, led to permanent settlement around Alice Springs. South Australian cattle farmers claimed land along the Finke and Hugh Rivers, employing Aborigines as cattle drivers for food and goods like flour, tea, and tobacco. A mining boom began in 1886 with supposed ruby finds, followed by a 1887 gold rush. Gold prospectors formed partnerships with Aboriginal women, likely spreading diseases like syphilis and gonorrhoea, contributing to population decline.^[6]

Researchers Walter Baldwin Spencer (1894, Horn Expedition) and Francis James Gillen, a telegraph station master, documented Arrernte culture, alongside Carl Strehlow, Moritz von Leonhardi, and Theodore George Henry Strehlow. The Great Northern Railway, completed in 1920, further developed the area.^[7]

Change in lifestyle, resistance

Until 1930, Aboriginal lifestyles were largely undisturbed due to sparse European presence. Cattle farming disrupted ecology, causing extinction of 14 of 29 mammal species and half of plant species. Aborigines killed cattle for food and to resist settlement, culminating in the 1928 Coniston massacre, where an estimated 31 Warlpiri, Anmatyerre, and Kaytetye were killed.^[6]

Contact in the Western Desert was limited until the 1960s, except along the Canning Stock Route and during Rabbit-Proof Fence construction.^[6]

Mission stations, reserves, partial sedentariness, preservation of culture

Hermannsburg, 1923

Aborigines sought food and medical care in mission stations during the 1926–1930 drought, adopting a sedentary lifestyle for work in cattle farming. Reserves, managed by Aboriginal Protection Boards, encouraged abandoning hunter-gatherer traditions.^[8]

Missions and reserves were controversial, providing food and schooling but forcibly assimilating mixed-race children and spreading diseases like typhoid, tuberculosis, diphtheria, influenza, and measles. The Finke River Mission in Hermannsburg (1877–1982), run by Lutheran missionaries, preserved Western Arrernte culture through works by Carl and Theodore Strehlow. The Ernabella Mission (1937–1974, Pitjantjatjara region) offered medical care and education without mandating Christianity. The Jigalong Mission (1946–1969) forcibly separated children, leading to a 1967 investigation and closure in 1969.^[8]

Nuclear tests in Maralinga (1950s–1960s) displaced Pila Ngura, with undocumented health impacts from radioactive fallout.^[8]

Outstation Movement and Situation Today

The 1960s land rights movement led to the 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1981 Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act, and 1984 Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act, enabling land reclamation. The Outstation Movement saw Aborigines return to traditional lands, living in a mix of sedentary and nomadic lifestyles, using government-funded houses and water pumps, and hunting with modern tools. Income comes from government funds and mining licenses, but isolation has worsened medical care and education.^[9][10]

Small primary schools exist in remote areas, but secondary schools are limited to Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, with over 50% of 15-year-olds leaving school compared to 20% in cities. The School of the Air provides radio and internet education. Medical care relies on community nurses and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Aboriginal life expectancy is 15 years below the national average, with high rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.^[9]

Unemployment is 10% among Aborigines, higher than the 3% national average, though mining provides jobs. Social issues include alcohol abuse, petrol sniffing, violence, and sexual assault, with Aboriginal communities facing significantly higher risks. Many communities are "dry," and opal fuel, developed in 2005 by British Petroleum, reduces substance abuse. The 2007 Northern Territory National Emergency Response enforced medical screenings following reports of child abuse.^[9]

Religion

Arrernte men, some decorated for a corroboree

Early missionaries, like Friedrich Kempe (1885), claimed Aborigines lacked religion, but by the 1930s, anthropologists recognized their spiritual practices. The Arrernte term alcheringa (meaning "law," "eternity," or "dreaming") led to the concept of Dreamtime, describing how Ancestor Beings shaped landscapes and established laws via songlines, which guide navigation to water and food sources. Most Dreamtime knowledge is secret, revealed through initiation. The Pitjantjatjara Uluru myth is a rare published example.^[11][12]

Rituals and kinship systems vary in detail but align with broader Aboriginal practices, emphasizing social and religious obligations.^[11]

Art

Panaramitee-style petroglyphs

Panaramitee-style rock carvings at Uluru

Central and Western Desert petroglyphs often follow the Panaramitee style, with abstract dots, lines, and circles symbolizing Dreamtime tracks or water sources. Figurative carvings depict secular themes like hunting. Notable sites include Ewaninga (40 km south of Alice Springs) and Cleland Hills Faces (320 km west). Their age is debated, possibly exceeding 10,000 years. Since 1971, Luritja and Pintupi from Papunya have adapted these motifs into dot painting.^[5]

Rock painting

Rock paintings, often small and repeated, cover large areas in the Central Desert, like Emily Gap and Ngama (Warlpiri territory). Central Desert art is more varied, using bichromatic or monochromatic red and white ochre, with negative handprints absent in the Western Desert. Paintings, tied to Dreamtime sites like Caterpillar Dreaming at Emily Gap, mark social significance and group cohesion. Their age is uncertain due to weathering and ritual renewal.^[13]

Contemporary art

Albert Namatjira in Sydney

Albert Namatjira, founder of the Hermannsburg School, painted watercolors of the Western MacDonnell Ranges from the 1930s, inspiring others in Hermannsburg. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's dot painting fetched AUS$2.5 million, while Emily Kngwarreye from Utopia advanced the style. Art provides income but has faced criticism for exploitation, though it preserves culture and boosts community cohesion.^[14]

Coolamon with dot painting

Language

The cultural area features dialects of three Australian languages: Western Desert Language (Pintupi, Luritja [1500 speakers], Ngaanyatjarra [1000], Pitjantjatjara [2600], totaling 7300); Arandic (Arrernte [2800], Anmatyerre [1000], totaling 5500); and Warlpiri (2500, part of Northern Desert Fringe Area Languages, 4500). Most belong to the Pama-Nyungan family. Over 60% of remote area Aborigines speak an Australian language, compared to under 1% in cities like Sydney. Bilingual school programs, introduced in the 1970s, have faced funding cuts since the late 1990s.^[15]

See also

• Deserts of Australia

References

1. Austin-Broos, Diane (2009). Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia [Arrernte heute, Arrernte gestern: Invasion, Gewalt und Vorstellungskraft bei den Ureinwohnern Zentralaustraliens] (in German). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-03264-1.
2. Broome, Richard (2002). Aboriginal Australians: Black Responses to White Dominance, 1788–2001 [Aborigines Australiens: Reaktionen der Schwarzen auf die Vorherrschaft der Weißen, 1788–2001] (in German). Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-755-6.
3. Charlesworth, Maxwell John; Dussart, Françoise; Morphy, Howard (2005). Aboriginal Religions in Australia: An Anthology of Recent Writings [Aboriginal-Religionen in Australien: Eine Anthologie aktueller Schriften] (in German). Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5128-2.
4. Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development (in German). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47378-0.
5. Veth, Peter Marius; Smith, M. A.; Hiscock, Peter (2005). Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives (in German). Malden: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-0091-5.
6. Gill, Sam D. (1998). Storytracking: Texts, Stories, & Histories in Central Australia (in German). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511587-2.
7. Flood, Josephine (2006). The Original Australians. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74114-872-5.
8. Gould, Richard A. (1980). Living Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23093-4.
9. Layton, Robert (1989). Uluru - An Aboriginal History of Ayers Rock. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 0-85575-202-5.
10. "Population Characteristics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: Education". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2006. Archived from the original on March 17, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
11. Lee, Richard B. (1968). Man the Hunter. Chicago: Aldine Transaction. ISBN 0-202-33032-X.
12. "The health and welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2005" (PDF). Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. 2005. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2009. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
13. Lilley, Ian (2006). Archaeology of Oceania: Australia and the Pacific Islands. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23083-1.
14. Mulvaney, Derek John; Kamminga, Johan (1999). Prehistory of Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86448-950-2.
15. Rowse, Tim (2002). White Flour, White Power: From Rations to Citizenship in Central Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52327-3.

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Categories:

• Australian Aboriginal culture
• Deserts of Oceania