In the sandhill country south of the Warburton Range, deep in Western Australia's interior, lies the traditional land of the Mandjindja, also written Mantjintjarra or Manytjilytjarra. They belong to the Western Desert cultural bloc, whose members speak dialects of one language across a huge area of the arid interior. In recent decades they have pursued recognition of their land rights together with the Ngalia.
Country
Almost everything on record about Mandjindja country comes from estimates by Norman Tindale, whose figures for Western Desert peoples are not regarded as accurate. He put their land at about 21,000 square miles (roughly 54,000 square kilometres), beginning at a place called Papakula, marked on maps as Babbagoola Rockhole. To the west it reached Lakes Gillen and Throssell; Amy Rocks and the Saunders Range marked the south; and in the east it ran to a place called Lenga:na, perhaps east of the Sydney Yeo Chasm.
Language and names
The Mandjindja speak Mantjintjarra, one dialect of the Western Desert language, a chain of closely related and mutually intelligible varieties that also includes Ngaanyatjarra and Pitjantjatjara. Their neighbours had their own names for them. To Ngaanyatjarra speakers they and the Wenamba were the Kalgoneidjara, while Pitjantjatjara speakers used Nanggarangku, meaning "hostile men", for the Mandjindja and the Ngalia.
Movement to Kalgoorlie
The Mandjindja living today in Kalgoorlie may be descendants of Manyjilyjarra people driven out of the Gibson and Great Sandy deserts by a prolonged drought in 1906 and later, from the 1920s, made their way to Kalgoorlie and other towns. Kalgoorlie is one of several towns on the desert fringe where Western Desert people now live, alongside others such as Laverton and Meekatharra.
Native title
The Mandjindja and Ngalia have sought legal recognition of their rights through the Federal Court. An earlier claim, lodged in 1996, was dismissed. In March 2009 the joint Mantjintjarra Ngalia claim passed the registration test under the Native Title Act. The claim area runs west from Lake Wells to Lakes Darlot and Miranda, and takes in country from Cosmo Newberry and Leonora to Lake Barlee and north as far as Wiluna.
On our maps
Our maps draw approximate Mandjindja territory in 1600, 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783, 1800 and 1815, with the Ngaanyatjarra to the north and the Wangkatha to the south-west. The outline is especially uncertain because it rests on Tindale's estimates. The Martu, with whom the Kalgoorlie Mandjindja may share ancestry, live further north. See also Australia.
From the atlas
Mandjindja on our maps
Borders of Time draws Mandjindja on 7 of its 54 world maps, from 1600 CE to 1815 CE. Its largest extent is on the 1600 CE map, covering about 70,800 km² (27,300 sq mi), roughly the size of Ireland today.
On that map it borders Nakako, Ngaanyatjarra and Ngatatjara.
On the map before it appears (1530 CE), the same area belongs to the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers. On the map after its last appearance (1878 CE), it belongs to Western Australia (UK).
- 1600 CE70,800 km²
- 1650 CE70,800 km²
- 1700 CE70,800 km²
- 1715 CE70,800 km²
- 1783 CE70,800 km²
- 1800 CE70,800 km²
- 1815 CE70,800 km²
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did Mandjindja exist?
- It appears on the atlas’s maps from 1600 to 1815.
- Where was Mandjindja?
- At its largest, on the 1600 map, its land lies in today’s Australia (100%). On that map it borders Nakako, Ngaanyatjarra and Ngatatjara.
- How big was Mandjindja?
- Mandjindja was largest on the 1600 map, at about 70,800 km² (27,300 sq mi).