Around the town of Boulia in western Queensland lies the country of the Pitapita, whose name is also written Pitta Pitta. Their language is the best recorded of its local group, and in 2012 the Federal Court confirmed their native title across much of the Boulia district.
Country
The exact limits of Pitapita land are uncertain. The earliest detailed account, published by Walter Roth in 1897 after a period at Boulia, describes many small groups and local bands in a way later scholars found hard to map. Norman Tindale concluded that the Pitapita held about 2,700 square miles (roughly 7,000 square kilometres) in what is now the Shire of Boulia, stretching from Fort William southwards past Boulia for about fifty miles. Their land adjoined that of the Wanggamala people. Pitapita initiation rites traditionally included circumcision and subincision.
Language
Pitapita belongs to the Karnic group within the Pama–Nyungan family and was the best-described member of an eastern dialect group that also included Rangwa, Kunkalanya, Ngulupulu and Ringa-Ringa, and it is closely related to Wangka-Yutjurru further west. The Pitapita also used an elaborate sign language alongside speech. The word pituri, for a stimulant leaf chewed by Aboriginal people, has been claimed to come from Pitapita, though Roth recorded it as the neighbouring Yurlayurlanya term, noting that the Pitapita called the plant tarembola.
In 1979 the linguist Barry Blake reported only three remaining speakers, at Boulia and Mount Isa. The language is now thought to have no fluent speakers, but Roth's grammar and Blake's later work preserve a detailed record of it.
Contact and survival
The opening of the Boulia district to white settlement drove many groups off their land. Roth wrote that privation, disease, alcohol and guns had destroyed whole communities, and estimated that no more than about 200 Aboriginal people remained in the entire district by the time of his stay. Pitapita families nevertheless kept their identity and connection to country. In 2012 a Federal Court determination recognised their native title rights over about 30,000 square kilometres around Boulia.
On our maps
Our maps draw approximate Pitta-Pitta territory in 1600, 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783 and 1800, among the peoples of western Queensland; the Wangkangurru of the Simpson Desert, whose language is also Karnic, lie to the south-west, and the Gugu-Badhun far to the north-east. See also Australia.
From the atlas
Pitapita on our maps
Borders of Time draws Pitapita on 6 of its 54 world maps, from 1600 CE to 1800 CE. Its largest extent is on the 1600 CE map, covering about 43,900 km² (16,900 sq mi), roughly the size of Switzerland today.
On that map it borders the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers.
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 (1815 CE), it belongs to the New South Wales.
- 1600 CE43,900 km²
- 1650 CE43,900 km²
- 1700 CE43,900 km²
- 1715 CE43,900 km²
- 1783 CE43,900 km²
- 1800 CE43,900 km²
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did Pitapita exist?
- It appears on the atlas’s maps from 1600 to 1800.
- Where was Pitapita?
- At its largest, on the 1600 map, its land lies in today’s Australia (100%). On that map it borders the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers.
- How big was Pitapita?
- Pitapita was largest on the 1600 map, at about 43,900 km² (16,900 sq mi).