The Adnyamathanha are an Indigenous Australian people from the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, some 500km north of Adelaide. The Adnyamathanha people comprise many groups with distinct territories.
'Adnyamathanha' means 'Rock People' it is also the name of their traditional language. The language variations include Atnyamathanha, Adnyamatana, Adnjamathanha, Anyamatana, Keidnamutha, Gadnyamatana, Anyamitana, Anjimatana, Adnyamathnha, Unyamootha, Atnyaarlta. Other names for the people of the northern Flinders Ranges are based on the construction ' 'People's/This/My Language, and includes the variations Nimbalda, Archualda, and Yura Ngawarla, while the Adnyamathanha people often refer to themselves as Yura.
Brutal colonial incursions into Adnyamathanha territory in the 1850s, and the drying up or contamination of their waterholes because of the settlers’ agricultural practices, caused the Adnyamathanha’s displacement from their land, which was also attractive to the Europeans because of its high quality ochre and stone. Up until the 1970s many Adnyamathanha lived in the ‘outback ghettoes’ of the missions, and today the main locations for Adnyamathanha people are Nepabunna and Port Adelaide.
The BlackWords team have so far identified close to fifty authors and storytellers who identify as Adnyamanthanha. Prominent storytellers from Adnyamathanha communities who have had stories published in language and in bilingual editions include Pearl McKenzie,Gertie Johnson, Terrance Coulthard, Lynch Ryan and Annie Coulthard. Discover more Adnyamanthanha writers by choosing 'cultural heritage' in 'Personal Details' in the AustLit's 'Advanced Search'.
'Reminiscences of Molly Lennon (Ruth McKenzie) witnessing mothers killing; growing up at Bloods Creek, Eringa Station, Colebrook Home, marrying an Adnyamathanha man at Nepabunna.'
(...more)'Interview with the Swans player by some deadly students from Alexandria Park High School.' (Source: Indij Readers website)
(...more)Aboriginal Short Stories, No. 32 1990 contains stories of Aboriginal Australians from Melville Island, Bathurst Island, Roper River, Darwin, Maningrida, Groote Eylandt, Katherine, Alice Springs and the Flinders ranges.
Five of these stories Adnyamathanha Man, Full Initiation (Claude Demell's Biography), Interview With Claude Demell, Yuru Ngawarla : Interview with Murray Wilton and Nigger, Nigger : Interview with Buck McKenzie are from members of the Adnyamathanha people.
This short life story was found in the Aboriginal Heritage Newsletter, a periodical that was published by the Aboriginal Heritage Branch in South Australia in 1981.
Rachel Brady an Adnyamathanha woman, recounts some of her memories at the Nepabunna Mission, and her experiences of station life.
Mr McTaggart owned Wooltana Station although he was a good station owner and tried to get people jobs, however, he made a mistake that he didn't forget. He had shot Left-hand Billy's dog.
(...more)Not only was Walter Coulthard a storyteller, but he had also authored this short story that was published in the Yura newsletter, a publication that recorded myths and languages, etc among the Adnjamathanha people and lands of the Flinders Ranges.
This story is set before World War I, about a wealthy station owner Mr McTaggart who made a terrible mistake when he shot Left-hand Billy's dog.
'Adnyamathanha Country is in the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. People from the Adnyamathanha community have chosen to share one of their traditional stories. Yulu’s Coal is a Creation story that tells about Yulu, the Kingfisher Man, and of how parts of the Flinders Ranges came to be. The story is traditionally told in Adnyamathanha language and has been translated into English for Sharing our Stories.' (Source: cover)
(...more)A long time ago the crow and the magpie had beautiful white feathers like the white cockatoo. That was before they teased the eagle, who deserved more respect.
A tale from the Adnyamathanha people, The Magpie and the Crow, “is said to have taken place between Nepabunna and Angepenna in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.” The story explains the colors and markings of the magpie and the crow.
(...more)A tale from the Adnjamathanha people, this work is said to have taken place between Nepabunna and Angepenna in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.
'This book and CD is suitable for kindergarten through to adults. Includes 17 songs on CD and songbook with lyrics, guitar chords, melody line and lots of colour photos and teaching ideas.'
'Some songs are sung by Buck, an Adnyamathanha man from the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and some are sung by the South Australian Public Primary Schools 'Festival of Music' Choir and other students. Some songs are about Reconciliation, some tell Dreaming stories, some about feelings and some for fun.
(...more)First line from poem - "They are old and frail now"
Flinders Ranges Dreaming is an extensive collection of the traditional stories of the Adnyamathanha people of the Northern Flinders Ranges and adjacent plains. It contains over fifty stories and as many photographs and maps. It was initiated by Adnyamathanha young people who feared that they were in danger of losing their stories forever.
(...more)'The ‘Corner Country’, where Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales now converge, was in Aboriginal tradition crisscrossed by the tracks of the mura, ancestral beings, who named the country as they travelled, linking place to language. Reproduced here is the story of the two Ngatyi, Rainbow Serpents, who travelled from the Paroo to the Flinders Ranges and back as far as Yancannia Creek, where their deep underground channels linked them back to the Paroo. Jeremy Beckett recorded these stories from George Dutton and Alf Barlow in 1957.
(...more)The ‘Corner Country’, where Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales now converge, was in Aboriginal tradition crisscrossed by the tracks of the mura, ancestral beings, who named the country as they travelled, linking place to language.
'Up until the 1970s, a large proportion of Aboriginal people in Australia had some experience in institutions as part of federal assimilation and protection policies. Focusing on three communities in South Australia, this book attempts to understand the consequences of this institutionalisation for Aborigines and Australian society in general. Peggy Brock uses the word 'ghetto' to evoke the nature of the missions in which, for generations, many Aboriginal people settled, as ghettos both oppress and nurture those who live within them.
(...more)The Adnyamathanha genealogy was compiled by Christine Davis as part-time hobby, but it was her Aunt Pearl Mackenzie that first began to collect the names from the old people. In 1979, was when Christine began to write the collected information down.
The genealogy covers seven main family groups of the Adnymathanha people, and shows how these familes are linked. It includes extensive linked family trees containing all births, deaths and marriages to February 1985; also includes many portraits and individual histories (Nepabunna).
(...more)Warning: Please be aware that this work may contain images of people who are now deceased.
This paper arises from stories of three Adnyamathanha women of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. They are three generations of a single family, mother, daughter, and granddaughter...'
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