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Aboriginal people of South Australia: Antakirinja

South Australian Aboriginal people and languages

Irati Wanti: the poison leave it

Irati Wanti was the campaign run between 1998 and 2004 by the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta - the senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy - against a proposed nuclear waste dump on their country.

“We are Aboriginal Women — Yankunytjatjara, Antikarinya and Kokatha. We know the country. We know the stories for the land. We are worrying for the country and we’re worrying for our kids. We say, ‘No radioactive dump in our ngura — in our country’.”

Irati wanti: the poison leave it (website, archived via Pandora)

Irati-wanti : the poison leave it, 2002. (film)

Talking straight out : stories from the Irati Wanti Campaign, 2005. (book)

Introduction

Getting started

This guide to sources relating to the Antakirinja people was last updated in 2018. It comprises selected material held by the State Library or available online.
 
To find further material relevant to this topic, try searching with these subject headings in the State Library catalogue:
  • Antakirinja (Australian people)
Or conduct a keyword search using the following term:
  • Antakirinja
For more assistance, talk with staff at the Library's Information Desk or Ask Us.

Background and Resources

Antakirinja country [Antikirinja, Antikirinya or Antikarinya] lies in the far north west of the state of South Australia, between the closely related Yankunytjatjara language to the west and the Arabana language to the east. It lies north of the Kokatha language. Today, Antakirinja people live particularly around Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta.

Comprehensive sources

Brock, Peggy (ed.) Women, rites & sites : Aboriginal women's cultural knowledge, 1989. Chapter 2.

Brown, Igkama Bobby and Næssan, Petter Attila. Irrititja - the past : Antikirrinya history from Ingomar Station and beyond, 2012.

Reader, Paul. The heritage of the Antikirinya, Arabana and South Aranda land., 198?

Shaw, Bruce and Gibson, Jen. Invasion and succession: an aboriginal history of the Oodnadatta region, 1988.

Some relevant content

Bagshaw, GC. Preliminary report on aboriginal cultural interests in the Tallaringa Well region, 1989.

Berndt, RM. Tribal migrations and myths centring on Ooldea, South Australia, 1941.

Crombie, Eileen Unkari. He was a South Australian film star : my life with Billy Pepper, 2003.

Ellis, Catherine J. Aboriginal songs of South Australia, 1966.

Ellis, Catherine J. Field notes on tape recordings of Aboriginal songs made in 1962-63, 1964.

Gibson, Jen with the Dunjiba Community Council. Some Oodnadatta genealogies, 1988.

Kan̲ku-Breakaways Conservation Park : management plan 2017, 2017. Also online.

McKenzie, Ruth. Molly Lennon's story: That's how it was, 1989.

Pring, Adele (ed). Women of the Centre, 1990. ‘Eva Strangways’ (pp. 129-138) and ‘Milly Taylor’ (pp. 139-156).

Shaw, Bruce. Our heart is the land: Aboriginal reminiscences from the Western Lake Eyre Basin, 1995.

Sturt's Desert Pea

B 71733. Photographer Jen Garnett.

Photographs can be viewed online by searching the Library catalogue.

Periodical articles

To locate journal articles, access the State Library's eResources.

Selected South Australian newspapers, published prior to 1955, have been digitised as part of the National Library of Australia’s Trove website.

Hogarth, R. 'Yandairunga Tribe of Natives' in The Bunyip, 18 September, 1885.

Further newspaper articles may be identified by using the following, Newspaper index : references to Aborigines in Adelaide newspapers, 1836-1940, 1989.