Aṉangu is the name used by members of severalAboriginal Australian groups, roughly equivalent to theWestern Desert cultural bloc, to describe themselves. The term, which embraces several distinct "tribes" or peoples, in particular theNgaanyatjarra,Pitjantjatjara andYankunytjatjara groups, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable:[ˈaɳaŋʊ].
The original meaning of the word is "human being, person", "human body" in a number of eastern varieties of theWestern Desert Languages (which are in thePama–Nyungan group of languages), in particularPitjantjatjara andYankunytjatjara. It is now used as an Aboriginalendonym by a wide range of Western Desert Language (WDL) peoples to describe themselves.[1] It is rarely or never applied to non-Aboriginal people when used in English, although the word now has a dual meaning inPitjantjatjara andYankunytjatjara. It has come to be used also as anexonym by non-Aboriginal Australians to refer to WDL-speaking groups or individuals.[citation needed]
With regard to the term's distribution and spelling, the following table shows the main WDL dialects in which it is used (left column) along with the word spelled according to the orthography of that dialect (right column).
| Pitjantjatjara,Pintupi-Luritja | aṉangu |
| Southern (Titjikala)Luritja,Ngaanyatjarra,Ngaatjatjarra | yarnangu |
| Yankunytjatjara | yaṉangu |
The reasons for the spelling variations are that some WDL dialects do not allow vowel-initial words—in these varieties the word begins withy; some orthographies use underlining (e.g. ṉ) to indicate aretroflex consonant, while others use adigraph (e.g.rn). Pitjantjatjara seems to be the best-known source for the word, but the underlining of the consonant is often ignored (or not understood) by English speakers, and is difficult to type, so the word is very commonly, but incorrectly, rendered asanangu.
The Aṉangu dwell primarily in the Central Western desert, to the south of the traditional lands of theArrernte andWalpiri peoples.[2]
Theinma is acultural ceremony of Aṉangu women, involving song and dance and embodying the stories and designs of thetjukurpa (Ancestral Law, or Dreamtime). The ceremony carries camaraderie, joy, playfulness and seriousness, and may last for hours. There are many different inma, all profoundly significant to the culture.[3][4]
Aṟa Irititja (meaning "stories from a long time ago"[5]) is a project of Ara Irititja Aboriginal Corporation, which works in collaboration with theSouth Australian Museum andAnangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara atUmuwa.[6] The project began in 1994 with the aim ofrepatriating cultural items which had been "lost" over the years to Anangu of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands. These includedcultural artefacts, photographs,films andsound recordings. Some had ended up in the archives of public institutions, while others had been packed away in boxes and forgotten. By 2018, Ara Irititja had tracked down hundreds of thousands of items and made them available through interactive software, keeping them safe in adigital archive. Cultural priorities have been built into the software, and Anangu can navigate the database, add information, stories and reflections, and alert administrators to specific items requiring restricted access. This enables Anangu to have control over how their history and culture are presented to the world in future.[5]
