Traditional Kokatha lands extend over some 140,000 km2 (54,000 sq mi) according to the estimation ofNorman Tindale, stretching over some of the harshest and most waterless land on the Australian continent. They includeTarcoola, Kingoonyah,Pimba and the McDouall Peak as well as modern townships ofRoxby Downs andWoomera. The lands extend west as far asOoldea and the Ooldea Range while the northern frontier runs up to theStuart Range and Lake Phillipson. Their boundary withBarngarla lands is marked by an ecological transition from their plateau to the lower hilly acacia scrubland and salt lake zones running south to the coast.[1]
According to the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (as of October 2020[update]):[3]
The Kokatha People are thetraditional owners of a large area of land in the northern region of South Australia, estimated to extend over some 140,000 km2 (54,000 sq mi). Traditionally the Kokatha people have been associated with the land that is to the north ofPort Augusta, stretching fromLake Torrens in the east to theGawler Ranges in the West. This includes the land surroundingBHP'sOlympic Dam mine project located atRoxby Downs andOz Minerals' copper-gold project atCarrapateena mine.
Traditions concerning Orion, a hunter and the Pleiades, a group of women he pursues, are ubiquitous throughout Australia.[4] One story transmitted in Kokatha oral lore concerns a celestial hunter,Nyeeruna, who lusts after and pursues theYugarilya sisters, who resist his bold advances, protected by the eldest one, the tauntingKambugudha. A firefight ensues, as Nyeeruna conjures up with a club in his right hand fire-magic to overcome the elder sister, who in turns responds by stirring fire-magic from her left foot, and thereby kicking dust in Nyeeruna's face. Momentarily humiliated, Nyeeruna manages to repeat his magical trick, and Kambugudha, who cannot repeat her magic as quickly, calls onBabba, the father of a pack of dingos, to fight Nyeeruna. Eventually a set of dingo puppies forms a line to separate Nyeeruna from the sisters.[5]
Recently the astronomer Duane Hamacher has advanced the hypothesis that the narrative encodes star-lore, and that the story can be read as a description of the nature of the configuration of stars aroundOrion, whose name likewise comes from a Greek hunter. In this reading, the Yugarilya sisters represent thePleiades; Kambugudha the star-cluster of theHyades; Nyeeruna's right hand's use of fire denoting the behaviour ofBetelgeuse, while Kambugudha's counter-tactic of recourse to a similar fire-magic would allude toAldebaran. The difference in the respective fire-power would reflect the fact that while Betelgeuse has a luminosity that regularly pulses by one magnitude every 400 days, Aldebaran's light variation is less regular, and of a lower magnitude (0.2). The dingo puppy barrier would be emblematic of15 Orionis and the contiguous star cluster ofπ1,2,3,4,5 etc. TheNgarrindjeri have a similar tradition.[6][7]
A native title claim lodged by the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (representing a number of other peoples as well as the Kokatha nation) was determined on 5 December 2013, and covers land within thePastoral Unincorporated Area as well as theDistrict Council of Ceduna. This land lies along a wide strip extending inland from the coast, stretching from the border withWestern Australia in the west across to a line roughly direct north of the western top edge of theEyre Peninsula. It excludes a number of areas where native title has been extinguished.[11][12] There is also an ILUA covering this area, agreed on 22 May 2014.[13]
The second, determined on 1 September 2014, covers an area within theRoxby Council and somePastoral Unincorporated Area. It stretches from the eastern shore of Lake Torrens almost to the western shore ofLake Gairdner, but does not include the latter.[14]
An ILUA covers the precise description of the area of land,[15] which is described as "about 30,372 km2 (11,727 sq mi) extending approx. 129 kilometres (80 mi) west of Lake Torrens".[16]Large areas within the Woomera Prohibited Area of theRAAF Woomera Range Complex overlap with the native title area.[17]
The dunes and trees of the area within Woomera are considered sacred to the Kokatha people, being linked to theirTjukurpa (Dreaming) stories, in particular that of theSeven Sisters creation story. In particular, theblack oak trees are relate to male Kokatha connections to this storyline. The area is supposed to be cleaned by the Department of Defence and the trees protected when weapons testing is under way. However, debris has been found around the site.[17]
There are also a number of significant and rarearchaeological sites which are remnants of previous Kokatha habitation within the weapons testing range, which are described in a 2020 heritage management plan prepared for the Department of Defence by GML Heritage Consultants. There are at least 14 separate stone foundations at Lake Hart North (which is not used by the department), which the archaeologists surmised were either "habitation structures" or "low-walled hunting hides".[18]
At another location, Wild Dog Creek, there are a number ofrock engravings in thePanaramitee Style (generally dated to thePleistocene, 10,000 years ago), created by chipping away the rock with sharp tools. OtherAboriginal Australian rock art exists throughout the area, including at Lake Hart, portraying, among other things, footprints which match theGenyornis, a giant bird that went extinct thousands of years ago.[18]
The report states that the location was likely "inhabited and used for many thousands of years", informally dated to up to 50,000 years ago (similar to human habitation in the nearbyFlinders Ranges), and the sites could provide hitherto unknown cultural information about the Australian desert area.[18]
David Arden, Songman who won The National Indigenous Arts Awards, The 'Fellowships' Award, and a VIPA Song Of The Year Award For The Song "Freedom Called"
^The variation between these ethnonyms, Kukata/Kokata and Kokatha, may represent an original difference between two distinct Western desert dialects, one retaining avoiceless alveolar stop (t), the other adental stop (th) (Platt 1972, pp. 3–4;Clendon 2015, p. 27)
