Geographical Region



The Mantharta languages are found in the northwest of Australia, in the area between the Gascoyne and Ashburton Rivers.


MAP 1 - Australia


MAP 2 - northwest corner of Australia

The places which mark the limits of Jiwarli territory are:

north: mirni Minnie Springs . Here the Jiwarli met the Thalanyji

north east: kajriwari Mount Florrie on the border with the Pinikura

south east: yaalha pool on Henry River East Branch is the south east limit

south west: karlapaya High Range borders on Tharrkari country

south: japarntipirri Edmund River borders on Warriyangka country and the Barlee Range borders on the Thiin


MAP 3 - Jiwarli territory

Western people associate languages with particular groups of people, living in a clearly defined area of land. The Aboriginal view of language is quite different from this. It is common in Aboriginal mythology for there to be stories about the origins of language. In these stories, the participants speak one language, but as they reach particular points on the landscape, they speak another language. Alan Rumsey discusses this issue in Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia saying that regions are named after the language that "was directly installed or ‘planted’ in the landscape". Thus, unlike the Western perspective, Aboriginal languages are not primarily connected to the people, but as with many things in Aboriginal life, language is directly connected to the land. Therefore, the physical boundaries of traditional territory are quite clearly marked and Mantharta speakers have quite firm ideas about the places ‘owned’ by the named groups and the languages those groups spoke". Most Aboriginal people speak more than one language, so they are not identified by the language they speak but by the language which is found in the traditional territory of their ancestors.






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