Kokatha

Traditional Kokatha lands extend over some 140,000 km² (54,000 sq mi) according to the estimation of Norman Tindale, stretching over some of the harshest, waterless land on the Australian continent. They include Tarcoola, Kingoonyah, Pimba and the McDouall Peak as well as modern townships of Roxby Downs and Woomera. The lands extend west as far as Ooldea and the Ooldea Range while the northern frontier runs up to the Stuart Range and Lake Phillipson. Their boundary with Barngarla 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]

The tribes bordering on Kokatha lands were, running north clockwise, the Pitjantjara, the Yankuntjatjarra, the Antakirinja, the Arabana and Kuyani to their east, the Barngarla on the southeastern flank, the Wirangu directly south, the Mirning southwest, and the Ngalia to their west.[2]

According to the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (as of October 2020):[3]

The Kokatha People are the Traditional 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 of Port Augusta, stretching from Lake Torrens in the east to the Gawler Ranges in the West. This includes the land surrounding BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam Mine Project located at Roxby Downs and Oz Mineral's new copper-gold project at Carrapateena.

The Kokatha were engaged in migration towards to southeast before the 1850s, when whites began to make their presence felt. Their hold on Ooldea area was relinquished around 1917 when they yielded before the pressure from the northern Yankuntjatjarra migrating there.[1]

The Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation is the Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) which covers areas determined to belong to the Kokatha people by the Native Title Act 1993, and represents the interests of the Kokatha people.[3]As of 2020, there have been three native title determinations relating to the Kokatha in South Australia:[4][5]

• An Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) was determined for the Gawler Ranges area, agreed on 13 June 2010.[6]
• 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 the Pastoral Unincorporated Area as well as the District Council of Ceduna. This land lies along a wide strip extending inland from the coast, stretching from the border with Western Australia in the west across to a line roughly direct north of the western top edge of the Eyre Peninsula. It excludes a number of areas where native title has been extinguished.[7][8] There is also an ILUA covering this area, agreed on 22 May 2014.[9]
• The second, determined on 1 September 2014, covers an area within the Roxby Council and some Pastoral Unincorporated Area. It stretches from the eastern shore of Lake Torrens almost to the western shore of Lake Gairdner, but does not include the latter.[10]

An ILUA covers the precise description of the area of land,[11] which is described as "about 30,372 km² (11,727 sq mi) extending approx. 129 kilometres (80 mi) west of Lake Torrens".[12]

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 213

• Gavin Wanganeen, Australian rules footballer, and Brownlow medallist.[13]
• Norah Wilson (1901-1971), community worker

• Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation