The Arrernte () people, sometimes referred to as the Aranda, Arunta or Arrarnta, are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the Arrernte lands, at Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and surrounding areas of the Central Australia region of the Northern Territory. Many still speak one of the various Arrernte dialects. Some Arrernte live in other areas far from their homeland, including the major Australian cities and overseas.
Arrernte spirituality focuses on the landscape and The Dreaming which the Arrernte name for is Altyerre.
The Arrernte Council is the representative and administrative body for the Arrernte Lands and is part of the Central Land Council.
Tourism is important to the economy of Alice Springs and surrounding communities.
Arrernte languages
"Aranda" is a simplified, Australian English approximation of the traditional pronunciation of the name of
Arrernte . The ancestors of the Arrernte all spoke one or more of the many Arrernte dialects in the Arrernte group of languages. Today several are completely or nearly extinct, but some (especially Eastern or Central Arrernte) are widely spoken and taught in schools.
The Arrernte also had a highly developed sign language.
Culture
Arrernte religion and cultural life were documented thoroughly from the late nineteenth century by the Lutheran missionary
Carl Strehlow, the seminal Australian anthropologists Walter Baldwin Spencer and
Francis Gillen and later by T. G. H. Strehlow. The Arrernte men worked with Strehlow to document their songs and ceremonies between 1932 and 1974. Arrernte oral history discusses the region of Alice Springs (
Mparntwe) and its environs being shaped by primordial
caterpillar-beings known as
Ayepe-arenye (
Hyles livornicoides),
Ntyarlke (
Hippotion celerio), and
Utnerrengatye (
Coenotes eremophilae) which were ancestral to the Arrernte people. The eastern MacDonnell Ranges was formed by the
Ayepe-arenye, while the western portion of the ranges was formed by
Ntyarlke.
Country
The Arrernte's lands, according to
Norman Tindale's estimate, encompass some . Of their overall territory he wrote that they were:
At Mount Gosse, Mount Zeil, and Mount Heughlin; on the Finke River to Idracowra, Blood Creek, Macumba, Mount Dare, and Andado, and some distance east into the sandhills of the Arunta (Simpson) Desert; northeast to Intea on the lower Hale River, thence north to Ilbala on Plenty River; west to Inilja and Hart Range, Mount Swan, Gillen Creek, Connor Well, and Narwietooma; in Central MacDonnell, James, and Ooraminna Ranges.
Sub-divisions
The name Arrernte refers to the following distinct groups (or "mobs"):
See also
-
Arrernte language
-
Veronica Perrule Dobson
-
HMAS Arunta
-
Margaret Kemarre Turner
- Spirituality and mythology
Notes
Explanatory notes
Citations
General and cited sources
External links
