Western Desert cultural bloc
The Western Desert cultural bloc (also capitalised, abbreviated to WDCB, or just Western Desert) is a cultural region in central Australia covering about 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq mi), used to describe a group of linguistically and culturally similar Aboriginal Australian nations.
Languages
The term Western Desert cultural bloc is often used by anthropologists and linguists when discussing the 40 or so Aboriginal groups that live there, who speak dialects of one language, often called the Western Desert language. The term cultural bloc is used by anthropologists to describe culturally and linguistically similar groups (or nations) of Aboriginal peoples of Australia.
Country
According to anthropologist Robert Tonkinson:
The WDCB covers around 670,000 km2 (260,000 sq mi) and extends across much of Western Australia, parts of South Australia, and parts of the Northern Territory. includes the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It stretches from the Nullarbor in the south to the Kimberley in the north, and from the Percival Lakes in the west through to the Pintupi lands in the Northern Territory.
History of contact
Ronald Berndt estimated that, before the European colonisation of Australia, the Western Desert peoples may have numbered as many as 10,000, but that by the late 1950s, their numbers were down to between 1,371 and 2,200. Apart from the Canning Stock Route and the rabbit-proof fence, white contact with this part of Australia was very rare until the 1960s. Terry Long, a Native Patrol Officer employed by Weapons Research Establishment, observed:
Modern history
A 2007 court case held by the Federal Court of Australia to determine "whether there was authorisation to apply for native title determination by all holders of native title claimed" had to determine whether a Western Desert Cultural Bloc society existed before colonisation. The judgment held that such a society existed in 1829, and continues to exist today.
A 2018 native title determination determined that the Lappi Lappi and Ngulupi claimants "belong to the Western Desert Cultural Bloc (WDCB) system of laws and customs", and had rights to an area in the western part of the Tanami Desert.