Mark Butler

The Tingari Men are a group of ancestral elders who travelled over vast areas of the Western Desert including the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, performing rituals and creating or “opening up” the desert country. They were usually accompanied by recently initiated novices to whom they provided instruction in the ritual and law of the region. The Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime stories) of the Tingari groups are enshrined in numerous song-myth cycles which provide explanations for contemporary customs in Western Desert aboriginal life. Deep knowledge of Tingari business is restricted to men possessing appropriate levels of seniority in Western Desert society, but many stories have “public versions” which do not disclose secret/sacred knowledge. In the Tingari heartland of the Gibson Desert, three major journey-lines can be discerned. One begins west of Jupiter Well and eventually runs due east, concluding south-east of Lake Mackay; another heads south-west from near Kintore for some 200 km, and then doubles back to end at Lake MacDonald; the third runs from south to north through Docker River and Kintore. At the many sites that make up these songlines, groups of Tingari people held ceremonies, experienced adversity and had adventures, in the course of which they either created or became the physical features of the sites involved. In mythological terms, Tingari exploits often add to or modify features at pre-existing sites, or revive and extend more ancient local Tjukurrpa.