Pintupi Nine

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The Pintupi Nine refers to a group of nine Pintupi people who were discovered living a traditional hunter-gatherer desert-dwelling life in Australia's Gibson Desert in 1984. They are sometimes also referred to as "the lost tribe".

They are believed to be the last Aborigines to have been living this way. They roamed between waterholes near Lake Mackay, near the Western Australia-Northern Territory border, naked except for their hairstring belts and armed with 2m-long wooden spears and intricately carved boomerangs. Their diet was dominated by goanna and rabbit as well as bush food native plants.

The group is a family, the Tjapaltjarri family; four brothers (Warlimpirrnga, Walala, Thomas and Yari Yari), three sisters (Yardi, Yikultji and Tjakaraia) and two "mothers" (Nanyanu and Papalanyanu). The boys were aged between 14 and 20, and the girls were all in their teens (although none knows their exact age). The mothers were in their late 30s. The father, the husband of the two wives, had died a few months prior to them being "found".

The group was tracked down by a Circus Oz performer, Geoff Tull, Charlie McMahon and some Aboriginal trackers, and "brought in" to Kintore, 250km south. They were instantly embarrassed by their nakedness, probably because the Aboriginial trackers were clothed. They were given clothes which they found "terribly uncomfortable" said McMahon.

The Pintupi-speaking trackers told them there was plenty of food and water that came out of pipes, Yardi has said, a concept which astounded them.

A medical check revealed them to be "in beautiful condition. Not an ounce of fat, well proportioned, strong, fit, healthy".^[1]

At Kiwikurra, near Kintore, they met with other members of their extended family. The nomads ritually beat members of their extended family with sticks for not having brought them in from the desert earlier. "They were staggered by the availability of food and water in the community" Tull has said.

[edit] The nine today

Today all members are visual artists. One of the mothers has passed away. One of the brothers, Yari Yari, went back to the desert after two years in "town".