Yalata Community
Yalata Community Incorporated
Head of Bight Interpretive Centre is located on land belonging to Yalata Community. Yalata Community identify themselves as southern Anangu, and speak a Pitjantjatjara dialect. Anangu live mainly in the township of Yalata and use the land for hunting, fishing and for cultural purposes. The Land which is a vast area was declared an Indigenous Protected Area ("IPA") in October 1999. The IPA covers an area of 456,300 hectares. For more information regarding the IPA please visit: http://www.yalata.org
The population of Yalata varies constantly, as Anangu travel regularly from community to community. The core population would number approximately 250 people and they maintain an active cultural life. Aboriginal law is practiced by many sections of the community but the spiritual beliefs and ritual enactments of Anangu are never static.
The main population centre is focused around Yalata Township but extensive track systems, which seem to reflect earlier hunting practices, leave this settlement to the NE and the NW. The community hunts within all of The Lands depending on seasonal availability. SW from Yalata along the long straight road is the Yalata Beach area, the usual recreation site for community members.
Photo courtesy of YCI website
The Anangu HoB story:
"Wanampi, the rainbow serpent, carved out the Head of Bight landscape after a journey from the red desert country, hundreds of kilometres north. Wanampi carved out the rolling hills and subterranean caves as he was chased from waterholes by goanna men from the north. The landscape is marked with Wanampi's passage south and the men from local clans stand at Wati Tjutaku (place of all the men) looking down on the serpent escaping across the Nullarbor Plain.
The goanna men speared the serpent hiding in a rock hole at Pedinia Lake two hundred kilometres north. The serpents shaped the lake and his blood spilled to form a large red claypan as he writhed to escape and go underground from his attackers. The Plain is dotted with sites where Wanampi pushed out of the ground to see the goanna men still in pursuit.
The Great Rainbow Serpent Wanampi shaped the landscape from the red spinifex country in the north to the Head of Bight creating rolling hills, caves and lakes in his journey toward the ocean."
For more information about Yalata Community please visit: http://www.yalata.com