Wiltja

Wiltja in outback, circa 1940

Wiltjas are shelters made by the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and other Aboriginal Australian peoples.[1] They are temporary dwellings, and are abandoned and rebuilt rather than maintained.[2] Open and semi-circular,[3] wiltjas are meant primarily as a defence against the heat of the sun, and are not an effective shelter from rain.[4]

See also

  • Humpy

References

  1. ^ Australian Indigenous tools and technology - Australia's Culture Portal Archived 2010-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Australian National Research Council (1930). Oceania. University of Sydney. p. 288.
  3. ^ Buckley, Ralf (2003). Case Studies in Ecotourism. CABI Publishing. p. 110. ISBN 0-85199-665-5.
  4. ^ American Museum of Natural History (1976). Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. American Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees. p. 32.

Photographs

  • Aboriginal people outside a wiltja shelter made of bark and branches c.1914 - State Library of Victoria
  • Aboriginal bough shelter known as a “wiltja”, at Desert Tracks Pitjantjatjara Tours camp - Alamy
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