Kaurna Meyunna Yerta ‘Kaurna Country’
Kaurna Meyunna are the Aboriginal people of the Adelaide region. Kaurna Meyunna Yerta the Kaurna peoples’ traditional land, or Country, extends from Cape Jervis to the south of Adelaide to Crystal Brook to the north, and from the Mount Lofty Ranges to the coast of Gulf Saint Vincent.
Country is more than land as Karl Winda Telfer, senior custodian, Mullawirra and Mullamai clans, explains:
Ngankitta yerta, Mother Earth Country, is my place of spiritual birth, it is my unfolding connection to my ancestral dreaming and totem design. This lives within me as it does in star, tree, rock, river, animal, bird and seed; same thing. When I am sleeping, tree is still working for me, river still working for me and rock is still waiting to be born. My Country is a song, a song that can be heard by all if you can listen.
The Federal Court of Australia recognised the Native Title of the Kaurna people on 21 March 2018, resolving a native title application originally lodged in October 2000. The determination recognises Kaurna people as the Traditional Owners of the area and confirms the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation (KYAC) as the organisation responsible for managing these rights on behalf of Kaurna people.
While Native Title is formally recognised over specific parcels of land, it no longer exists on most of metropolitan Adelaide due to private ownership and development since colonisation.
