Wiltja

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]

Wiltja in outback, circa 1940

For the hostel for Aboriginal girls in Adelaide, see Charles Duguid § Wiltja.

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