Minyana Tjakamara

Minyana Tjakamara also known as Minjena (c. 1882 – 2 January 1969) was an Australian Warlpiri man and leader of his people who lived during a period of significant change for his people which included being moved to the government settlement of Yuendumu.

Biography

Minyana's parents were Yangganu Tjupurula and Ginnula Napananga and he was born at Mount Singleton (Wapurtarli), in the Tanami Desert, approximately northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe). He was one of four brothers with his brothers names being Moiu, Purjungu and Minawara.

Minyana also began to talk with and assist visiting anthropologists (including Mervyn Meggitt, Charles Mountford and Norman Tindale), filmmakers and other travelers. In one film by Thomas Draper Campbell, called Minjena's Lost Ground (1951), Minyana discussed life before European contact and highlighted the contrast between their traditional way of life and that at Yuendumu, including the negative impacts on diet and health. This film received fairly wide distribution and the National Film and Sound Archive calls it "a lament for the passing of traditional life".

Minyana became blind between 1995 and 1960.