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Sturt’s Steps project management pays its respect to all the Aboriginal elders, past, present and emerging through whose traditional country the route passes.
Along Sturt’s Steps route each interpretive shelter contains information about local Aboriginal cultural interpretation, interaction with Sturt’s expedition or with early pastoralists. This information has been prepared following consultation with local Aboriginal advisers and the Tibooburra Local Area Land Council.
There are many local sites association with legends and workplaces known to the local Aboriginal groups. These are culturally sensitive and have deliberately not been not been identified within the project.
The names of the Aboriginal groups in the following locations are:
Spelling of Aboriginal names may vary.
It is also recorded that the Wangkumara people have a long traditional association with Tibooburra and surrounding areas.
In Milparinka attention has been paid to the recording of Malyangapa history and culture with interpretive displays and video in two of the former Courthouse rooms. These also include cultural art interpretations by Malyangapa artist Shane Bates.
The Visitor Centre also has original Malyangapa artworks for sale.
Malyangapa woman May Quayle’s story is represented amongst the pioneer women’s stories
The Harry Blore Memorial Dark Sky Park in Milparinka features a large abstract sculptural interpretation of Kalthi the emu identified by indigenous people of the dark patches of the Milky Way and has been constructed after consultation with Aboriginal advisers.
Bonnie Quayle’s corten steel cutout artwork represents five generations of strong Malyangapa/Barkindji women who lived on this land.
Jodi Daley’s large mural in Milparinka also recognises the traditional owners of the land on which Milparinka was established.
In Tibooburra the Local Area Land Council has a keeping place of significant artefacts and art while the new Sturt’s Steps museum in Briscoe Street features important stories and illustrations about the life and times of local Aboriginal people.
At Packsaddle, Ian Marr’s artwork recognises the culture of indigenous people in a substantial work of large granite stones placed as sculptural yarning circle.
