South Australia was the first state in Australia to enact Aboriginal land rights legislation, with the PitjantjatjaraLand Rights Act of 1981 transferring title to lands in north-west South Australia to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara.

Pitjantjatjara is the name of both an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert, and their language. The people are closely related to the Yankuntjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra people.

The Pitjantjatjara refer to themselves as Anangu (people). Pitjantjatjara country is mostly in the far north-west of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. State borders are immaterial to Anangu as land is an inseparable and important part of their cultural identity.

European settlement disrupted the traditional nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle of the Pitjantjatjara people, but they have retained their language and much of their culture in spite of outside influences.

Today about 4,000 Anangu live in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal Traditional Owners.

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