Amata
Postcode: 5710
Amata is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on “The Lands” (the others being Ernabella/ Pukatja, Fregon/ Kaltjiti, Indulkana, Mimili and Pipalyatjara).
Amata was established under the name of “Musgrave Park” in 1961 by the South Australian State Government. The community was established to take the pressure off the increasing growth of Pukatja (formerly Ernabella). The aim was to use it to educate the Aboriginal people in how to work in the cattle industry. A school was opened 7 years later, in 1968.
Amata’s population is approximately 500 people. It is situated outside of the traditional territory of the Anangu people, some of whom nonetheless live there.
Australian Bureau of Statistics research indicated in 2003 that the 2001 census data showed that Amata had one of the State’s highest proportions of Aboriginal residents (89%) and, in all of South Australia, Amata at that time had one of the highest ratios of women : men in the State, 54.6% (the highest being Springton, with 57.2%). Amata, like most APY communities, has one of the State’s highest proportion of Australian-born residents (97%), the highest proportion of single parent families (27.3%) but the lowest ratio of home computer use (5.5%).
Amata appears to have a growing population, against the trend for Aboriginal communities. From 180 residents in 1981, it has grown steadily past 350 in the 1990s to 536 in 1996.