They were originally inhabited by the indigenous Yankunytjatjara people.[3] The English explorer William Gosse and his team were the first Europeans to visit the region in the 1870s. Gosse named the mountains after Anthony Musgrave,[4] then Governor of South Australia. At the start of the 20th century, Yankunytjatjara people began migrating east, and groups of Pitjantjatjara moved into the Musgrave region from the west. Today, the majority of the families in the communities of Amata and Kaltjiti identify as Pitjantjatjara.[5]
In order to combat unemployment, the Pitjantjatjara Elders seek to develop employment and opportunity within the Pitjantjatjara Lands. Mineralexploration companies in particular have been keen to discuss possible business alliances with the Pitjantjatjara people because in addition to being a highly prospective region (platinum group elements, gold, uranium, copper, silver,[7] possibly oil), the region represents the largest freehold Aboriginal province in Australia and has had no modern mineral exploration techniques applied since the Land Rights Act of 1981.[8]
12"Musgrave Ranges". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 21 August 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
↑Anthropology U.C.L.A. University of California, Los Angeles Dept. of Anthropology. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles. 1981.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
↑Starick, Paul; Cameron England (1 May 2007). "Grab your hard hat, boom coming". AdelaideNow. News Limited. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
