Our country

The community of Aurukun is situated in the Western Region of Cape York, Far North Queensland, Australia. Sitting between the Ward and Watson Rivers, approximately 100km south of Weipa and 630km northwest of Cairns, Aurukun is home to more than 1200 people.

Currently the area that APN Cape York helps native title owners manage extends south from the Watson River near Aurukun to the Kendall River around 80–100km south. Four ceremonial clan groups are identified as traditional owners and inhabitants for this region:

Apalech • Puch • Wanam • Winychanam

These four ritual clan groups traditionally spoke a number of Wik and Kugu languages. Today however, the traditional language is predominantly Wik Mungkan, which is the language group for the area of Aurukun. Wik and Kugu are intrinsically connected to our land. It holds all our stories, all our culture, and in fact, defines us as who we are.