The Pintupi began returning to their homelands near Patjarr in 1979 with a view to setting up a permanent outstation. While the community's governing body, Patjarr Aboriginal Corporation, was incorporated under the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976 on 28 April 1980, it was not until 1993 that the community and its surrounds were excised from the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve and leased to the traditional owners by the Aboriginal Lands Trust. Native title was determined to exist in 2005, as part of the Stanley Mervyn, Adrian Young, and Livingston West and Ors, on behalf of the Peoples of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands v Western Australia and Ors claim.
