The Spinifex determination was the first consent native title determination in Western Australia following commencement of the Native Title Act 1993

The Federal Court recognised the exclusive native title rights and interests of the Spinifex people. Spinifex people speak south western dialects of the Wati language division of the Pama–Nyungan languages.

The name Pila Nguru is an abbreviation of Anaṉgu tjuta pila nguru ("people-land-spinifex-from", or people from the land of the spinifex).

There is archaeological evidence indicating a nomadic presence in the Western desert dating back some 20,000 years.

Native title is held over some 55, 000 square kilometres and covers the southern portion of the Great Victorian Desert, west from the western border of South Australia. It includes the northern portion of the Great Victoria Desert Nature Reserve and the southern section of the Central Australian Aboriginal Reserve. This is now part of the Anangu Tjutaku IPA.

The first known historical reference to the Spinifex People was not made until 1934, by Norman Tindale. Contact began at about the same time. Cundeelee, which has played an important part in the more recent history of the Spinifex People, was not established as a mission until 1950.

But it was the atomic testing program at Maralinga in 1952 and 1956 that brought with it the first contact between most of the Spinifex People and the western world.

After the closure of the Cundeelee mission in the 1980s, People made efforts to return to their traditional lands.