Wurundjeri: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

 

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The practice of [[firestick farming]] resulted in large areas of grassy plains extending inland from Melbourne, to the north and southwest, with little forest cover, providing pasture to expose the massive number of [[Microseris lanceolata|yam daisies]] (”murnong”) which proliferated in the area.{{sfn|Gammage|2012|pp=45–46}} These roots and various tuber lilies formed a major source of starch and carbohydrates.{{sfn|Pascoe|1947}} Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors would determine where campsites were located, many being along the [[Yarra River]] (”Birrarung”) and its tributaries. [[Bulleen|”Bolin Bolin” lagoon]] was a particularly important habitation, ceremonial and food resource site, where eels, fish and possum were procured. {{sfn|Clark|Heydon|2004}}

The practice of [[firestick farming]] resulted in large areas of grassy plains extending inland from Melbourne, to the north and southwest, with little forest cover, providing pasture to expose the massive number of [[Microseris lanceolata|yam daisies]] (”murnong”) which proliferated in the area.{{sfn|Gammage|2012|pp=45–46}} These roots and various tuber lilies formed a major source of starch and carbohydrates.{{sfn|Pascoe|1947}} Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors would determine where campsites were located, many being along the [[Yarra River]] (”Birrarung”) and its tributaries. [[Bulleen|”Bolin Bolin” lagoon]] was a particularly important habitation, ceremonial and food resource site, where eels, fish and possum were procured. {{sfn|Clark|Heydon|2004}}

The Wurundjeri and Willam Balug clans mined [[diorite]] at [[Mount William stone axe quarry]] which was a source of the highly valued greenstone hatchet heads, which were traded across a wide area as far as New South Wales and Adelaide. The mine provided a complex network of trading for economic and social exchange among the different Aboriginal nations in Victoria.{{sfn|McBryde|1984|p=44}}{{sfn|Presland|1994}} The quarry had been in use for more than 1,500 years and covered 18 hectares including underground pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the [[Australian National Heritage List]] for its cultural importance and archeological value.{{sfn|National Heritage List}}

The Wurundjeri and Balug clans mined [[diorite]] at [[Mount William stone axe quarry]] which was a source of the highly valued greenstone hatchet heads, which were traded across a wide area as far as New South Wales and Adelaide. The mine provided a complex network of trading for economic and social exchange among the different Aboriginal nations in Victoria.{{sfn|McBryde|1984|p=44}}{{sfn|Presland|1994}} The quarry had been in use for more than 1,500 years and covered 18 hectares including underground pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the [[Australian National Heritage List]] for its cultural importance and archeological value.{{sfn|National Heritage List}}

===Onset of British colonisation===

===Onset of British colonisation===

Aboriginal people who inhabited the Melbourne area before colonisation

Ethnic group

The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of Melbourne. They continue to live in this area and throughout Australia. They were called the Yarra tribe by early European colonists.

The Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation was established in 1985 by Wurundjeri people.

According to the early Australian ethnographer Alfred William Howitt, the name Wurundjeri, in his transcription Urunjeri, refers to a species of eucalypt, Eucalyptus viminalis, otherwise known as the manna or white gum, which is common along the Yarra River. Some modern reports of Wurundjeri traditional lore state that their ethnonym combines a word, wurun, meaning Manna gum/”white gum tree” and jerri, a species of grub found in the tree, and take the word therefore to mean “Witchetty Grub People”. The morpheme transcribed as ‘jerri/’djeri’ however might simply reflect rather the plural marker djirra. A review by Barry Blake of the literature and particularly of Howitt’s analysis led him to fault Howitt’s etymology, and suggest that the eucalypt in question was the black peppermint.

Wurundjeri people spoke Woiwurrung, an eastern Kulin dialect.

In anthropologist Norman Tindale‘s estimation – and his data, drawing on anthropologist R. H. Mathews‘s data which has been challenged – Wurundjeri lands extend over approximately 12,500 km² (4,800 mi²). These took in the areas of the Yarra and Saltwater rivers around Melbourne, and ran north as far as Mount Disappointment, northwest to Macedon, Woodend, and Lancefield. Their eastern borders went as far as Mount Baw Baw and Healesville. Their southern confines approached Mordialloc, Warragul, and Moe.

In June 2021, the boundaries between the land of two of the traditional owner groups in greater Melbourne, the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung (Bunurong), were agreed between the two groups, after being drawn up by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council. The new borderline runs across the city from west to east, with the CBD, Richmond and Hawthorn included in Wurundjeri land, and Albert Park, St Kilda and Caulfield on Boonwurrung land. It was agreed that Mount Cottrell, the site of a massacre in 1836 with at least 10 Wathaurong victims, would be jointly managed above the 160 m (520 ft) line. The two Registered Aboriginal Parties representing the two groups were the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. However, these borders are still in dispute among several prominent figures and Wurundjeri territory has been claimed to spread much further west and south.

The Wurundjeri balug^[a] was composed of two patrilines who resided in two distinct localities. These were respectively the Wurundjeri-willam and the Bulug-willam,^[b] where willam means “camping ground”/dwelling, or dwellers.

The Wurundjeri-willam were divided into three sub-groups known by their headsman’s name: (1)Bebejan’s mob{{}} ^[c](2) Billibellary’s mob, and (3) Jacky Jacky (Borrunupton)’s mob., each respectively holding different stretches of Wurundjeri territory. Bebejan’s mob resided from around the Merri creek-Yarra river junction up to Mount Baw Baw; Billibellary’s mob held sway over the area from the Maribyrnong River north to [[Mount William]]; Borrunupton’s mob resided in the territory south of the Yarra from Gardiners Creek through to the northern slopes of the Dandenongs

The Bulug-willam’ (‘swamp dwellers’)s territory covered the area south from Mount Baw Baw to Dandenong and the swampland at the head of Western Port bay.

The pre-colonial population of what is now known as the state of Victoria has been estimated as approximately 11,500 to 15,000 Aboriginal people, composed of some 38 tribal groups. The Wurundjeri population probably fluctuated around 400 individuals.
Archaeological evidence from the Melbourne region has shown human habitation of the area dating back to 31,000 years before present.^[15]

The practice of firestick farming resulted in large areas of grassy plains extending inland from Melbourne, to the north and southwest, with little forest cover, providing pasture to expose the massive number of yam daisies (murnong) which proliferated in the area. These roots and various tuber lilies formed a major source of starch and carbohydrates. Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors would determine where campsites were located, many being along the Yarra River (Birrarung) and its tributaries. Bolin Bolin lagoon was a particularly important habitation, ceremonial and food resource site, where eels, fish and possum were procured.

The Wurundjeri-willam and Balug-willam clans mined diorite at Mount William stone axe quarry which was a source of the highly valued greenstone hatchet heads, which were traded across a wide area as far as New South Wales and Adelaide. The mine provided a complex network of trading for economic and social exchange among the different Aboriginal nations in Victoria.^[15] The quarry had been in use for more than 1,500 years and covered 18 hectares including underground pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the Australian National Heritage List for its cultural importance and archeological value.

In 1835, the Port Phillip Association of colonists from Van Diemen’s Land, represented by John Batman, arrived on Wurundjeri Country with a view to purchasing a large tract of grazing land. The Wurundjeri had the impression that they were ngamajet, or red-faced sunset spirits (murup) returning from the land of the dead.^[d] At Merri Creek, Batman met with eight leading men (ngurungaeta) of the local clans, including Bebejan, Billibellary and Jaga Jaga (Borrunuptun) of the Wurundjeri. They signed Batman’s Treaty, after participating in a tanderrum ceremony, allowing the colonists temporary residence on their land. However, even though the treaty was later annulled, Batman and the Port Phillip Association used the agreement to appropriate 600,000 acres of land for an annual payment of flour, trinkets and clothing.

Within a few years other arriving British colonists had expropriated most of the traditional Wurundjeri land along the Yarra River and its tributaries, forcing them away from many sites that they depended on for food, water, shelter and ceremony.

With limited options, many Wurundjeri people found that residing close to the emerging British settlement at Melbourne, provided some security from hunger and settler violence. The south bank of the Yarra across from the settlement and the adjacent Tromgin swamps to the east became an important place of indigenous habitation.

In 1837, Governor Bourke approved a reserve, at what is now the Royal Botanic Gardens, for an Aboriginal mission to ‘civilise’ the local clans. Under the authority of Reverend George Langhorne, around 80 Indigenous people, most of whom were Wurundjeri, stayed at the site. A small school was established at which around 15 Aboriginal children attended.

A few months after the establishment of Langhorne’s mission, the police magistrate William Lonsdale accused some of the attending Indigenous men of stealing potatoes from a nearby farm. A young Wurundjeri man named Tullamareena was violently arrested and jailed. He subsequently escaped after burning down the prison. Lonsdale later returned to the mission with a detachment of New South Wales Mounted Police and dispersed the residents with gun fire. As a result, the mission ceased to operate.

Wurundjeri still continued to camp along the south bank of the Yarra and by 1838 a trade was established whereby the Aboriginal people were selling baskets, possum skins and lyrebird feathers to the settlers. Some settlers gave Wurundjeri men muskets to facilitate their gathering of lyrebirds.

In early 1840, Jaga Jaga used these weapons to organise a raid on a settler’s potato farm on the Yarra River. A contingent of Mounted Police and Border Police under Commissioner Henry Fyshe Gisborne was sent to arrest him. Gisborne encountered Jaga Jaga and his 50 armed followers at Yering where a firefight took place between the two opposing sides. No fatalities were reported and Jaga Jaga was captured but later escaped. This event became known as the Battle of Yering.^[23]

One elder, Derrimut, later stated:

You see…all this mine. All along here Derrimut’s once. No matter now, me soon tumble down…Why me have no lubra? Why me have no piccaninny? You have all this place. No good have children, no good have lubra. Me tumble down and die very soon now.

For two decades, from 1853 down to 1874, the ngurungaeta of the Yarra River area’s clans began to encourage the surviving remnants of the Kulin tribes to rebuild a home for themselves collectively at at Coranderrk.
On 30 June 1863 the surviving members of the Wurundjeri were allowed a “permissive occupancy” of Coranderrk Station, near Healesville with 2,300 acres (931 ha) set aside as a reservation for their use, shortly after a deputation consisting of the headmen Simon Wonga and William Barak, two Woiworung and two Bunurong clan members, a number of men and boys from various Taungurong clans and a Pangerang representative had petitioned the Governor of Victoria Sir Henry Barkly about their need for land. Despite numerous petitions, letters, and delegations to the Colonial and Federal Government, the grant of this land in compensation for the country lost was refused. Coranderrk was closed in 1924 and its occupants bar five refusing to leave Country were again moved to Lake Tyers in Gippsland.

All remaining Wurundjeri people are descendants of Bebejan, through his daughter Annie Borate (Boorat), and in turn, her son Robert Wandin (Wandoon). Bebejan was a Ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri people and was present at John Batman‘s “treaty” signing in 1835. Joy Murphy Wandin, a Wurundjeri elder, explains the importance of preserving Wurundjeri culture:

In the recent past, Wurundjeri culture was undermined by people being forbidden to “talk culture” and language. Another loss was the loss of children taken from families. Now, some knowledge of the past must be found and collected from documents. By finding and doing this, Wurundjeri will bring their past to the present and recreate a place of belonging. A “keeping place” should be to keep things for future generations of our people, not a showcase for all, not a resource to earn dollars. I work towards maintaining the Wurundjeri culture for Wurundjeri people into the future.^[e]

In 1985, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation was established to fulfil statutory roles under Commonwealth and Victorian legislation and to assist in raising awareness of Wurundjeri culture and history within the wider community.

Wurundjeri elders often attend events with visitors present where they give the traditional welcome to country greeting in the Woiwurrung language:

Wominjeka yearmenn koondee-bik Wurundjeri-Ballak

which means “Welcome to the land of the Wurundjeri people”.^[31]

Ngurungaeta:

• Bebejan (?-1836): ngurungaeta, and William Barak’s father and Billibellary’s brother
• Billibellary (1799–1846): ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan
• Simon Wonga (1824–1874): ngurungaeta by 1851 until his death; Billibellary’s son
• William Barak (1824–1903): ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan from 1874 until his death
• James Wandin (1933–2006): ngurungaeta until his death, and an Australian rules footballer
• Murrundindi: ngurungaeta from 2006 until present

Other notable Wurundjeri people include: