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Boonwurrung

The Boonwurrung,[2][3] also spelt Bunurong or Bun wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the city and suburbs of Melbourne. They were called the Western Port or Port Philip tribe by the early settlers, and were in alliance with other tribes in the Kulin nation, having particularly strong ties to the Wurundjeri people.

Boonwurrung
Total population
Pre contact – at least 500.[1]
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Boonwurrung language, English
Religion
Australian Aboriginal mythology
Related ethnic groups
see List of Indigenous Australian group names

The Registered Aboriginal Party representing the Boonwurrung people is the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation.

Language Edit

Boonwurrung is one of the Kulin languages, and belongs to the Pama-Nyungan language family.[4] The ethnonym occasionally used in early writings to refer to the Bunwurrung, namely Bunwurru, is derived from the word bu:n, meaning "no" and wur:u, signifying either "lip" or "speech".[5] This indicates that the Boonwurrung language may not be spoken outside of their Country - their clan's territory.[6]

Country Edit

 
Eagles Nest in Bunurong Marine National Park, part of Boonwurrung Country.

The Boonwurrung people are predominantly saltwater people whose lands, waters, and cosmos encompassed some 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2) of territory around Western Port Bay and the Mornington Peninsula. Its western boundary was set at Werribee. To the southeast, it extended from Mordialloc through to Anderson Inlet, as far as Wilson's Promontory. Inland its borders reached the Dandenong Ranges, and ran eastwards as far as the vicinity of Warragul.[5][7][8]

“Saw nothing but grassy country, open forest, plenty gum and wild cherry. Saw where the natives had encamped,

plenty of trees notched where they had climbed for opossums. …There are herds of forest kangaroo immensely large, a short distance from the settlement, also flocks of emus on the western plains fifty and sixty in a drove. …The country through which I travelled to the Salt Water (Maribyrnong) River had a park-like appearance, kangaroo grass being the

principal, the trees she-oak, wattle, honeysuckle. Saw a blue flower, thorny appearance. Numerous old native huts.”

— George Robinson 1836. The journals of George Augustus Robinson, chief protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate.

In June 2021, the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, both registered Aboriginal Parties, agreed on a redrawing of their traditional boundaries developed 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 Bunurong 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.[9] However these new boundaries are disputed by some Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people, including N'arweet Carolyn Briggs of the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council.[10]

In Boonwurrung belief, their territory was carved out by the creator Loo-errn as he moved from Yarra Flats down to his final resting place at Wamoon and, as custodians of this marr-ne-beek country, they required outsiders to observe certain ritual prohibitions and to learn their language if the newcomers were to enter their land without harm.[11]

Clan structures Edit

Communities consisted of six land-owning groups called clans that spoke the Boonwurrung language and were connected through cultural and mutual interests, totems, trading initiatives, and marriage ties. Each had an Arweet, or clan leader.[12]

The clans are:

Access by other clans to land and resources (such as the Birrarung, or Yarra River) was sometimes restricted depending on the state of the resource in question. For example; if a river or creek had been fished regularly throughout the fishing season and fish supplies were down, fishing was limited or stopped entirely by the clan who owned that resource until fish were given a chance to recover. During this time, other resources were utilised for food. This ensured the sustained use of the resources available to them. As with most other Kulin territories, penalties such as spearings were enforced upon trespassers.[citation needed]

Boonwurrung moieties classified people either as Bunjil, that is eaglehawk or Waang, namely raven.[14]

History and culture Edit

Traditional life Edit

Information on traditional life has been passed down by Boonwurrung people from one generation to the next, and was also recorded by European settlers and administrators.[6]

The Yalukit-willam clan of the Boonwurrung were semi-nomadic hunter gatherers who moved around to seasonal food sources in their territory to take advantage of seasonably available food resources. Their hunting equipment and techniques had been highly developed to the environment and they had a highly detailed knowledge of their Country. This knowledge was passed from one generation to the next. They had to work only about five hours a day.[6] Dogs were important and ceremonially buried.[15]

The Boonwurrung people have oral histories that recount in detail the flooding of Port Phillip Bay ten-thousand years ago. The boundaries of Boonwurrung territory are defined by further floods 5000 years ago. Prior to this time, the bay was scrub-filled and passable on foot, and the Boonwurrung people hunted kangaroo and possums on it.[6]

Food and hunting Edit

The Yalukit-willam would spend up to a few weeks in one spot, depending on the water and food supply. Major camps were often set up close to permanent fresh water, leaving archaeological evidence of the places they lived. These archaeological sites include surface scatters, shell middens, isolated artefacts and burials.[6]

 
Murnong (Yam Daisy).

Men were the primary hunters. They hunted kangaroos, possums, kangaroo rats, bandicoots, wombats and lizards. They also caught fish and eels and collected shellfish. Some Boonwurrung people made seasonal trips in canoes to French Island, where they could gather swan eggs.[16] In coastal and swamp areas there was plenty of bird life to hunt, including ducks and swans. There were abundant eels, yabbies, and fish in Stony and Kororoit creeks, and the Yarra River. Men were experts at spearing eels and Robinson notes in his diary in 1841 two men catching 40lbs of eel 'in a very short time'. The coast provided saltwater fish, mussels, cockles and small crabs.[6]

Women were primarily gatherers. Murnong (or yam daisy) was a favourite food. Others were the black wattle gum, the pith of tree ferns, native cherries, kangaroo apples and various fungi. Murnong grew all year was best eaten in spring. Tubers were collected in vast amounts in string bags. Fresh murnong could be eaten raw, or if less fresh, murnong could be roasted or baked in earth ovens. Murnong used to grow in great amounts along the Kororoit Creek and other creeks in the area and covered the plain to the west.[6] These murnong fields were destroyed by the introduction of sheep. Scholar Bruce Pascoe attributes the widespread fields of murrnong in certain areas to active farming by Aboriginal peoples.[17] Women collected large quantities of tadpoles which were cooked beneath a bed of hot coals.[6]

Robinson's diary describes how the Yalukit-willam caught emus and restrained their dingos.

When the natives want to kill emu they get up a cherry tree before daylight with a large spear, and having put a quantity of

cherries in a certain spot under the tree, conceal themselves above with a clear place for them to thrust the spear down. At day dawn the emu is heard coming by the noise it makes, and if this is a tree they have been at before they are sure

to come again, when they begin eating, and then the native thrusts the spear through them. …Saw several wild dogs on the settlement belonging to the country. …The aborigines tie up the fore foot of their dogs to prevent them going astray, instead of roping them round the neck as we do. At the native encampment, I saw two dogs thus tied.

— George Robinson 1840. The journals of George Augustus Robinson, chief protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate.

Early European invasion Edit

Initial contact was made in February 1801 when Lieutenant Murray and his crew from the Lady Nelson came ashore for fresh water near present-day Sorrento. A wary exchange of spears and stone axes for shirts, mirrors and a steel axe, ended when the crew of the Lady Nelson panicked, resulting in spears flying, musket shots and the use of the ship's cannon, wounding several fleeing Boonwurrung people.[18] The following month, Captain Milius from the French ship Naturaliste, in the Baudin expedition, danced alone on a beach at Western Port for the natives, in a much more peaceful contact.[18]

Just before and overlapping the period of British exploration and settlement, the Boonwurrung were involved in a long-running dispute with the Gunai/Kurnai people from Gippsland. According to William Barak, the last traditional elder of the Wurundjeri people, the conflict was a dispute over resources, which resulted in heavy casualties being suffered by the Boonwurrung. Many Gunnai raids occurred to abduct Boonwurrung women. The Yowengerra had almost been completely annihilated by 1836, largely as a result of attacks from the Gunai.[19] During 1833–34, around 60–70 Bunurong people, if a report has been correctly interpreted, may have been killed in a raid by Gunai when they were camped to the north of Carrum Carrum Swamp.[20]

Dispossession Edit

 
Yonki Yonka, a Boonwurrung man.

The Boonwurrung people, living primarily along the Port Phillip and Western Port coast, may have had their livelihoods affected by European seal hunters. The sealers' abduction of Boonwurrung women and taken to Bass Strait Islands and Tasmania may have caused inter-tribal conflicts, and by analogy, this may also apply to the Boonwurrung, whose coastlands were visited by sealers.[21] A report by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1830 attributed the absence of Boonwurrung on Phillip Island, which was a camp for sealers, as due to the latter's behavior.[22] As late as 1833, nine Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung women, and a boy, Yonki Yonka, were kidnapped and ferried across to the sealers' Bass Strait island bases.[23] Contact with sealers would have exposed the coastal tribes to European diseases, and this would have exercised a heavy impact on demographics, and the economic and social ties binding the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples, as would the possible effects of infectious diseases contracted from these sealers.[1]

James Fleming, one of the party of surveyor Charles Grimes in HMS Cumberland who explored the Maribyrnong River and the Yarra River as far as Dights Falls in February 1803, reported smallpox scars on several aboriginal people he met, suggesting that a smallpox epidemic might have swept through the tribes around Port Philip before 1803, reducing the population.[24] Broome puts forward that two epidemics of smallpox decimated the population of the Kulin tribes by perhaps killing half each time in the 1790s and again around 1830.[25][a] This theory has been challenged, however, by modern historical diagnosticians, who argue that the observed symptoms in the early ethnographical literature are compatible with impetigo and ringworm.[26]

One particularly notable person at the time of European settlement in Victoria was Derrimut, a Boonwurrung Elder, who informed early European settlers in October 1835 of an impending attack by clans from the Woiwurrung group. The colonists armed themselves, and the attack was averted. Benbow and Billibellary, from the Wurundjeri, also acted to protect the colonists as part of their duty of hospitality. Derrimut later became very disillusioned and died in the Benevolent Asylum at the age of about 54 years in 1864. A few colonists erected a tombstone to Derrimut in Melbourne General Cemetery in his honour.[citation needed]

By 1839, the Boonwurrung had been reduced to 80–90 people, with only 4 of 19 children under four years old, from a probable pre-contact population of greater than 500 people. By 1850 Protector William Thomas estimated just 28 Bunurong people living on Boonwurrung land.[citation needed]

In 1852, the Boonwurrung were allocated 340 hectares (840 acres) at Mordialloc Creek while the Woiwurrung gained 782 hectares along the Yarra at Warrandyte. The Aboriginal reserves were never staffed by whites and were not permanent camps, but acted as distribution depots where rations and blankets were distributed, with the intention being to keep the tribes away from the growing settlement of Melbourne.[27] The Aboriginal Protection Board revoked these two reserves in 1862–1863, considering them now too close to Melbourne.[28]

In March 1863, after three years of upheaval, the surviving Kulin leaders, among them Simon Wonga and William Barak, led forty Wurundjeri, Taungurung (Goulburn River) and Boonwurrung people over the Black Spur and squatted on a traditional camping site on Badger Creek near Healesville and requested ownership of the site. This became Coranderrk Station, named after the Woiwurrung word for the Victorian Christmas bush.[29] Coranderrk was closed in 1924 and its occupants were moved to Lake Tyers in Gippsland.[30]

Law and war Edit

Great enmity existed in particular between the Boonwurrung and the eastern Gunai, who were later deemed responsible for playing a role in the drastic reduction of the tribe's population.[31]

Injury or death to a tribal member usually resulted in a conference to assess the facts, and, where thought unlawful, revenge was taken.[32] In 1839, after one or two Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung were killed, a party of 15 men left for Geelong in order to retaliate against the malefactors, the Wathaurong.[33] In 1840, the Boonwurrung became convinced that a man from a tribe in Echuca had used sorcery to ordain the death of one of their warriors, whose name had been sung while a possum bone discarded after a Boonwurrung meal, and encased in a kangaroo's leg bone, was roasted. Shortly afterward the named Boonwurrung man died, and the tribe revenged itself on the first Echuca tribesman who then came to visit their territory.[3] It was arranged by word of mouth, passing from Echuca through the Nirababaluk and Wurundjeri, for a meeting to have justice done at Merri Creek. Nine or ten of the killed Echuca tribesman's kinsmen threw spears and boomerangs at the Boonwurrung warrior, armed with a shield, until he was wounded in the flank by a reed-spear. An elder of another, observing tribe, the Barababaraba, called it a day, the ordeal ended, and all celebrated a grand corroboree.[34]

Boonwurrung Dreaming Edit

 
Bunjil, the Wedge-tailed Eagle.
  • Bunjil and Pallian Creation Story: Bunjil is the Creator spirit of the Kulin People.
  • Birrarung Creation Story: formation of the Birrarung River.

Notable people Edit

 
Boonwurrung Elder N'Arweet Carolyn Briggs.

Alternative names Edit

  • Boonerwrung[36]
  • Bunuron
  • Bunurong, Bunwurrung, Boonwerung, Boonoorong and Bururong[37]
  • Bunwurru
  • Putnaroo, Putmaroo
  • Thurung (an eastern tribal exonym for the Bunjurong, meaning tiger snakes, a metaphor indicating the sneaky way they set up ambushes against the eastern tribes.)
  • Toturin (a Gunai term for 'black snake, used for several western Boonwurrung tribes.[5]

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ It is attested that in some Victorian tribes, such of those found in the Loddon area the advent of the smallpox was associated with s serpent, Mindye, whose maleficence could be conjured by sorcerers to harm people. An early colonist wrote: "Any plague is supposed to be brought on by the Mindye or some of its little ones. I have no doubt that, in generations gone by, there has been an awful plague of cholera or black fever, and that the wind at the time, or some other appearance from the north-west has given rise to this strange being." (Thomas 1898, pp. 84–85, 89–90)

Citations Edit

  1. ^ a b Gaughwin & Sullivan 1984, p. 88.
  2. ^ Blainey 2013, p. 8.
  3. ^ a b Howitt 2010, p. 338.
  4. ^ Dixon 2002, p. xxxv.
  5. ^ a b c Tindale 1974.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Clark & Briggs 2011.
  7. ^ Clark 1995, p. v, map.
  8. ^ Howitt 2010, p. 127.
  9. ^ Dunstan 2021.
  10. ^ Eddie, Rachel (1 July 2021). "Traditional owners formalised in new boundaries covering central Melbourne". The Age. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  11. ^ Barwick 1984, p. 114.
  12. ^ Barwick 1984, p. 117.
  13. ^ Clark & Heydon 2004, p. 9.
  14. ^ Gunson 1968, p. 5.
  15. ^ "MS 204 - Samuel Rawson Diary & Papers 1831-1857 Pp. 10 & 11". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  16. ^ Grayden, Christine (2010). "The Bunurong People". pidhs.org.au. Phillip Island & District Historical Society. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  17. ^ Pascoe 2018, p. [page needed].
  18. ^ a b Broome 2005, pp. 3–6.
  19. ^ Barwick 1984, p. 119.
  20. ^ Clark & Heydon 2004, p. 32.
  21. ^ Presland 1994, p. 40.
  22. ^ Gaughwin & Sullivan 1984, p. 82.
  23. ^ Broome 2005, pp. 5–6.
  24. ^ Shillinglaw 1879, p. 28.
  25. ^ Broome 2005, pp. 7–9.
  26. ^ Barwick 1984, p. 116, n.17.
  27. ^ Broome 2005, pp. 106–107.
  28. ^ Broome 2005, pp. 126–127.
  29. ^ Clark 2015, p. 19.
  30. ^ Clark 2015, p. 3.
  31. ^ Gaughwin & Sullivan 1984, p. 83.
  32. ^ Howitt 2010, pp. 336ff..
  33. ^ Clark 2015, p. 163, n.101.
  34. ^ Howitt 2010, pp. 338–340.
  35. ^ Munro 2014.
  36. ^ Boon Wurrung Foundation 2013.
  37. ^ Clark 1990.

Sources Edit

  • "About Us". Boon Wurrung Foundation. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  • Barwick, Diane E. (1984). McBryde, Isabel (ed.). "Mapping the past: an atlas of Victorian clans 1835–1904". Aboriginal History. 8 (2): 100–131. JSTOR 24045800.
  • Barwick, Laura (2005). "Briggs, Louisa (1836–1925)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press.
  • Blainey, Geoffrey (2013). A History of Victoria (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-29277-2.
  • Broome, Richard (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74114-569-4.
  • Canning, Shaun; Thiele, Frances (February 2010). Indigenous Cultural Heritage and History within the Metropolitan Melbourne Investigation Area: A report to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (PDF). Australian Cultural Heritage Management. pp. 1–48.
  • Chadwick, Vince (28 January 2013). "Action plan to support Victoria's indigenous barristers". The Age. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  • Clark, Ian; Briggs, Carolyn (2011). The Yalukit-Willam: The First People of Hobsons Bay (PDF). Hobsons Bay City Council.
  • Clark, Ian D (1990). Aboriginal languages and clans: an historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900. Dept. of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University. ISBN 978-0-909685-41-6.
  • Clark, Ian D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: a register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859 (PDF). AIATSIS. pp. 135–139. ISBN 0-85575-281-5.
  • Clark, Ian D. (2015). A Peep at the Blacks': A History of Tourism at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, 1863–1924. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-110-46824-3.
  • Clark, Ian D.; Heydon, Toby (2004). A Bend in the Yarra: A History of the Merri Creek Protectorate Station and Merri Creek Aboriginal School 1841–1851. Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 978-0-855-75469-3.
  • "Conversations with Richard Fidler". ABC Radio. 1 February 2016.
  • "The Coranderrk Aboriginal Station". The Argus. No. 9, 428. Melbourne. 1 September 1876. p. 7. Retrieved 28 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  • Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
  • Dunstan, Joseph (26 June 2021). "Melbourne's birth destroyed Bunurong and Wurundjeri boundaries. 185 years on, they've been redrawn". ABC News. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  • Fels, Marie Hansen (2011). 'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula,1839–1840 (PDF). ANU Press. ISBN 978-1-921-86212-0.
  • Gaughwin, Denise; Sullivan, Hilary (1984). McBryde, Isabel (ed.). "Aboriginal boundaries and movement in Western Port, Victoria" (PDF). Aboriginal History. 8 (1): 80–98. ISSN 0314-8769.
  • Gunson, Niel (1968). The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire. F. W. Cheshire.
  • Howitt, Alfred William (2010) [First published 1904]. The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-00632-3.
  • McGaw, Janet; Pieris, Anoma (2014). Assembling the Centre: Architecture for Indigenous Cultures: Australia and Beyond. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-59894-7.
  • Munro, Kate (14 August 2014). "Actor Jack Charles: the tumultuous life of a stolen child". The Guardian.
  • Pascoe, Bruce (2018). Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the birth of agriculture (New ed.). Broome, Western Australia. ISBN 978-1-921248-01-6. OCLC 1038067363.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Presland, Gary (1994) [First published 1985]. Aboriginal Melbourne. The lost land of the Kulin people. McPhee Gribble. ISBN 978-0-869-14346-9.
  • Presland, Gary (1997). The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region. Harriland Press. ISBN 978-064633150-8.
  • Shaw, A. G. L. (2003). A History of the Port Phillip District: Victoria Before Separation. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522-85064-2.
  • Shillinglaw, John Joseph (1879). Historical records of Port Phillip: the first annals of the colony of Victoria (PDF). Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 15–30 – via Internet Archive.
  • Thomas, William (1898). "Letter 14. Account of the Aborigines" (PDF). In Bride, Thomas Francis (ed.). Letters from Victorian Pioneers. Melbourne: Robert S Brain Government Printer. pp. 84–100 – via Internet Archive.
  • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Bunurong (VIC)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.

External links Edit

  • Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation

boonwurrung, also, spelt, bunurong, wurrung, aboriginal, people, kulin, nation, traditional, owners, land, from, werribee, river, wilsons, promontory, australian, state, victoria, their, territory, includes, part, what, city, suburbs, melbourne, they, were, ca. The Boonwurrung 2 3 also spelt Bunurong or Bun wurrung are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria Their territory includes part of what is now the city and suburbs of Melbourne They were called the Western Port or Port Philip tribe by the early settlers and were in alliance with other tribes in the Kulin nation having particularly strong ties to the Wurundjeri people BoonwurrungTotal populationPre contact at least 500 1 Regions with significant populationsLanguagesBoonwurrung language EnglishReligionAustralian Aboriginal mythologyRelated ethnic groupssee List of Indigenous Australian group namesThe Registered Aboriginal Party representing the Boonwurrung people is the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation Contents 1 Language 2 Country 3 Clan structures 4 History and culture 4 1 Traditional life 4 1 1 Food and hunting 5 Early European invasion 5 1 Dispossession 6 Law and war 7 Boonwurrung Dreaming 8 Notable people 9 Alternative names 10 See also 11 Notes 11 1 Citations 12 Sources 13 External linksLanguage EditMain article Boonwurrung language Boonwurrung is one of the Kulin languages and belongs to the Pama Nyungan language family 4 The ethnonym occasionally used in early writings to refer to the Bunwurrung namely Bunwurru is derived from the word bu n meaning no and wur u signifying either lip or speech 5 This indicates that the Boonwurrung language may not be spoken outside of their Country their clan s territory 6 Country Edit nbsp Eagles Nest in Bunurong Marine National Park part of Boonwurrung Country The Boonwurrung people are predominantly saltwater people whose lands waters and cosmos encompassed some 3 000 square miles 7 800 km2 of territory around Western Port Bay and the Mornington Peninsula Its western boundary was set at Werribee To the southeast it extended from Mordialloc through to Anderson Inlet as far as Wilson s Promontory Inland its borders reached the Dandenong Ranges and ran eastwards as far as the vicinity of Warragul 5 7 8 Saw nothing but grassy country open forest plenty gum and wild cherry Saw where the natives had encamped plenty of trees notched where they had climbed for opossums There are herds of forest kangaroo immensely large a short distance from the settlement also flocks of emus on the western plains fifty and sixty in a drove The country through which I travelled to the Salt Water Maribyrnong River had a park like appearance kangaroo grass being theprincipal the trees she oak wattle honeysuckle Saw a blue flower thorny appearance Numerous old native huts George Robinson 1836 The journals of George Augustus Robinson chief protector Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate In June 2021 the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation both registered Aboriginal Parties agreed on a redrawing of their traditional boundaries developed 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 Bunurong 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 9 However these new boundaries are disputed by some Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people including N arweet Carolyn Briggs of the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council 10 In Boonwurrung belief their territory was carved out by the creator Loo errn as he moved from Yarra Flats down to his final resting place at Wamoon and as custodians of this marr ne beek country they required outsiders to observe certain ritual prohibitions and to learn their language if the newcomers were to enter their land without harm 11 Clan structures EditCommunities consisted of six land owning groups called clans that spoke the Boonwurrung language and were connected through cultural and mutual interests totems trading initiatives and marriage ties Each had an Arweet or clan leader 12 The clans are Yalukit willam East of Werribee River to St Kilda Mayone bulluk Carrum Carrum Swamp Ngaruk Willam Brighton Mordialloc Dandenong and the area from Mount Martha to Mount Eliza Yallock Bullock Bass River and Tooradin Boonwurrung Bulluk Point Nepean to Cape Schank Yowenjerre Tarwin River 13 Access by other clans to land and resources such as the Birrarung or Yarra River was sometimes restricted depending on the state of the resource in question For example if a river or creek had been fished regularly throughout the fishing season and fish supplies were down fishing was limited or stopped entirely by the clan who owned that resource until fish were given a chance to recover During this time other resources were utilised for food This ensured the sustained use of the resources available to them As with most other Kulin territories penalties such as spearings were enforced upon trespassers citation needed Boonwurrung moieties classified people either as Bunjil that is eaglehawk or Waang namely raven 14 History and culture EditTraditional life Edit Information on traditional life has been passed down by Boonwurrung people from one generation to the next and was also recorded by European settlers and administrators 6 The Yalukit willam clan of the Boonwurrung were semi nomadic hunter gatherers who moved around to seasonal food sources in their territory to take advantage of seasonably available food resources Their hunting equipment and techniques had been highly developed to the environment and they had a highly detailed knowledge of their Country This knowledge was passed from one generation to the next They had to work only about five hours a day 6 Dogs were important and ceremonially buried 15 The Boonwurrung people have oral histories that recount in detail the flooding of Port Phillip Bay ten thousand years ago The boundaries of Boonwurrung territory are defined by further floods 5000 years ago Prior to this time the bay was scrub filled and passable on foot and the Boonwurrung people hunted kangaroo and possums on it 6 Food and hunting Edit The Yalukit willam would spend up to a few weeks in one spot depending on the water and food supply Major camps were often set up close to permanent fresh water leaving archaeological evidence of the places they lived These archaeological sites include surface scatters shell middens isolated artefacts and burials 6 nbsp Murnong Yam Daisy Men were the primary hunters They hunted kangaroos possums kangaroo rats bandicoots wombats and lizards They also caught fish and eels and collected shellfish Some Boonwurrung people made seasonal trips in canoes to French Island where they could gather swan eggs 16 In coastal and swamp areas there was plenty of bird life to hunt including ducks and swans There were abundant eels yabbies and fish in Stony and Kororoit creeks and the Yarra River Men were experts at spearing eels and Robinson notes in his diary in 1841 two men catching 40lbs of eel in a very short time The coast provided saltwater fish mussels cockles and small crabs 6 Women were primarily gatherers Murnong or yam daisy was a favourite food Others were the black wattle gum the pith of tree ferns native cherries kangaroo apples and various fungi Murnong grew all year was best eaten in spring Tubers were collected in vast amounts in string bags Fresh murnong could be eaten raw or if less fresh murnong could be roasted or baked in earth ovens Murnong used to grow in great amounts along the Kororoit Creek and other creeks in the area and covered the plain to the west 6 These murnong fields were destroyed by the introduction of sheep Scholar Bruce Pascoe attributes the widespread fields of murrnong in certain areas to active farming by Aboriginal peoples 17 Women collected large quantities of tadpoles which were cooked beneath a bed of hot coals 6 Robinson s diary describes how the Yalukit willam caught emus and restrained their dingos When the natives want to kill emu they get up a cherry tree before daylight with a large spear and having put a quantity ofcherries in a certain spot under the tree conceal themselves above with a clear place for them to thrust the spear down At day dawn the emu is heard coming by the noise it makes and if this is a tree they have been at before they are sureto come again when they begin eating and then the native thrusts the spear through them Saw several wild dogs on the settlement belonging to the country The aborigines tie up the fore foot of their dogs to prevent them going astray instead of roping them round the neck as we do At the native encampment I saw two dogs thus tied George Robinson 1840 The journals of George Augustus Robinson chief protector Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate Early European invasion EditInitial contact was made in February 1801 when Lieutenant Murray and his crew from the Lady Nelson came ashore for fresh water near present day Sorrento A wary exchange of spears and stone axes for shirts mirrors and a steel axe ended when the crew of the Lady Nelson panicked resulting in spears flying musket shots and the use of the ship s cannon wounding several fleeing Boonwurrung people 18 The following month Captain Milius from the French ship Naturaliste in the Baudin expedition danced alone on a beach at Western Port for the natives in a much more peaceful contact 18 Just before and overlapping the period of British exploration and settlement the Boonwurrung were involved in a long running dispute with the Gunai Kurnai people from Gippsland According to William Barak the last traditional elder of the Wurundjeri people the conflict was a dispute over resources which resulted in heavy casualties being suffered by the Boonwurrung Many Gunnai raids occurred to abduct Boonwurrung women The Yowengerra had almost been completely annihilated by 1836 largely as a result of attacks from the Gunai 19 During 1833 34 around 60 70 Bunurong people if a report has been correctly interpreted may have been killed in a raid by Gunai when they were camped to the north of Carrum Carrum Swamp 20 Dispossession Edit nbsp Yonki Yonka a Boonwurrung man The Boonwurrung people living primarily along the Port Phillip and Western Port coast may have had their livelihoods affected by European seal hunters The sealers abduction of Boonwurrung women and taken to Bass Strait Islands and Tasmania may have caused inter tribal conflicts and by analogy this may also apply to the Boonwurrung whose coastlands were visited by sealers 21 A report by Jules Dumont d Urville in 1830 attributed the absence of Boonwurrung on Phillip Island which was a camp for sealers as due to the latter s behavior 22 As late as 1833 nine Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung women and a boy Yonki Yonka were kidnapped and ferried across to the sealers Bass Strait island bases 23 Contact with sealers would have exposed the coastal tribes to European diseases and this would have exercised a heavy impact on demographics and the economic and social ties binding the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples as would the possible effects of infectious diseases contracted from these sealers 1 James Fleming one of the party of surveyor Charles Grimes in HMS Cumberland who explored the Maribyrnong River and the Yarra River as far as Dights Falls in February 1803 reported smallpox scars on several aboriginal people he met suggesting that a smallpox epidemic might have swept through the tribes around Port Philip before 1803 reducing the population 24 Broome puts forward that two epidemics of smallpox decimated the population of the Kulin tribes by perhaps killing half each time in the 1790s and again around 1830 25 a This theory has been challenged however by modern historical diagnosticians who argue that the observed symptoms in the early ethnographical literature are compatible with impetigo and ringworm 26 One particularly notable person at the time of European settlement in Victoria was Derrimut a Boonwurrung Elder who informed early European settlers in October 1835 of an impending attack by clans from the Woiwurrung group The colonists armed themselves and the attack was averted Benbow and Billibellary from the Wurundjeri also acted to protect the colonists as part of their duty of hospitality Derrimut later became very disillusioned and died in the Benevolent Asylum at the age of about 54 years in 1864 A few colonists erected a tombstone to Derrimut in Melbourne General Cemetery in his honour citation needed By 1839 the Boonwurrung had been reduced to 80 90 people with only 4 of 19 children under four years old from a probable pre contact population of greater than 500 people By 1850 Protector William Thomas estimated just 28 Bunurong people living on Boonwurrung land citation needed In 1852 the Boonwurrung were allocated 340 hectares 840 acres at Mordialloc Creek while the Woiwurrung gained 782 hectares along the Yarra at Warrandyte The Aboriginal reserves were never staffed by whites and were not permanent camps but acted as distribution depots where rations and blankets were distributed with the intention being to keep the tribes away from the growing settlement of Melbourne 27 The Aboriginal Protection Board revoked these two reserves in 1862 1863 considering them now too close to Melbourne 28 In March 1863 after three years of upheaval the surviving Kulin leaders among them Simon Wonga and William Barak led forty Wurundjeri Taungurung Goulburn River and Boonwurrung people over the Black Spur and squatted on a traditional camping site on Badger Creek near Healesville and requested ownership of the site This became Coranderrk Station named after the Woiwurrung word for the Victorian Christmas bush 29 Coranderrk was closed in 1924 and its occupants were moved to Lake Tyers in Gippsland 30 Law and war EditGreat enmity existed in particular between the Boonwurrung and the eastern Gunai who were later deemed responsible for playing a role in the drastic reduction of the tribe s population 31 Injury or death to a tribal member usually resulted in a conference to assess the facts and where thought unlawful revenge was taken 32 In 1839 after one or two Boonwurrung Woiwurrung were killed a party of 15 men left for Geelong in order to retaliate against the malefactors the Wathaurong 33 In 1840 the Boonwurrung became convinced that a man from a tribe in Echuca had used sorcery to ordain the death of one of their warriors whose name had been sung while a possum bone discarded after a Boonwurrung meal and encased in a kangaroo s leg bone was roasted Shortly afterward the named Boonwurrung man died and the tribe revenged itself on the first Echuca tribesman who then came to visit their territory 3 It was arranged by word of mouth passing from Echuca through the Nirababaluk and Wurundjeri for a meeting to have justice done at Merri Creek Nine or ten of the killed Echuca tribesman s kinsmen threw spears and boomerangs at the Boonwurrung warrior armed with a shield until he was wounded in the flank by a reed spear An elder of another observing tribe the Barababaraba called it a day the ordeal ended and all celebrated a grand corroboree 34 Boonwurrung Dreaming Edit nbsp Bunjil the Wedge tailed Eagle Bunjil and Pallian Creation Story Bunjil is the Creator spirit of the Kulin People Birrarung Creation Story formation of the Birrarung River Notable people Edit nbsp Boonwurrung Elder N Arweet Carolyn Briggs Jack Charles 1943 2022 actor 35 Derrimut c 1810 28 May 1864 arweet headman of the Boonwurrung Carolyn Briggs AM Louisa Briggs Maree Clarke artist Alternative names EditBoonerwrung 36 Bunuron Bunurong Bunwurrung Boonwerung Boonoorong and Bururong 37 Bunwurru Putnaroo Putmaroo Thurung an eastern tribal exonym for the Bunjurong meaning tiger snakes a metaphor indicating the sneaky way they set up ambushes against the eastern tribes Toturin a Gunai term for black snake used for several western Boonwurrung tribes 5 See also EditAustralian Aboriginal enumeration Possum skin cloakNotes Edit It is attested that in some Victorian tribes such of those found in the Loddon area the advent of the smallpox was associated with s serpent Mindye whose maleficence could be conjured by sorcerers to harm people An early colonist wrote Any plague is supposed to be brought on by the Mindye or some of its little ones I have no doubt that in generations gone by there has been an awful plague of cholera or black fever and that the wind at the time or some other appearance from the north west has given rise to this strange being Thomas 1898 pp 84 85 89 90 Citations Edit a b Gaughwin amp Sullivan 1984 p 88 Blainey 2013 p 8 a b Howitt 2010 p 338 Dixon 2002 p xxxv a b c Tindale 1974 a b c d e f g h Clark amp Briggs 2011 Clark 1995 p v map Howitt 2010 p 127 Dunstan 2021 Eddie Rachel 1 July 2021 Traditional owners formalised in new boundaries covering central Melbourne The Age Retrieved 29 August 2022 Barwick 1984 p 114 Barwick 1984 p 117 Clark amp Heydon 2004 p 9 Gunson 1968 p 5 MS 204 Samuel Rawson Diary amp Papers 1831 1857 Pp 10 amp 11 National Library of Australia Retrieved 29 August 2022 Grayden Christine 2010 The Bunurong People pidhs org au Phillip Island amp District Historical Society Retrieved 29 August 2022 Pascoe 2018 p page needed a b Broome 2005 pp 3 6 Barwick 1984 p 119 Clark amp Heydon 2004 p 32 Presland 1994 p 40 Gaughwin amp Sullivan 1984 p 82 Broome 2005 pp 5 6 Shillinglaw 1879 p 28 Broome 2005 pp 7 9 Barwick 1984 p 116 n 17 Broome 2005 pp 106 107 Broome 2005 pp 126 127 Clark 2015 p 19 Clark 2015 p 3 Gaughwin amp Sullivan 1984 p 83 Howitt 2010 pp 336ff Clark 2015 p 163 n 101 Howitt 2010 pp 338 340 Munro 2014 Boon Wurrung Foundation 2013 Clark 1990 Sources Edit About Us Boon Wurrung Foundation 6 August 2013 Retrieved 20 August 2022 Barwick Diane E 1984 McBryde Isabel ed Mapping the past an atlas of Victorian clans 1835 1904 Aboriginal History 8 2 100 131 JSTOR 24045800 Barwick Laura 2005 Briggs Louisa 1836 1925 Australian Dictionary of Biography Melbourne University Press Blainey Geoffrey 2013 A History of Victoria 2nd ed Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 107 29277 2 Broome Richard 2005 Aboriginal Victorians A History Since 1800 Allen amp Unwin ISBN 978 1 74114 569 4 Canning Shaun Thiele Frances February 2010 Indigenous Cultural Heritage and History within the Metropolitan Melbourne Investigation Area A report to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council PDF Australian Cultural Heritage Management pp 1 48 Chadwick Vince 28 January 2013 Action plan to support Victoria s indigenous barristers The Age Retrieved 3 January 2019 Clark Ian Briggs Carolyn 2011 The Yalukit Willam The First People of Hobsons Bay PDF Hobsons Bay City Council Clark Ian D 1990 Aboriginal languages and clans an historical atlas of western and central Victoria 1800 1900 Dept of Geography and Environmental Science Monash University ISBN 978 0 909685 41 6 Clark Ian D 1995 Scars in the Landscape a register of massacre sites in western Victoria 1803 1859 PDF AIATSIS pp 135 139 ISBN 0 85575 281 5 Clark Ian D 2015 A Peep at the Blacks A History of Tourism at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station 1863 1924 Walter de Gruyter ISBN 978 3 110 46824 3 Clark Ian D Heydon Toby 2004 A Bend in the Yarra A History of the Merri Creek Protectorate Station and Merri Creek Aboriginal School 1841 1851 Aboriginal Studies Press ISBN 978 0 855 75469 3 Conversations with Richard Fidler ABC Radio 1 February 2016 The Coranderrk Aboriginal Station The Argus No 9 428 Melbourne 1 September 1876 p 7 Retrieved 28 August 2017 via National Library of Australia Dixon Robert M W 2002 Australian Languages Their Nature and Development Vol 1 Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 47378 1 Dunstan Joseph 26 June 2021 Melbourne s birth destroyed Bunurong and Wurundjeri boundaries 185 years on they ve been redrawn ABC News Retrieved 1 July 2021 Fels Marie Hansen 2011 I Succeeded Once The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula 1839 1840 PDF ANU Press ISBN 978 1 921 86212 0 Gaughwin Denise Sullivan Hilary 1984 McBryde Isabel ed Aboriginal boundaries and movement in Western Port Victoria PDF Aboriginal History 8 1 80 98 ISSN 0314 8769 Gunson Niel 1968 The Good Country Cranbourne Shire F W Cheshire Howitt Alfred William 2010 First published 1904 The Native Tribes of South East Australia Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 108 00632 3 McGaw Janet Pieris Anoma 2014 Assembling the Centre Architecture for Indigenous Cultures Australia and Beyond Routledge ISBN 978 1 317 59894 7 Munro Kate 14 August 2014 Actor Jack Charles the tumultuous life of a stolen child The Guardian Pascoe Bruce 2018 Dark Emu Aboriginal Australia and the birth of agriculture New ed Broome Western Australia ISBN 978 1 921248 01 6 OCLC 1038067363 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Presland Gary 1994 First published 1985 Aboriginal Melbourne The lost land of the Kulin people McPhee Gribble ISBN 978 0 869 14346 9 Presland Gary 1997 The First Residents of Melbourne s Western Region Harriland Press ISBN 978 064633150 8 Shaw A G L 2003 A History of the Port Phillip District Victoria Before Separation Melbourne University Press ISBN 978 0 522 85064 2 Shillinglaw John Joseph 1879 Historical records of Port Phillip the first annals of the colony of Victoria PDF Melbourne J Ferres pp 15 30 via Internet Archive Thomas William 1898 Letter 14 Account of the Aborigines PDF In Bride Thomas Francis ed Letters from Victorian Pioneers Melbourne Robert S Brain Government Printer pp 84 100 via Internet Archive Tindale Norman Barnett 1974 Bunurong VIC Aboriginal Tribes of Australia Their Terrain Environmental Controls Distribution Limits and Proper Names Australian National University Press ISBN 978 0 708 10741 6 External links EditBunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Boonwurrung amp oldid 1174547296, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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