Birri Gubba

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The Birri Gubba people, formerly known as Biria, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland.

Contents

Language

The Birri Gubba people spoke a number of languages in the Biri language group. [1]

Country

The Biria held sway over some 4,200 square miles (11,000 km2), from the Bowen River north to its junction with the Burdekin. On its eastern flank was the Clarke Range, while its western borders reached the Leichhardt Range. To the south, its territory extended down to Netherdale. [2]

Alternative names

Alternative names for the Biria people include Biriaba, Birigaba, Breeaba, Perembba, Perenbba, [3] and Birri Gubba. [4] [5]

European contact

In 1846, after their ship Peruvian was wrecked, a group of British crew members made it to shore on Birri Gubba land, and were helped to survive by Birri Gubba people. The castaways stayed with various groups for some time, with one, James Morrill, living among the Aboriginal people for around 17 years. [5] His memoir, Sketch of a Residence Among the Aboriginals of Northern Queensland for Seventeen Years tells of his efforts to leave his group of Birra Gubba people on their land, and to encourage harmonious living between the two groups. [6] Today he is seen as an early pioneer of Indigenous land rights in Australia. [5]

A forthcoming (2022) film, The Wild One starring Matt Oxley, John Jarratt and Marlena Law, is based on the story of Morrill and the people who took him in, directed by Australian filmmaker Nathan Colquhoun. [5]

Notable Biri people

Notes

    Citations

    1. ↑ Dixon 2002, p. xxxiii.
    2. ↑ Tindale 1974, p. 166.
    3. ↑ Tindale 1974 , p. 166
    4. ↑ "Gubulla Munda". Queensland. 27 October 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
    5. 1 2 3 4 Huntsdale, Justin (3 May 2022). "Filmmaker Nathan Colquhoun captures sailor James Morrill's fight for Indigenous rights". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 2 May 2022.
    6. ↑ Morrill, James (1863). "Sketch of a Residence Among the Aboriginals of Northern Queensland for Seventeen Years: being a narrative of my life, shipwreck, landing, on the coast, residence among the Aboriginals..." (Original text plus notes). Notes by Daniel Lavery, 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2022– via James Cook University.
    7. 1 2 3 4 5 Austlit. "First Nations of the North-East - Who and Where are the Biri / Birri Gubba People?". AustLit. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
    8. ↑ "National Co-design Group". Indigenous Voice.
    9. ↑ "Smallwood, Gracelyn (1951-)", Trove, National Library of Australia

    Sources

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    Birri may refer to:

    James Morrill (castaway)

    James Morrill was an English sailor aboard the vessel Peruvian which became shipwrecked off the coast of north-eastern Australia in 1846. He survived a journey in a makeshift raft to the mainland near where the modern city of Townsville is now situated, and was taken in by a local clan of Aboriginal Australians. He adopted their language and customs and lived as a member of their society for 17 years. By the early 1860s, British colonisation had reached the area and Morrill decided to return to the European way of living. Morrill wrote a memoir of his experiences and died soon after in the town of Bowen in 1865. Morrill is regarded as the first white man to have resided permanently in North Queensland and is one of only a few European people to have lived for an extended period completely within traditional Aboriginal culture.

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