Darkinyung people

Last updated

The Darkinyung are an indigenous Australian people of New South Wales.

Contents

Country

According to R. H. Mathews, the Darkinyung's territory encompassed the lands to the south of the Hunter River, from Jerry's Plains towards Maitland, extending as far to the south as Wollombi Brook, Putty Creek, inclusive of the Macdonald, Colo, and Hawkesbury rivers. [1]

Mathews description of the Darkinyung territory is in conflict with the current unsubstantiated claims of the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council that the Central Coast NSW Region was Darkinyung land. [2]

History of contact with white settlers

In 1789, Governor Arthur Phillip conducted a boat expedition upstream to the branches of the Hawkesbury River, encountering the local inhabitants. He returned overland in 1791; members of his party who were natives of the Cumberland Plain confirmed that the people there were of a distinct group that spoke a different language. [3] [4] Phillip wrote: "Two of those natives who have lived amongst us for some time were with us, which was from them that we understood, our new friends had a language different from theirs." The British referred to these inhabitants of the upper Hawkesbury, Richmond Hill, Kurrajong and Springwood as "The Branch natives".

Ford writes that, after settlement of the upper Hawkesbury, "'The Branch' natives were pacified in 1805 by a massacre led by Andrew Thompson towards Springwood." [3]

In 1824, John Blaxland, Jnr, learned that the mountain people south of the Hunter River referred to their land as Wallambine. Later, Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell instructed that a new town in the region be named Wollombi. The term "Wollombi Tribe" came to be used for that group. [4]

By the last years of the 19th century, only a remnant, mostly half-castes, of 60 Darkinyung had survived, concentrated on a government reserve set aside for aborigines on the Hawkesbury river, 12 miles (19 km) from Windsor. Of these, only two very old men had been initiated, Hoe Gooburra and Charley Clark. It was thanks to these elderly informants that much of what is known of Darkinung traditional ways was able to be recorded by Mathews. [1]

Bora ceremony

The Bora Ceremony of the Darkinyung people is described in considerable detail in Matthews submission to the Royal Society of Victoria titles "The Burbung of the Darkinung Tribes".

Name

The name has been variously spelled Darkinyung (AIATSIS), Darkinjung (Tindale), Darkiñung (Ford), Darkinung, Darkin-yûng, Darkinyoong, Darkinjang, etc.

Notes

    Citations

    1. 1 2 Mathews (1897), p. 1.
    2. Darkinjung LALC. "About Us" . Retrieved 12 December 2023.
    3. 1 2 Ford (2012), p. 5.
    4. 1 2 Ford (2013), p. 1.

    Sources

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawkesbury River</span> River in New South Wales, Australia

    The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney. Between Wisemans Ferry and the Pacific Ocean marks the boundary of Greater Metropolitan Sydney in the south and the Central Coast region to the north.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Dharug</span> Aboriginal Australian people

    The Dharug or Darug people, formerly known as the Broken Bay tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people, who share strong ties of kinship and, in pre-colonial times, lived as skilled hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout much of what is modern-day Sydney.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonnarua</span> An Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales

    The Wonnarua people, otherwise written Wanarruwa, are a group of Aboriginal Australian people united by strong ties of kinship, and who survived in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as the Upper Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. Their creation spirit is Baiami, also known as Koin, the creator of all things and the Keeper of the Valley.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Awabakal</span> Australian Aboriginal people of mid north coastal New South Wales

    The Awabakal people, are those Aboriginal Australians who identify with or are descended from the Awabakal tribe and its clans, Indigenous to the coastal area of what is now known as the Hunter Region of New South Wales. Their traditional territory spread from Wollombi in the west, to the Lower Hunter River near Newcastle and Lake Macquarie in the north.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuringgai</span> Aboriginal Australian people of an area in New South Wales

    Kuringgai is an ethnonym referring to an Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamilaraay and the area around Sydney, and an historical people with its own distinctive language, located in part of that territory.

    Darkinjung is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Darkinjung people. While no audio recordings of the language survive, several researchers have compiled wordlists and grammatical descriptions. It has been classified as a language no longer fully spoken and it can be classified as needing a language renewal program. It was spoken adjacent to Dharuk, Wiradhuri, Guringai, Gamilaraay, and Awabakal. The Darkinjung tribe occupied a small part of southeastern Australia inside what is now the New South Wales area. They likely inhabited a considerable tract of land within Hunter, Northumberland, and Cook counties.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandangara</span>

    The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire, The Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Berambing, New South Wales</span> Town in New South Wales, Australia

    Berambing is a rural locality in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. The settlement is clustered around the Bells Line of Road, between Windsor and Lithgow, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Bilpin. It is situated across both the City of Hawkesbury and City of Blue Mountains local government areas. The settlement had a population of 106 people at the 2016 census.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Bora (Australian)</span>

    Bora is an initiation ceremony of the Aboriginal people of Eastern Australia. The word "bora" also refers to the site on which the initiation is performed. At such a site, boys, having reached puberty, achieve the status of men. The initiation ceremony differs from Aboriginal culture to culture, but often, at a physical level, involved scarification, circumcision, subincision and, in some regions, also the removal of a tooth. During the rites, the youths who were to be initiated were taught traditional sacred songs, the secrets of the tribe's religious visions, dances, and traditional lore. Many different clans would assemble to participate in an initiation ceremony. Women and children were not permitted to be present at the sacred bora ground where these rituals were undertaken.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Sackville, New South Wales</span> Suburb of City of Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia

    Sackville (Doorumbolooa) is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in the City of Hawkesbury and at the 2016 census had a population of 298, thirteen of whom identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Bundjalung people</span> Aboriginal Australian people of New South

    The Bundjalung people, also spelled Bunjalung, Badjalang and Bandjalang, are Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of a region based roughly around the northern coastal area of New South Wales, and a portion of south-east Queensland, with the region stretching as far north as Beaudesert, and stretching south to around Grafton. The region is located approximately 550 kilometres (340 mi) northeast of Sydney, and 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Brisbane, a large area that includes the Bundjalung National Park.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Wollombi</span> Town in New South Wales, Australia

    Wollombi is a small village in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within the Cessnock City Council LGA, situated 29 kilometres (18 mi) southwest of Cessnock and 128 km (80 mi) north of Sydney. To the south is the village of Laguna, to the east, the village of Millfield and to the north, the village of Broke.

    Gringai otherwise known as Guringay, is the name for one of the Australian Aboriginal people who were recorded as inhabiting an area of the Hunter Valley in eastern New South Wales, north of Sydney. They were united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups as a clan of the Worimi people.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Bell Jr.</span> Australian politician

    Archibald Bell was an English-born Australian explorer and politician.

    The Battle of Richmond Hill, also known as the Battle of the Hawkesbury and the Richmond Hill Massacre, was a battle of the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars, which were fought between the Indigenous Darug people and the New South Wales Corps.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars</span> Australian frontier conflict

    The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars (1794–1816) were a series of conflicts where British forces, including armed settlers and detachments of the British Army in Australia, fought against Indigenous clans inhabiting the Hawkesbury River region and the surrounding areas to the west of Sydney. The wars began in 1794, when the British started to construct farms along the river, some of which were established by soldiers.

    The Wotjobaluk are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. They are closely related to the Wergaia people.

    The Maikulan were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland. They have sometimes been confused with the Maithakari.

    The Gawambaraay (Kawambarai) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of New South Wales, closely connected to the Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) people. Their traditional lands are in the central–western district of New South Wales

    Reverend Dr John Fraser was an Australian ethnologist, linguist, school headmaster and author of many scholarly works. He is known for his revised and expanded version of Lancelot Threlkeld's 1834 work, An Australian Grammar, with the new title An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser (1892). In this, Fraser created new divisions and terminology for some Aboriginal groups in New South Wales.