 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Total population | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| approx. 13,000 | |||||||||
| Regions with significant populations | |||||||||
| Languages | |||||||||
| Gamilaroi language, English and Aboriginal English | |||||||||
| Religion | |||||||||
| Mixed, traditional | |||||||||
| Related ethnic groups | |||||||||
| Indigenous Australians | |||||||||
The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Australia.
The ethnonym Gamilaroi is formed from gamil, meaning "no", and the suffix -(b)araay, bearing the sense of "having". It is a common practice among Australian tribes to have themselves identified according to their respective words for "no". [1]
The Kamilaroi Highway, the Sydney Ferries Limited vehicular ferry "Kamilaroi" (1901–1933), the stage name of Australian rapper and singer the Kid Laroi and a cultivar of Durum wheat have all been named after the Kamilaroi people. [2]
Gamilaraay language is classified as one of the Pama–Nyungan languages. The language is no longer spoken, as the last fluent speakers died in the 1950s. However, some parts have been reconstructed by late field work, which includes substantial recordings of the related language, Yuwaalaraay, which continued to be spoken down to the 1980s. Analysing these materials has permitted a good deal of reconstructive work. Robert M. W. Dixon and his student Peter Austin recorded some around Moree, while Corinne Williams wrote a thesis on the Yuwaaliyaay dialect spoken at Walgett and Lightning Ridge. [3]
The Gamilaraay, like many other tribes, taught young men a secret language, called tyake, during their rites of initiation. In these systems, the normal profane terms used in everyday speech had to be substituted with the special mystical vocabulary. [4] [5]
According to Norman Tindale's estimation, the Gamilaraay's tribal domains encompassed some 75,000 km2 (29,000 sq mi), [6] from around Singleton in the Hunter Valley through to the Warrumbungle Mountains in the west and up through the present-day centres of Quirindi, Gunnedah, Tamworth, Narrabri, Wee Waa, Walgett, Moree, Collarenebri, Lightning Ridge and Mungindi in New South Wales, to Nindigully in south west Queensland.
The Kamilaroi were hunters and agriculturalists [7] with a band-level social organisation. Important vegetable foods were yams and other roots, as well as a sterculia grain, which was made into a bread. Insect larvae, frogs, and eggs of several different animals were also gathered. Various birds, kangaroos, emus, possums, echidnas, and bandicoots were among the important animals hunted. Fish were also consumed, as were crayfish, mussels, and shrimp. Men typically hunted, cleaned, and prepared the game for cooking. Women did the actual cooking, in addition to fishing and farming. Individual Kamilaroi did not eat animals that were their totems.
The nation was made up of many smaller family groups who had their own parcels of land to sustain them. One of the great Kings of this tribe was "Red Chief", who is buried near Gunnedah. The Kamilaroi were regarded as fierce warriors and there is ample evidence of intertribal warfare. The Northern Gamilaroi people have a strong cultural connection with the Bigambul people, and the tribes met regularly for joint ceremonies at Boobera Lagoon near the present-day town of Goondiwindi.
Kamilaroi tradition includes Baiame, the ancestor or patron god. The Baiame story tells how Baiame came down from the sky to the land, and created rivers, mountains, and forests. He then gave the people their laws of life, traditions, songs, and culture. He also created the first initiation site. This is known as a bora; a place where boys were initiated into manhood. When he had finished, he returned to the sky, and people called him the Sky Hero or All Father or Sky Father. He is said to be married to Birrahgnooloo (Birran-gnulu), who is often identified as an emu, and with whom he has a son Turramūlan. [8] In other stories Turramūlan is said to be brother to Baiame. It was forbidden to mention or talk about the name of Baiame publicly. Women were not allowed to see drawings of Baiame nor approach Baiame sites, [8] which are often male initiation sites. Women were instead instructed by Turramūlan's sister, Muni Burribian. In rock paintings Baiame is often depicted as a human figure with a large head-dress or hairstyle, with lines of footsteps nearby. He is always painted in front view; Turramūlan is drawn in profile. Baiame is often shown with internal decorations such as waistbands, vertical lines running down the body, bands and dots.
In Kamilaroi star-lore myth it is recounted that Orion, known as Berriberri [a] set out in pursuit of the Pleiades (Miai-miai) and cornered them in a mother-tree where they were transformed into yellow and white cockatoos. His attempts to capture them were blocked by Turramūlan, a one-eyed, one-legged legendary figure associated with the pole star. [9] They called Orion's Belt, ghūtūr, [8] a girdle that covered his invincible boomerang. [10] [8] The seventh of Miai-miai, being less beautiful, was shy and afraid and she was thus transformed into the least visible of the seven Pleiades. [8]
The rite of passage whereby Gamilaraay youths are inducted by initiation into full membership of the tribe was conducted at a Bora ceremony on a bora site especially prepared for the occasion. Tribes ready to participate in such rituals are contacted, and the ceremonies lasted several days.
The major bora, called Baiame's ground, was cleared on loamy umah soil, roughly 23 metres (75 ft) in diameter, with the scraped earth used to create an embanked ring about 20–23 centimetres (8–9 in) high to fence off the sacred space, [11] apart from one opening which led into a thunburran or narrows pathway that ran some 250 metres (270 yd) off to a smaller circle, some 14 metres (47 ft) in diameter, called a goonaba, constructed in a similar fashion, [12] Inside this ring two stumps (warrengahlee) formed from uprooted trees, one a coolabah the other a belar, trimmed and turned upside down so that the roots, decorated with twists of bark, flared out.
The pathway leading novices from the larger to the smaller circle was adorned with yammunyamun, figures cut into the exposed sapwood of trees along the route, or drawn on the ground. On the occasion observed by Mathews, on the right hand side, 82 metres (90 yd) down the track, was a mocked up bowerbird's nest, and 2.7 metres (3 yd) further on a scarecrow figure with trousers and jacket stuffed with grass, representing a white man. As the youths passed along this track, the significance of the symbols and their relevance to tribal beliefs was explained. [13] [14] Further down the path, a yammunyamun image of a bullock was formed from bark, dirt and the animal's skull. At 131 metres (143 yd), a 2.7-metre (9 ft) long representation of Baiame and his spouse Gooberangal lay, moulded from the earth, respectively on the right and left of the track. [15] Further on, still on the left, was a carved figure of the Emu, [b] apparently crouching, its head pointed towards the large bora. To its right, a further 2.7 metres (3 yd) on, was Goomee, Baiame's fire, a 30-centimetre (1 ft) high mound with a lit fire on top. A further 16 metres (18 yd) on, parallel to the track and on Goomee's side, a codfish was depicted, and after it the Currea, a serpentine creature, and, 14 metres (15 yd) on the other side of the path, two death adders, followed then by a turkey's nest, an earth-stuffed porcupine's skin, and a kangaroo rat's nest. At last, there was a carving of a full tribal man on one side of the track, and an aboriginal woman on the other. [16]
The Sandstone Caves (within the Pilliga Nature Reserve) are co-managed by the Gamilaraay people together with NPWS. [17] All interpretive signage is in the Gamilaraay language followed by English. A small example, created by the Coonabarabran Gamilaraay Language Circle (Suellen Tighe, Maureen Sutler, Sid Chatfield & Peter Thompson), is given below. (See adjoining image.) [18] [ better source needed ]
| Nhalay Yarrul Burranbalngayaldanhi Mulamula, nhalay yarrul! | This rock Water & wind have caused this rock Look out! | Yilambu Yilambu dhurray marandu Ngamila! | Long Ago Our ancestors made stone tools. Look out! | Dhawun Giirr dhulubaraay dhibaraay, Giirr dhamali dhawundu nginunha! | The land Around here there are plants, Let the land touch you! |
Source: Tindale 1974 , p. 194
{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)The Wiradjuri people are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame is the creator god and sky father in the Dreaming of several Aboriginal Australian peoples of south-eastern Australia, such as the Wonnarua, Kamilaroi, Guringay, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri peoples.
The Diyari, alternatively transcribed as Dieri, is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre.
The Dharug or Darug people, are an Aboriginal Australian people, who share ties of kinship and, in pre-colonial times, lived as hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout much of what is modern-day Sydney.
Collarenebri is a town in north western New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Walgett Shire Local Government Area and is situated on the Barwon River approximately 75 kilometres (47 mi) northeast of Walgett and south west of Mungindi on the Gwydir Highway. It is 16 km (9.9 mi) from Pokataroo which was the nearest railway town prior to closure of the rail service there. The town is 146 metres (479 ft) above sea level. Collarenebri is one of three towns ending in 'BRI' in Northern New South Wales.
The Gamilaraay or Kamilaroi language is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup found mostly in south-eastern Australia. It is the traditional language of the Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi), an Aboriginal Australian people. It has been noted as endangered, but the number of speakers grew from 87 in the 2011 Australian Census to 105 in the 2016 Australian Census. Thousands of Australians identify as Gamilaraay, and the language is taught in some schools.
The Bigambul people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Tablelands and Border Rivers regions of New South Wales and Queensland.
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, 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.
Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a corresponding member of the Anthropological Institute of London.
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.
The Anēwan, also written Anaiwan and Anaywan, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional territory spans the Northern Tablelands in New South Wales.
Geawegal is the name for an Australian Aboriginal people who were recorded as inhabiting an area of the Hunter Valley in eastern New South Wales, north of Sydney. This identification has been recently questioned by Jim Wafer of Newcastle University, who also reconstructs the original name as Kayawaykal.
The Wodiwodi or Wodi Wodi, also pronounced Whardi Whardi, are a sub-group of the Dharawal people, an Indigenous Australian people of the east coast of the continent.
The Ngintait, or Ngindadj, are an Australian Aboriginal peoples of the northwest corner of the state of Victoria, and partly in South Australia. 9 people, all of one family, claim descent from the tribe, which was dispersed in the 19th century.
The Yuwaalaraay, also spelt Euahlayi, Euayelai, Eualeyai, Ualarai, Yuwaaliyaay and Yuwallarai, are an Aboriginal Australian people of north-western New South Wales.
The Kaiabara are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.
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
The Kula, also known as the Kurnu, were an indigenous Australian people of the state of New South Wales.
The Wiyabal are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of New South Wales. They may be a clan of the Bundjalung people.
The Weraerai (Wirraayaraay) were an indigenous Australian people of the state of New South Wales. They are to be distinguished from the Ualarai.