External links
- Djeetgun Kurnai Women's Aboriginal Corporation
- Bataluk Cultural trail
- "Wurruk: Earth-Story", A literary dreaming/self-portrait written partly in Kurnai – Gunai
Authority control databases: National  |
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Kurnai | |
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| Total population | |
| 3000~ | |
| Languages | |
| Kurnai language, English | |
| Religion | |
| Australian Aboriginal mythology, Christianity, Irreligion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| see List of Indigenous Australian group names |
The Kurnai kur-nye) people Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The Kurnai nation is composed of five major clans. During the 19th century, many Kurnai people resisted the incursions by early European squatters and subsequent settlers, resulting in a number of deadly confrontations, and massacres of the indigenous inhabitants. There are about 3,000 Kurnai people today, predominantly living in Gippsland. The Kurnai dialects are the traditional language of the Kurnai people, although there are very few fluent speakers now.
It is told that the first Kurnai came down from the north west mountains, with his canoe on his head. He was known as Borun, the pelican. He crossed the Tribal River (where Sale now stands) and walked on into the west to Tarra Warackel (Port Albert). He heard a constant tapping sound, as he walked, but could not identify it. At the deep water of the inlets Borun put down his canoe and discovered, much to his surprise, there was a woman in it. She was Tuk, the musk duck. He was very happy to see her and she became his wife and the mother of the Kurnai people.
Cloggs Cave, near Buchan, was first frequented by people by about 23,000 years ago, [1] while occupation at New Guinea Cave in the same area has been dated to over 20,000 years. [2] In the 19th century, such caves were not used for residence; they were the domains of mulla-mullung, magic-workers of either sex. In Cloggs Cave, artifacts (sticks of Casuarina wood smeared with animal fat) of the type associated in the 19th century with GunaiKurnai death-magic rituals were found. Other features of the cave included broken stalactites and a grindstone (the fragments were also of ritual significance) and miniature fireplaces used for small fires of short duration; these indicate a continuity of ritual practice for at least 12,000 years. [3]
The name of this Aboriginal nation has been alternatively written in such forms as Gunai, Kurnai, Gunnai, and Ganai. As a compromise, the group is now often referred to as the Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai. The names of clans or tribes have also attracted a number of alternative spellings. Alternative names arose as Aboriginal languages had no written form before European settlement. Thus Aboriginal words and tribal names can have many alternative spellings, as the oral transmission from the Indigenous people may have been heard or recorded differently by various early European sources. It is also possible that the European sources correctly recorded alternative pronunciations and dialects of the indigenous people. [4]
The Kurnai nation is made up of five major clans or tribes. Various closely related dialects were spoken among the people of the region in pre-European times, although these have now been largely lost. [5] Each clan spoke a different dialect with its own name, though these different names may largely reflect recording differences of early Europeans as discussed above. The clans are summarised in the table below:
| Clan | Translation# | General location | Tribal Country included... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brataualung | "Men belonging to the place of fire" (unclear) | Throughout South Gippsland | Wilsons Promontory, along the coast east to Cape Liptrap and Tarwin Meadows, and west to Port Albert and as far as the mouth of Merriman Creek near Seaspray. Inland to about Mirboo. The Wilsons Promontory area was shared with the Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation. |
| Braiakalung | "Men belonging to the west" | To the west of the Mitchell River, centred on the current site of Sale | Predominantly to the west of the Mitchell River, Lake Wellington and Providence Ponds, including the Avon and Latrobe Rivers. North-east to Mount Baw Baw and as far north as Mount Howitt in the Victorian Alps. |
| Brabiralung | "Belonging to men" or "belonging to manly men" | Central East Gippsland, mainly between the Mitchell and Tambo Rivers | The low-lying lands in the south around present day Bairnsdale and Bruthen. Up along the Mitchell, Nicholson, and Tambo Rivers into the low mountains of the Great Dividing Range between Swifts Creek and Omeo, and towards Dargo. |
| Tatungalung | "Belonging to the sea (or the south)", possibly "belonging to the sea in the south" | Around the Gippsland Lakes and along the coast west from Lakes Entrance | The Ninety Mile Beach from Lakes Entrance south-west to the mouth of Merriman Creek near Seaspray. Around Lake Victoria and Lake Wellington in the Gippsland Lakes, as well as Raymond Island in Lake King. |
| Krauatungalung | "Belonging to the east" | Centred on Orbost and the Snowy River | East along the coast as far as Point Hicks, and west to Lake Tyers Mission and Lakes Entrance. It included the Cann, Bemm, Brodribb, and Buchan Rivers, and inland to the mountains as far north as about Black Mountain near Wulgulmerang. Their inclusion as one of the Gunaikurnai is contested by Norman Tindale |
The Kurnai nation was bordered to the west of the Brataualung and Braiakalung by the lands of the Kulin nation centred on present day Melbourne, specifically the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung clans. To the east, bordering the Krauatungalung from around Cann River and out to Mallacoota, were the Bidawal people. To the north, in the Australian Alps and around the upper Murray River, were a number of clans, including the Jaitmathang whose lands bordered the Brabawooloong south of Omeo.
According to European accounts, the Kurnai nation were actively fighting with the Boonwurrung at the time of European invasion. There are records of a "Warrowen massacre" in present-day Brighton which saw invading Kurnai warriors of the Borro Borro willun clan wipe out around 60 Boonwurrung Yowenjerre clan members, effectively eliminating the clan and allowing the Kurnai to occupy Boonwurrung lands near Wilsons Promontory. However, there is little record of the Borro Borro willun clan outside of this incident.
The Kurnai people resisted the European invasion of their land. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the numbers killed in the guerilla warfare undertaken, or the numbers who died in the massacres that were inflicted upon the Gunaikurnai by the superior weaponry of the Europeans. A partial list from letters and diaries for an exhibition called Koorie, mounted by the Museum of Victoria in 1991, included:
In 1846, Gippsland squatters, Henry Meyrick, wrote in a letter to his relatives in England:
The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with … I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 500 have been murdered altogether.[ citation needed ]
In 1863, Reverend Friedrich Hagenauer established Rahahyuck Mission on the banks of the Avon River, near Lake Wellington, to house the Gunaikurnai survivors from west and central Gippsland. The mission sought to discourage all tribal ritual and culture.[ citation needed ] It closed in 1908 and the few remaining residents were moved to the Lake Tyers Mission.
The Kurnai launched a native title claim in 1997 following on from the successful Mabo native title case of 1992. On 22 October 2010 the case was settled in the Federal Court under the Native Title Act (1993) . The Court recognised the Gunaikurnai as traditional owners, and found that they held native title over much of Gippsland. Based on these findings the Victorian Government entered into an agreement with the Gunaikurnai on the same day, the first agreement reached under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act (2010) [6] [7]
Maps of the area covered under the agreement and the native title determination shows that it does not fully cover the entire area thought to comprise the traditional lands of the Gunaikurnai, however most of the original nation is covered. Notable exclusions are to the west, including Wilsons Promontory, to the east of the Snowy River, and exclusions in the north, particularly the northeast region. [7] [8] Also included as part of the settlement is 200 metres (660 ft) offshore into the sea. Only Crown land within the area is affected by the determination and agreement, with all existing rights on Crown land being protected for their full term, and there being no impact in any way in relation to private land. [9]
The agreement included the following key points:
| Authority control databases: National |
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Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.
The Avon River is a perennial river of the West Gippsland catchment, located in the West Gippsland region, of the Australian state of Victoria. The Avon, forms an important part of the Latrobe sub-catchment, draining the south eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, to form the Gippsland Lakes.
Stratford is a town on the Avon River in Victoria, Australia, 232 kilometres (144 mi) east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway in Shire of Wellington. At the 2016 census, Stratford had a population of 2617. The town services the local regional community and travellers on the Princes Highway. Stratford's principal industries are dairying, sheep, cattle and horse breeding and vegetable crops. The town has numerous coffee shops and cafes, a cellar door for a local winery, Design Gallery, model railway shop, a pub, parks and playgrounds for car travelers to break their journey.
The Boonwurrung, 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.
Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. The creek is on a farm 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Sale, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Australia.
Angus McMillan was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people.
The Mitchell River is a perennial river of the East Gippsland catchment, located in the Australian state of Victoria. The unregulated river provides a unique example of riparian ecology, flowing generally south with the catchment area drawing from the steep mountains of the Victorian Alps to enter Lake King, one of the Gippsland Lakes, and then empty into the Bass Strait.
Woiwurrung, Taungurung and Boonwurrung are Aboriginal languages of the Kulin nation of Central Victoria. Woiwurrung was spoken by the Woiwurrung and related peoples in the Yarra River basin, Taungurung by the Taungurung people north of the Great Dividing Range in the Goulburn River Valley around Mansfield, Benalla and Heathcote, and Boonwurrung by the six clans which comprised the Boonwurrung people along the coast from the Werribee River, across the Mornington Peninsula, Western Port Bay to Wilsons Promontory. They are often portrayed as distinct languages, but they were mutually intelligible. Ngurai-illamwurrung (Ngurraiillam) may have been a clan name, a dialect, or a closely related language.
The Gippsland massacres were a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people, an Aboriginal Australian people living in East Gippsland, Victoria, committed by European settlers and the Aboriginal Police during the Australian frontier wars.
The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai language, also spelt Gunnai, Kurnai, Ganai, Gaanay, or Kurnay KUR-nye) is an Australian Aboriginal dialect cluster of the Gunaikurnai people in Gippsland in south-east Victoria. Bidawal was either a divergent dialect or a closely related language.
The Tambo River or Berrawan is a perennial river of the Mitchell River catchment, located in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. With a total length in excess of 186 kilometres (116 mi), the Tambo River is one of the longest rivers in the East Gippsland drainage basin, extending from the steep forested southern slopes of the Victorian Alps through forest and farmland to the Gippsland Lakes.
The following lists events that happened during 1841 in Australia.
The following lists events that happened during 1850 in Australia.
Tambo Crossing is a locality and small farming community in the Shire of East Gippsland in Victoria, Australia. It is alongside the Tambo River on the Great Alpine Road, 57.5 kilometres (35.7 mi) north-east of Bairnsdale, surrounded by state forest. At the 2006 census, Tambo Crossing had a nominal population.
New Guinea II is a limestone cave and rockshelter on the Snowy River at the end of New Guinea Track, near Buchan, Victoria. The cave was within the country of the Krowathunkooloong clan of the Gunaikurnai nation. The deep cave system has an overhanging cliff that creates a rock shelter at the entrance facing the river. Excavations in the 1980s carried out by archaeologist Paul Ossa and a team from La Trobe University found stone artefacts, and other signs of occupation that were dated to almost 20,000 BP.
Cloggs Cave is a limestone cave and rockshelter with significant Aboriginal archaeological deposits, located on a cliff along the Snowy River gorge near the town of Buchan, Victoria.
The Buchan River is a perennial river of the Snowy River catchment, located in the Alpine region of the Australian state of Victoria.
Uncle Albert Mullett (1933–2014) was a respected Aboriginal Elder in Victoria, Australia, and spokesperson for members of the Gunai/Kurnai peoples, Gippsland, Victoria. His ancestry includes Gunditjmara and Gunai/Kurnai clans. He was actively involved in Aboriginal education and the preservation of Koorie cultural heritage for many years. He was also a skilled craftsman of shields, boomerangs and artifacts.
The Krauatungalung are an Indigenous Australian people, of East Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, Australia. They are regarded as a group of the Kurnai, though Tindale states that their inclusion as one of the Gunai is artificial.
The Warrowen massacre was an apparent mass killing of Bunurong people by a group of Kurnai people in the vicinity of present-day Brighton, Victoria, Australia. It is dated to the early 1830s, close in time to the founding of Melbourne. The killing was recorded separately several years later by William Thomas and George Augustus Robinson, based on testimony from Aboriginal sources. Thomas stated that at least 60 people had been killed. According to Robinson, the massacre contributed to the end of an entire Bunurong clan, the Yowengerre, allowing a Kurnai clan to take over their territory.