The Nyeri Nyeri (also known as Jarijari) is an indigenous Australian people whose traditional territory is in the Mallee region of Victoria.
The Nyeri Nyeri (also known as Jarijari) is an indigenous Australian people whose traditional territory is in the Mallee region of Victoria.
Jari/nyeri was the tribe's word for "no", it being customary for the Murray tribes of this area to be identified by the negative used in their respective languages. [2]
The Jarijari language has been classified as belonging to the Lower Murray Areal Group, together with Kureinji, [3] and to be similar to that spoken by the Watiwati, [4] but reports are contradictory and may not be speaking of the same people.
Some words:
According to Norman Tindale, the Jarijari tribal lands covered around 1,900 square miles (4,900 km2) on the western bank of the Murray River, from above Chalka Creek to Annuello in the Mallee. Their southern frontier ran sound along Hopetoun Lake Korong and Pine Plains. The northern frontier bordered on Red Cliffs. [6]
Neighbouring tribes were the Wergaia to the south, the Latjilatji to the west and the Dadi Dadi to the east.
The Blandowski Expedition (1856-1857) was one of the first documented European encounters with the people. Blandowski described the Yarree as his "good friends". [7] Notably one of William Blandowski's 1857 illustrations depicted traditional Jari Jari recreation. Peter Beveridge, in his 1883 account "The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina" recorded some of the tribe's dreamtime beliefs, associated with these Murray tribes of which the Jarijari were one. [8]
Blandowski ended his account with a general statement on the recent state of these Murray riverine tribes:
On the whole I have but to make the most deplorable statements concerning our natives. Extermination proceeds so rapidly, that the regions of the Lower Murray are already depopulated, and a quietude reigns there which saddens the traveller who visited those districts a few years ago. [9]
The classification of species by Blandowski was flawed, in that he made several species out of distinct life phases in just a few. [lower-alpha 1] At least 3 were reclassified and renamed under a different taxonomy: flathead gudgeon, the Jarijari collundera: Australian smelt (Retropinna semoni) and Murray hardyhead (Craterocephalus fluviatilis) [10]
Source: Tindale 1974 , p. 205
The Murray cod is a large Australian predatory freshwater fish of the genus Maccullochella in the family Percichthyidae. Although the species is called a cod in the vernacular, it is not related to the Northern Hemisphere marine cod (Gadus) species. The Murray cod is an important part of Australia's vertebrate wildlife—as an apex predator in the Murray-Darling River system—and also significant in Australia's human culture. The Murray cod is the largest exclusively freshwater fish in Australia, and one of the largest in the world. Other common names for Murray cod include cod, greenfish, goodoo, Mary River cod, Murray perch, ponde, pondi and Queensland freshwater cod.
The trout cod or bluenose cod, is a large predatory freshwater fish of the genus Maccullochella and the family Percichthyidae, closely related to the Murray cod. It was originally widespread in the south-east corner of the Murray-Darling river system in Australia, but is now an endangered species.
Bulleen is an eastern suburb in Melbourne, Australia, 13 km north-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Bulleen recorded a population of 11,219 at the 2021 census.
The river blackfish is a freshwater fish endemic to the temperate waters of south-eastern Australia. It is found from southern Queensland through to central Victoria, including in the Murray-Darling river system. It is also found in some eastern and southern flowing coastal rivers. Found primarily in upland and "midland" habitats, though early records of fish fauna suggest it was originally far more extensively distributed and was found in some lowland habitats as well. Originally, river blackfish co-inhabited many of its lowland and "midland" habitats with species such as Murray cod and golden perch, and its upland habitats with species such as trout cod and Macquarie perch. It is a popular angling fish in some parts of its range.
Marn Grook, marn-grook or marngrook is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurung language of the Kulin people, it means "ball" and "game".
Johann Wilhelm Theodor Ludwig von Blandowski, known as William Blandowski, was a German explorer, soldier, zoologist and mining engineer of Polish roots, he is most famous for his exploration of the Murray and Darling Rivers in Australia.
The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.
The Blandowski expedition was an Australian scientific expedition that took place between 1856-1857 to study the natural history of the region and acquire specimens for the Victorian Museum. The expedition departed from Melbourne on route to Mondellimin the area of the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers in north-western Victoria following the Murray to Goolwa in South Australia.
Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels in Victoria for at least 40,000 years.
The Barababaraba people are an indigenous Australian people whose territory covered parts of southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. They had close connections with the Wemba Wemba.
The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi-wurrung, Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance.
The Pangerang, also spelt Bangerang and Bangarang, are the Indigenous Australians who traditionally occupied much of what is now north-eastern Victoria stretching along the Murray River to Echuca and into the areas of the southern Riverina in New South Wales. They may not have been an independent tribal reality, as Norman Tindale thought, but one of the many Yorta Yorta tribes. For the purposes of this article, they are treated separately, according to those sources that maintain the distinction.
The Dadi Dadi or Tatitati are an Australian Aboriginal people whose traditional lands are located along the southern banks of the Murray River in Victoria Australia.
The Warkawarka, also called Weki Weki, were an Australian Aboriginal group whose traditional lands are located in Victoria, Australia. Controversy exists as to whether they were an independent 'tribe' or rather consisted of a subgroup of the Wergaia, the latter view being shared by both Robert M. W. Dixon and Luise Hercus.
The Watiwati are an indigenous Australian aboriginal people traditionally living on both sides of the Murray River, from Victoria to New South Wales.
The Jitajita, otherwise spelt Yitayita, are an indigenous Australian people of southern New South Wales.
The Latjilatji, sometimes spelt Latji Latji or Latje Latje are an Indigenous Australian people of the state of Victoria, Australia.
The Ngarkat is a recorded title of a tribal group from South Australia. The Ngarkat lands had linked the mallee peoples of Victoria and South Australia to the river peoples of the Murray River Murraylands. Ngarkat language has been loosely grouped with Peramangk language though not by linguists, and the grouping was perhaps partly owed to the co-ownership of lands in both the Ninety Mile Desert and Echunga by John Barton Hack, and partly to the occasional meeting of tribes. The language of the Ngarkat was recorded as being Boraipur by Ryan in recent times though sources were not given, while it may yet be telling that the citing work concerns Mallee peoples to the east. The language may have been midway between that of mallee peoples to the east, and that of peoples to the west recorded by Teichelmann and Schurman. It is known that songlines linked the Coorong to the Mallee regions, hence went through Ngarkat land. It is also known that Ngarkat people did meet regularly with tribes to the east, at sites along the Murray.
The Kwatkwat were an indigenous Australian tribe of the State of Victoria, though some scholars consider them part of the broader Yorta Yorta/Pangerang macrogroup.
The Jeithi were an indigenous Australian people of the state of New South Wales.