Bungandidj people facts for kids

The Bungandidj people are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Gambier area in south-eastern South Australia, and also in western Victoria. Their language is the Bungandidj language. The Bungandidj people are also known by names like Boandik, Buandig, or Booandik.

History of the Bungandidj People

Ancient Times

Archaeological studies show that the land of the Bungandidj and their neighbours, the Meintangk, has been lived on for about 30,000 years. People have lived along the coast near Robe and Cape Banks for at least 5,800 years.

The name "Bungandidj" comes from Bung-an-ditj, which means "people of the reeds". This name shows their strong connection to the land and water.

First Meetings with Europeans

The first time the Bungandidj people met Europeans was in the early 1820s. A Bungandidj man named Panchy told a story about seeing ships for the first time at Rivoli Bay around 1822 or 1823. He also spoke of his mother being taken aboard a ship for a few months before she managed to escape.

In 1844, Governor George Grey led an expedition from Adelaide to Mount Gambier. The artist George French Angas, who was with them, saw many Aboriginal tracks and old camps. They found abandoned shelters, piles of banksia cones used for sweet drinks, and traps for fish and birds. They also saw raised platforms used to spot emus and kangaroos for hunting.

Challenges and Changes

In 1834, Edward Henty settled near Portland. This started a movement of European settlers and their farm animals across the land. Over the next 20 years, many new settlements appeared. This led to difficult times and conflicts between the Bungandidj people and the settlers.

Early reports noted that few Indigenous people were seen by Grey's expedition. This was partly because diseases like smallpox, brought by Europeans, had spread and greatly reduced the Aboriginal population.

There were also reports of unfair and harmful actions against Aboriginal people. For example, some accounts mention food being left that was unsafe to eat. Bungandidj people like Pendowen, Neenimin, and Barakbouranu shared their experiences with Christina Smith, saying they were careful about what they ate.

In 1843, Henry Arthur started a sheep farm at Mount Schank. He faced problems with the Bungandidj people and wild dogs, so he sold his farm in 1844. The Henty family also had trouble with their sheep farms at Mount Gambier, losing many sheep and experiencing conflicts with shepherds. These losses forced them to remove their sheep from the area. The Leake brothers at Glencoe Station also reported losing many sheep in 1845. Conflicts continued near the Glenelg River for the next two years.

In 1845, the police commissioner noted the poor treatment of Aboriginal people in the Rivoli Bay District. He mentioned harmful actions and settlers preventing Aboriginal people from reaching water sources.

A tragic event occurred in 1848 at Avenue Range Station near Guichen Bay. Several Bungandidj Wattatonga clan people lost their lives. The station owner, James Brown, was accused, but the case was dropped because there were no European witnesses. At that time, Aboriginal people could not give sworn testimony in court. Christina Smith's sources mentioned 11 people were killed in this incident, which happened after sheep were taken for food.

By 1851, a report to Dr. Moorhouse, the Protector of Aborigines, stated that the Bungandidj people of the Rivoli Bay area were peaceful and often worked for settlers.

Even as late as 1854, some settlers still worried about attacks. The Leake Brothers built their 'Frontier House' at Glencoe Station with narrow openings in the walls for rifles, in case of intruders.

Over time, the Bungandidj people found ways to live alongside the settlers. They worked as station hands, shearers, and domestic servants, often staying on their traditional lands.

Aboriginal people made camps, called wurlies, on the edge of Kingston. By 1877, some even moved into cottages. They often moved their camps with the seasons to gather traditional foods and use their traditional burial grounds. The Blackford Reserve near Bordertown was another place where Aboriginal people lived until the 1970s. Kingston and Bordertown were areas where the Bungandidj and Ngarrindjeri people shared their borders.

Bungandidj People Today

Many people in the region today proudly identify as Bungandidj. The descendants of the Bungandidj and Meintangk people continue to preserve their culture. They do this through groups like the Kungari Aboriginal Cultural Association in Kingston SE.

In 2022, many important places around Mount Gambier were given dual-named with Bungandidj names. This includes the lakes of the extinct volcano known as Mount Gambier. The town of Mount Gambier is now signposted as "Berrin / Mount Gambier". Berrin is the name by which the town is known to its Indigenous people today. Some of these dual names include:

• Blue Lake / Warwar, which means "crow country" or "the sound of many crows"
• Leg of Mutton Lake / Yatton Loo (meaning unknown)
• Brownes Lake / Kroweratwari, meaning "emus, [or] their tracks"
• Valley Lake / Ketla Malpi, meaning "sacred talking tree"
• Umpherston Sinkhole / Balumbul, meaning "buttercup flower"
• Cave Garden / Thugi, meaning "bullfrogs"

Bungandidj Traditional Lands

Christina Smith wrote a book in 1880 about the Bungandidj people. In her book, The Boandik Tribe of South Australian Aborigines, she said that the Aboriginal people of the South-East were divided into five groups. Each group had its own territory and spoke slightly different versions of the same language. These groups were Booandik, Pinejunga, Mootatunga, Wichintunga, and Polinjunga.

Smith stated that the largest group was the Bungandidj. Their land stretched from the mouth of the Glenelg River to Rivoli Bay North (Beachport), going inland for about 30 kilometres (19 miles). There is some discussion about whether the Bungandidj or the Meintangk people lived in the area between Rivoli Bay and Cape Jaffa. The other groups lived in areas from Lacepede Bay to Bordertown. The Bungandidj shared their borders with the Ngarrindjeri people to the west, the Bindjali and Jardwadjali to the north, and the Gunditjmara people to the east.

Anthropologist Norman Tindale suggested in 1940 and 1974 that the Bungandidj were being pushed south by the Jardwadjali people. However, historian Ian D. Clark has questioned this idea. He argues that historical and language evidence does not fully support Tindale's claims about the borders between the Bungandidj and Jardwadjali.

Bungandidj Social Structure

The Bungandidj people had two main groups for marriage: Kumite and Kroke. Children belonged to their mother's group. The Kumite group had five main animal totems, which are special symbols or spirits:

• boorte moola: fishhawk
• boorte parangal: pelican
• boorte wa: crow
• boorte willer: black cockatoo
• boorte karato: (harmless) snake

The Kroke group had four main totems:

• boorte wirrmal: owl
• boorte wsereoo: teatree scrub
• boorte moorna: an edible root
• boorte kara-al: white crestless cockatoo.

Each of these groups was connected to many animals, plants, and natural elements. These totems were seen as friends to all members of that group. People were usually not allowed to eat the animals or plants associated with their totem, unless it was absolutely necessary.

The Bungandidj groups living further south often moved with the seasons. They would set up camps for fishing during the warmer months. When winter came, they would move inland to hunt and fish away from the stormy coast. Later reports describe their homes, called wurlies, as being made of mud and more comfortable than the huts built by early settlers.

Bungandidj Language

The Bungandidj language is a Pama-Nyungan language. It is part of the Bungandidj/Kuurn-Kopan-Noot subgroup of the Victorian Kulin languages. The Bungandidj people called their language Drualat-ngolonung (speech of man) or Booandik-ngolo (speech of the Bungandidj). It had five known dialects: Bungandidj, Pinejunga, Mootatunga, Wichintunga and Polinjunga. The language has been studied recently by Barry Blake.

Some words in Bungandidj include:

• drual (man)
• barite (girl)
• moorongal (boy)
• ngat (mother)

A Few Bungandidj Words

• kooraa (male kangaroo)
• kal/karl (tame dog)
• kar na chum (wild dog)
• marm (father)
• ngate (mother)
• koomamir (whiteman)

Other Names for Bungandidj People

Because of different early interactions, the Bungandidj people were known by several names and spellings:

Bungandidj in the Arts

Bob Maza's play The Keepers was about the challenges faced by the Buandig people when their land was taken. It was performed several times in 1988, including in Naracoorte and at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. It was also shown at Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney. Maza won the National Black Playwright Award for this play.