Dyirbal people facts for kids

The Dyirbal people, also known as Jirrbal, are an Aboriginal Australian group from northern Queensland. They lived near the upper Murray River in the Atherton Tableland rainforest. The name Dyirbal can refer to one specific group, the Dyirbalŋan, or to a larger family of related groups. These groups include the Yidinji, Ngadyan, Mamu, Girramay, Wargamay, Waruŋu, and Mbabaɽam.

Dyirbal Language

The Dyirbal language is part of the Pama–Nyungan language family. It has several dialects, including Giramay, Mamu, Dyiru, Gulŋay, and Ngajan.

One interesting feature of Dyirbal is that it's an ergative language. This means that the way words are arranged in a sentence can be very flexible.

The language also has four special ways to classify things, like genders:

• bayi for 'masculine' things.
• balan for 'feminine' things.
• balam for 'edible' things (foods that are not meat).
• bala for 'neuter' things (everything else).

Dyirbal also used to have a special way of speaking called Dyalŋuy (Jalnguy). This was a 'mother-in-law language' used when a person's mother-in-law (or father-in-law for women) was present. People would switch from their everyday language (guwal) to Dyalŋuy out of respect.

Dyirbal Country

The Dyirbal people lived in the tropical rainforests of Queensland. Their traditional land covered about 1,100 square miles. This area stretched from Herberton south to the headwaters of the Herbert River. Their eastern border was near Tully Falls. Towns like Ravenshoe, Millaa Millaa, and Woodleigh were later built on Dyirbal land.

Much of the rainforest was later cleared for banana farms.

A Rainforest Story

There is a traditional story that explains why the tall trees of the highlands don't grow near the coast. The story says that trees like bull oak and black walnut wanted to move to the coast. But the mangrove trees, which grow along the coast, stopped them. The mangroves used their roots to make boomerangs and fought off the other trees. This is why the lowlands near the coast are clear of those tall forest trees.

In 1996, a large area of Girramay country, which included important cultural sites, was changed by a company called King Ranch. This happened after the company got permission from the Queensland Government. Some important sites, like Yungigali, which is a place from a Dreamtime story where a dog turned into a rock, were affected.

Dyirbal Society

The Dyirbal people were made up of several groups, sometimes called 'hordes'. One of these groups was the Njirma, who lived near Ravenshoe.

Each of the Dyirbal clans had four main sections. Each section had a special animal or symbol, called a totem.

• The ḑigungara section's main totem was the ḑaban (black eel).
• The gurguru section's main totem was the guruŋgul (kite hawk).
• The gurgila section's main totem was the mubaray (large eel).
• The garbawruru section's main totem was the guriḑala (eaglehawk).

Marriage Rules

The Dyirbal people had clear rules about who could marry whom, based on these sections:

• ḑigungara men married gurguru women. Their children would belong to the gurgila section.
• gurguru men married ḑigungara women. Their children would belong to the garbawruru section.
• gurgila men married garbawruru women. Their children would belong to the ḑigungara section.
• garbawruru men married gurgila women. Their children would belong to the gurguru section.

Dyirbal History

Europeans first made contact with the Dyirbal people around 1848. At that time, it's thought that each Dyirbal language group had about 500 members. Over the next 50 years, the Dyirbal population greatly decreased due to new diseases and conflicts with settlers. By the end of the 1800s, their numbers were much lower.

The Dyirbal and related Girramaygan people eventually gathered south of Tully. They lived in the Upper Murray area.

Encounter with Captain Cook

A story passed down by the Girramaygan tribe tells of an encounter with James Cook. This story was shared by Chloe Grant, who was born in 1903. She told the story to a language expert, Robert M. W. Dixon, in the 1960s.

According to the story, Cook landed his boat, which the local people called a warrjan (log vessel or raft). The people thought Cook was a spirit because of his white skin.

The encounter happened in four parts:

1. Cook and his crew offered tobacco to the tribe. The people were confused by the smoke coming from the Europeans' mouths.
2. Cook boiled some tea in a billy and offered it. The people refused, thinking it was just dirty water.
3. Cook then cooked a johnnycake on the fire. He offered pieces to the tribe. The food smelled old and was also refused, even though it looked like their own walnut cakes.
4. Finally, Cook offered them some boiled beef. When they tasted it, they found it was good to eat.

When Cook was ready to leave, the tribe was upset. They believed he was an ancestor from the spirit world who could offer them advice. They asked him to stay, saying, 'Father, father, come here, come back to us (Nguma, nguma, gawu bani, banaga).' But Cook left.

20th Century Changes

In the early 1900s, many Dyirbal families were moved from their homes. They were sent to an Aboriginal reserve on Great Palm Island. This island also served as a penal colony.

Dyirbal Songs

Dyirbal songs are usually divided into two types: dancing songs and love songs. The dancing style was called gama.

One recorded song is about the willie wagtail bird. In Dyirbal, this bird is called jigirrjigirr. In the mother-in-law language, it's called burulabarra, meaning "he who belongs to the fighting ground."

The Dyirbal people believed the willie wagtail was the ghost (guwuy) of a mythical man. The way the bird wiggles its tail was like the dance of an initiated man at a corroboree. It also showed how a spirit might move in the spirit world. The first lines of the song are repeated: jígirrjigírr ngarrú banggány jígirrjigírr ngarrú banggány.

Some Dyirbal Words

Here are a few interesting words from the Dyirbal language:

• The word for 'go up' changes depending on what you are going up.
  • wandin means 'go up river'.
  • waynyjin means 'go up anything else', except a tree.
  • bilinyu or bumiranyu means 'go up a tree' or 'rope oneself up a tree'.
  • If your mother-in-law was present, you would use dayubin instead for 'go up'.
• wanggurinyu: To crouch down on your heels with your knees off the ground.
• wugumbanyu: A person huddled up, hugging their legs, with knees touching their chin. This describes old people trying to stay warm in cold weather.
• wuyan (Girramay dialect): To keep removing items from a group until almost none are left. This word is linked to a mythical cassowary that wrung the necks of children until almost none were left.

Dyirbal in Film

Filmmakers Fabio Cavadini and his brother Alessandro Cavadini made a short film about the Dyirbal people. The film, called We Stop Here (released in 1977), talks about how some Dyirbal people were moved to the penal colony on Palm Island, Queensland.