Gunditjmara facts for kids
The Gunditjmara people, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian group from southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the land around Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe, and Portland. Their country includes much of the amazing Budj Bim heritage areas.
Two important clans of the Gunditjmara are the Kerrup Jmara, whose lands are near Lake Condah, and the Koroitgundidj, who live around Tower Hill. The Gunditjmara, along with the Djargurd Wurrong, Girai wurrung, and Gadubanud peoples, all spoke languages that are part of the Dhauwurd Wurrung language family.
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What's in a Name?
The name Gunditjmara comes from two parts: Gunditj, which means belonging to a certain group or place, and mara, which means "man".
Language of the Land
The Dhauwurd Wurrung language is a term for a group of languages spoken by different Gunditjmara groups. This language is also sometimes called the Gunditjmara language or the Warrnambool language.
Some of the main languages or dialects in this group include:
- Keerray Woorroong (also known as Girai Wurrung or Kiriwurrung) is spoken by the Girai wurrung people.
- Gadubanud (also Yarro waetch) was spoken by the Gadubanud group from the Cape Otway area.
- Djargurd Wurrong (also Warn tallin or Warn thalayn) was the language of the Djargurd Wurrong people.
Traditional Country
The traditional lands of the Gunditjmara people cover a large area, about 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles). To the west, their land reaches Cape Bridgewater and Lake Condah. To the north, it extends to Caramut and Hamilton. Their eastern border is around the Hopkins River.
Their neighbors to the west are the Buandig people. To the north are the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and to the east are the Girai wurrung people. Early settlers noted that the area from the Eumerella Creek to the coast was full of animals for hunting.
Gunditjmara Culture
The way of life for Aboriginal people in Western Victoria was special in many ways. Because the climate was colder, they made and wore warm rugs and blankets from possum and kangaroo skins.
Possum-skin cloaks were very important. They were sewn with string and used for warmth, to carry babies, as drums in ceremonies, and as burial cloaks. Today, these cloaks are still made to help keep their culture alive and for healing.
The Gunditjmara also built huts using wood and local basalt stone, often called bluestone. Their roofs were made from turf and branches. They used Stone tools for cutting. Women used digging sticks, also known as yam sticks, to dig up yams, goannas, ants, and other foods. These sticks were also used for defense and to settle disagreements as part of their traditional rules.
Community Structure
The Gunditjmara people were organized into 59 clans. Each clan had a leader called a wungit, and this role was passed down through families. They spoke different dialects, and not all of them could understand each other easily. The three main groups lived around Lake Condah, Port Fairy, and Woolsthorpe.
The Gunditjmara groups were also divided into two main family groups, called moieties: the grugidj (which means sulphur-crested cockatoo or Long-billed corella) and the gabadj (which means Red-tailed black cockatoo).
Traditional Economy and Land Use
The Gunditjmara are traditionally river and lake people. Framlingham Forest, Lake Condah, and the rivers around them were very important for their economy and spiritual life.
They built amazing structures over 100 square kilometers (39 square miles) to farm short-finned eels, which were a main part of their diet. These structures included stone channels, canals, traps, stone walls, and stone house sites. Some of these constructions are even older than the Egyptian pyramids!
New archaeological work shows that the Gunditjmara had a very clever system of aquaculture and eel farming. They built stone dams to hold water in the swampy volcanic areas, especially around the lava flow from the Budj Bim volcano. This created ponds and wetlands where they harvested short-finned eels, which they called kuyang or kooyang.
The Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, including the Tyrendarra Area and the Mt Eccles – Lake Condah Area, was added to the National Heritage List in 2004. In 2019, parts of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. After the bushfires in 2019–2020, more hidden channel structures were found around Lake Condah and in the Budj Bim National Park.
The Gunditjmara also made channels to connect these wetlands. These channels had weirs with large woven baskets made by women to catch mature eels. Scientists have found evidence that these ponds were created up to 8,000 years ago.
The eels were preserved by smoking them with burning leaves from Australian blackwood trees. People living near the coast also ate a lot of fish, including whale flesh.
A Long History
Recent studies using a special dating method show that the Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanoes erupted at least 34,000 years ago. This is important because it suggests that humans were living in Victoria at least that long ago. It also supports the oral histories of the Gunditjmara people, which tell stories of volcanic eruptions and might be some of the oldest oral traditions in the world. An axe found under volcanic ash in 1947 also proves that people lived in the area before the Tower Hill eruption.
Contact with white people, whom the Gunditjmara called ngamadjidj, began around 1810. At that time, whalers and sealers started using Portland as a base. This contact brought new diseases, but it was often seasonal, allowing the local population to recover.
The Eumerella Wars
A big change happened when the Henty Brothers started settling on Gunditjmara lands from 1834 onwards. The Gunditjmara people bravely fought for their lands during what became known as the Eumerella Wars, which lasted for many years. Women also joined the fight, using their digging sticks as weapons.
To resist losing their land, the Gunditjmara gathered in the Stony Rises area. From there, they used guerilla warfare tactics against the settlers, raiding their farms. A special protected area was set up at Mount Rouse, which the tribes used as a base for their operations. A major point of conflict was when settlements took over sacred sites near Mount Napier, Lake Condah, and Port Fairy.
Because of these ongoing battles in the 1840s, the Gunditjmara became known as "The fighting Gunditjmara." This name is still used today to remember their strong resistance and their achievements in sports and military contributions.
Mission Life
From the mid to late 1800s, there were attempts to move the Gunditjmara people to the Framlingham Aboriginal Station, a mission near Warrnambool. However, this was not acceptable to them, as it was on Girai wurrung land.
Instead, 827 hectares (2,043 acres) were set aside for them at Lake Condah. Later, in 1885, this reserve was made even larger. Many Gunditjmara people lived here until a law was passed that forced people of mixed Aboriginal and European heritage to leave. This caused many Gunditjmara families to be separated, and their traditional ways were lost. The number of people at the Condah mission dropped sharply.
In 1951, the government took back the land and gave it to soldiers returning from war. In 2005, the area was almost developed for housing. However, the dispute was settled, and in February 2007, the area was set aside as a reservation for the Gunditjmara people.
Native Title Rights
In 1987, the Victorian government tried to give some of the Framlingham State Forest to the Gunditjmara as inalienable title, meaning it could not be sold. This was blocked by another political party. However, the federal government stepped in and passed a law, the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987. This law gave 457 hectares (1,130 acres) of the Framlingham Forest to the Framlingham Trust. This land can only be transferred to another Indigenous land trust, and the Framlingham Trust has rights to prevent mining on it.
The Lake Condah Mission lands were also returned to the Gunditjmara on January 1, 1987. The Kerrup Jmara Elders Corporation gained full control of this land.
In 1993, the Peek Whurrong members of the Gunditjmara bought the Deen Maar land. It became an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in 1999, the first IPA in Victoria.
The Lake Condah Mob officially made their Native Title Claim in August 1996. On March 30, 2007, the Federal Court of Australia recognized the Gunditjmara People's native title rights over 137,000 hectares (338,534 acres) of land, including national parks, reserves, rivers, creeks, and sea in the Portland region.
On July 27, 2011, the Gunditjmara People, along with the Eastern Maar people, were recognized as the native title-holders of 4,000 hectares (9,884 acres) of Crown land, including Lady Julia Percy Island, which they know as Deen Maar.
Famous Gunditjmara People
Many Gunditjmara people have achieved great things:
- Geoff Clark, the first elected Aboriginal chairman of ATSIC.
- Vicki Couzens, a respected knowledge keeper and researcher.
- Johnny Cuzens, a member of the First XI Aboriginal Cricket Team.
- Isaiah Firebrace, a singer who won The X Factor Australia and represented Australia in Eurovision.
- Richard Frankland, a talented playwright and musician.
- Misty Jenkins, a cancer researcher and the first Indigenous Australian to study at Oxford and Cambridge universities for her postdoctoral research.
- Chris Johnson, Nathan Lovett-Murray, Andrew Lovett, Ted Lovett, Wally Lovett, and Norm McDonald are all famous AFL players.
- Archie Roach, a beloved musician who won many awards and was named Victorian of the Year in 2020.
- Lionel Rose, the first Indigenous Australian of the Year, the first Indigenous World Champion Boxer, and the first Indigenous person to receive a Gold Record for Music.
- Reg Saunders, the first Aboriginal commissioned officer in the Australian Army.
- Lidia Thorpe, the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Parliament of Victoria and the first Aboriginal Victorian federal MP.
Other Names for Gunditjmara
The Gunditjmara people have been known by several other names, including:
- Dhauhurtwurru
- Gournditch-mara
- Kirurndit
- Ku:nditjmara
- Kuurn-kopan-noot
- Ngutuk (a name used by a neighboring tribe)
- Nil-can-cone-deets
- Port Fairy tribe (for those along the coast)
- Spring Creek tribe (for the Woolsthorpe group)
- Tourahonong
- Villiers tribe
- Weeritch-Weeritch
Some Gunditjmara Words
- malang (wife)
- merrejig (good; also used as a greeting)
- ngirang (mother)
- Ngutjung yangi-yangi ngutjung (good, very good)
- paratj (girl)
- pipayi/bebì (father)
- pundiya (to live)
- tarayl (virgin)
- thatha (to drink)
- thin wurn-ngayi (This is our place)
- thung (smoke)
- tjiparak (clown)
- walat (frost, ice)
- windha (where?)
- yul-yul (wild man)
- yuwa (to sleep)
See also
In Spanish: Gunditjmara para niños
