Kaiabara facts for kids

The Kaiabara are an Indigenous Australian people from the state of Queensland. They might have been a smaller group, or 'horde', connected to the larger Wakka Wakka people, rather than a completely separate tribe.

Country

The Kaiabara's traditional land covered about 1,000 square miles (2,600 square kilometers). This area was around the sources of Stuart Creek. It stretched south from near Proston to Kingaroy and the Cooyar Range. They were a relatively small group. Some experts even called them a 'family' or 'triblet' because of their size.

Social Organization

Indigenous Australian groups often had complex rules for how their society was organized. This included rules about families and who could marry whom. For the Kaiabara, early researchers had different ideas about their marriage system.

Some experts, like R. H. Mathews, believed that family lines were traced through the mother's side (this is called matrilineal descent). However, others, like Alfred William Howitt and Andrew Lang, thought that family lines were traced through the father's side (this is called patrilineal descent).

Howitt suggested that the Kaiabara, like some other groups in south-eastern Queensland, traced their family connections through the male line. He divided the Kaiabara into two main large groups, called 'phratries'. Each phratry then had two smaller groups, or 'clans', within it. These groups were also linked to special symbols called 'totems'.

Here's how Howitt described these groups and their totems:

Based on these divisions, Howitt also described the rules for marriage. These rules made sure that people married outside of their own specific group, which helped keep the community strong and healthy.

However, R. H. Mathews had a different view. He actually spoke with elders from the Kaiabara people to understand their system directly. He proposed a slightly different system for marriage and family lines:

Other Names for Kaiabara

The Kaiabara people were known by several other names, including:

• Bujibada
• Bujibara. (The word buji means carpet snake)
• Bujiebara, Booyieburra, Buijibara
• Cooyarbara
• Kaia. (This name refers to the Cooyar Range and Mount Cooyar)
• Kaibara. (This is sometimes a spelling mistake for Kaiabara)
• Kaiyabora
• Kiabara
• Koiabara