Wiradjuri

The Wiradjuri, or Wiradhuri, are an indigenous people of Australia, who speak the Aboriginal language of that name. They occupied a large area in central New South Wales, from the Blue Mountains in the east, to Hay in the west, north to Nyngan and south to Albury: the South Western slopes region.

The Wiradjuri were the largest aboriginal group in New South Wales.

Wiradjuri means 'people of the three rivers', these rivers being the Macquarie, Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee. The Wiradjuri travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on Bogong moths.

The Wiradjuri diet included shellfish and fish such as Murray cod from the rivers. In dry seasons, they ate kangaroos, emus, and food gathered from the land, including fruit, nuts, yam daisies, wattle seeds and orchid tubers.

Occupation of the land by the Wiradjuri can be seen by carved trees and campsite remainders. Carved trees are more commonly found around the Macquarie and Lachlan rivers in the north rather than the Murrumbidgee in the south. Campsites, which indicate regular seasonal occupation by small groups, have been found on river flats, open land and by rivers.

Norman Tindale quotes Alfred Howitt as mentioning several of these local groups of the tribe, for example, the Narrandera (prickly lizard), Cootamundra (Kuta-mundra) from kutamun turtle, Murranbulla or Murring-bulle (maring-bula, two bark canoes). There were differences in dialect in some areas, including around Bathurst and near Albury. The Wiradjuri are identified as a coherent group as they maintained a cycle of ceremonies that moved in a ring around the whole tribal area. This cycle led to tribal coherence despite the large occupied area.

Clashes between European settlers and aborigines were very violent from 1839 to 1841, particularly around the Murrumbidgee, and have been termed the 'Wiradjuri Wars'. The loss of fishing grounds and significant sites by the aborigines and the killing of aborigines was retaliated through attacks with spears on cattle and stockmen. In the 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee but there were fewer clashes. European settlement had taken hold and the aboriginal population was declining due to the effects of disease and perhaps alcohol use.

In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith. There are significant populations at Wagga Wagga and Leeton and smaller groups at West Wyalong, Parkes, Forbes, Cootamundra and Young.

Notable Wiradjuri people

Wiradjuri elders Isabell Coe and Neville "Uncle Chappy" Williams are leading land rights activists and proponents in the Lake Cowal Campaign.

Wiradjuri Language

Main article: Wiradhuri language

The Wiradjuri language had effectively died out of everyday spoken use, but has recently been reconstructed from early European anthropologist's records by Stan Grant, a member of the Wiradjuri Elder's Council, and John Rudder Ph.D., who has previously studied Australian Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land. It is a member of the small Wiradhuric branch of the Pama-Nyungan family.

The name of the town of Wagga Wagga comes from the Wiradjuri word Wagga meaning crow, and to create the plural, the Wiradjuri repeat the word. Thus the name translates as 'the place of many crows'.

Wiradjuri culture in fiction

The short story "Death in the Dawntime", originally published in The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives (Mike Ashley, editor; 1995), is a murder mystery that takes place entirely among the Wiradjuri people before the arrival of Europeans in Australia. The story prominently features various concepts in Wiradjuri folklore and tradition, such as the ngurupal: this is an area within the tribal territory which is a public assembly space for adult male Wiradjuri who have been formally initiated into manhood, yet which is forbidden ground for females or uninitiated males. Some of the dialogue in this story is in the Wiradjuri language. "Death in the Dawntime" was written by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre, a British author who spent his formative years in the Australian outback, where he encountered representatives of many aboriginal cultures.

External links

• from the N. B. Tindale's Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (1974)
• AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database:Wiradjuri with bibliographic links
• New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service regional history of the South western slopes

See also

• Wiradjuri, New South Wales