Bundjalung people


The Bundjalung people, also spelled Bunjalung, Badjalang and Bandjalang, are Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of a region from around Grafton in northern coastal New South Wales to Beaudesert in south-east Queensland. The region is located approximately northeast of Sydney and south of Brisbane that now includes the Bundjalung National Park.
In the north, Bundjalung Nation shares a border with Yuggera Nation and Barrunggam Nation; to the east the Tasman Sea ; to the south Gumbaynggirr Nation; and to the west it borders Ngarabal Nation.
The languages of the Bundjalung people are dialects of the Lower-Richmond branch of the Yugambeh-Bundjalung language family.
The names of the 15 tribal groups comprising the Bundjalung Nation are Arakwal, Banbai, Birbai, Galiabal, Gidabal, Gumbainggeri, Jigara, Jugambal, Jugumbir, Jungai, Minjungbal, Ngacu, Ngamba, Nyangbal and Widjabal/Wiyabal.

History

Before European colonisation, the Bundjalung Nation encompassed some of the richest hunting and fishing grounds anywhere on the Australian continent. According to the oral traditions of the Bundjalung People, the area was first settled by the Three Brothers and their descendants.
To the best of knowledge the people of the Bundjalung Nation, who inhabit the far-north coast of New South Wales and the coast of south-east Queensland, they are the only Indigenous people whose Dreamtime stories talk about arriving in Australia from elsewhere. Their ancestors came from the land "at the centre of the world" after a massive catastrophe destroyed it. There are also Indigenous groups in the Perth region that hold a spiritual belief they are descendants of "star people", or people from stars and the Solar System.
People of the Bundjalung Nation have lived on and visited Goanna Headland for at least 12,000 years. The Aboriginal tribes were not united before the 18th century, and comprised more than 20 main groups, known collectively as the "Bundjalung Nation". Certain deities and religious practices were specific to certain localities.
Goanna Headland is also significant as the site where the ancestors of the Bundjalung people arrived by sea and populated the surrounding country. This event is related through the legend of "The Three Brothers ".

European arrival

On 15 May 1770, the coast in the vicinity of Evans Head was first mapped and described by Lieutenant James Cook on the Royal Navy barque, during the first voyage of James Cook to what became known as New Zealand and Australia. Cook did not land but, the next day, he saw and named Cape Byron and Mount Warning, known to the Bundjalung Nation as Wollumbin. He named Mount Warning as a result of encountering nearby offshore reefs.
Cook did not see the entrance to the Richmond River, but noted the presence of about 20 Bundjalung Nation people on what is now Seven Mile Beach, just to the south of Broken Head. Sir Joseph Banks also noted the people and remarked that they completely ignored the presence of HMS Endeavour. That might indicate that Endeavour was not the first ship that they had seen.
On 20 August 1828, Captain Henry John Rous, on the frigate HMS Rainbow, dropped anchor at Byron Bay. His mission was to discover a navigable river and safe anchorage site. On 26 August 1828, Rous discovered the entrance to the Richmond River and explored upstream, as far as Tuckean Swamp, with two lieutenants in a pinnace. Rous subsequently named the river Richmond after his brother's best friend, Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond.

European Settlement

The beginning of European settlement into the Richmond River area was the result of early explorations of the region by red cedar cutters and farmers, who arrived around 1842, after hearing stories from "stray natives" of the great wudgie-wudgie in the Richmond river area to the north of the Clarence river. Red cedar getters, as obsessed by 'red gold' as those who later suffered 'gold fever', brooked no interference in their quest for the magnificent old trees.
To legally cut red cedar, loggers were required to obtain a cedar cutter's license from Grafton, issued by Commissioner Oliver Fry for the North Creek and Emigrant Creek scrubs in 1851, and costing £6. The license did not provide ownership to land, but did allow the cedar-getter to build a hut and cut cedar on unsettled land. Word rapidly spread about the wonderful red cedar timber which made small fortunes for the men of the Richmond River.

Language

Bundjalung is a Pama-Nyungan language. It has two unusual features: certain syllables are strongly stressed while others are "slurred", and it classifies gender into four classes: masculine feminine arboreal and neuter.

Country

Norman Tindale estimated the Bundjalung People lived over an area approximately, from north of the Clarence River to the Richmond River including the site of Ballina and inland to Tabulam and Baryugil. The coastal Widje clan ventured no further than Rappville. The area underwent significant change with sea level rise 18,000 to 7,500 years ago which completely displaced inhabitants of previous coastal areas and resulted in dramatic changes in distributions of peoples.

Alternative names

According to Norman Tindale, various spellings and other names were used for the Bundjalung people:Badjelang Bandjalang, BandjalongBudulungBuggulBundela, BundelBunjellungPaikalyung, PaikalyugWatcheeWidje
  • ''Woomargou''

Culture

Initiation ceremony

According to R. H. Mathews, the Bundjalung rite of transition into manhood began with a cleared space called a walloonggurra some distance from the main camp. On the evening the novices are taken from their mothers around dusk, the men sing their way to this bora ground where a small bullroarer is whirled.

Musical instruments

The Bundjalung used a variety of instruments, including blowing on a eucalyptus leaf, creating a bird-like sound. Clapsticks were used to establish a drumbeat rhythm on ceremonial dancing occasions. Emu callers were traditionally used by the Bundjalung when hunting. When striking the emu-caller at one end with the open palm it sounds like an emu. This decoy attracts the bird out of the bush making it an easy prey.

Native title

In late April 2021, the Federal Court of Australia convened at Evans Head, where a native title determination was made over of land, consisting of 52 separate areas of land. The application had been launched in 1996, and the first determination made in 2013. Included in the land is a bora ring of great cultural significance near Coraki.

Notable people