4 0 obj The other method of securing fish was by spearing them. In those days the flying-foxes were plentiful around Port Stephens there being a densely populated harborage on Cabbage Tree. A few sheets of bark, leaning on a pole against a tree, served him as shelter through days of sunshine or nights of storm and rain. One of the most remarkable beliefs I remember, also concerns [fishing] An aboriginal woman, Fanny, who was a servant of our family for many years, was in her girlhood days dedicated to the art of fishing. *Wonnarua Dreamtime Legend I do not hesitate to say that so long as the present prosperity continues we shall have no outbreaking with the blacks, for it was starvation alone that drove them to perform the cruel act they did two years ago. Their good temper and childish relish of fun was never more exemplified than when someone made a present to a stalwart black of an old hat, coat, or other discarded garment. All the armed men who are standing round, make a noise by beating together two boomerangs, or any two weapons which they may happen to have with them. So long as it wa s well warmed in the fire they would eat it with avidity. This account is very characteristic of similar meetings observed by anthropologists in the Coopers Creek country. Pride . You can use this to build on. The women at the camp, on hearing this, assemble at the kackaroo, and begin to sing and beat their rugs, and some of them dance. Robert Syron, The Kabook and Watoo People of the Gringai Barrington River Gloucester, NSW https://goo.gl/MfqAYm (SYR). Baime also created Kawal (Ka-wal), to watch over the Wonnarua people. An document named Vocabulary of the Upper Allyn Blacks author unknown circa 1845 State Library of New South Wales (VAR). The latter, on receiving this token of their concurrence, then selects a suitable plan in some part of his own territory where game is sufficiently plentiful to afford food for his visitors, and there he commences to prepare the ground. Long before resource companies moved in to tap into the rich coal reserves below, surgeon James Bowman established the Ravensworth Estate in 1824 and it became a hub for horticultural experimentation. As soon as the mothers are covered over, they are directed to continue making a low humming or buzzing sound, in order that they may not hear the guardians taking away the novices. Nets are spread in a line upon the ground, and beside them are some coolamins containing water. The [deceaseds] father and mother stayed for some days by the grave, making the top of it their bed; the mother never left it for some days after, and was found dead by a relation at the place, the cause being undoubtedly grief. The men and the [women] cut their heads with various implements, until blood flowed freely. Then quickly it would pass from one to another, and each man in turn would extract a maximum of merriment from its possession. I believe the blacks had a story about them, but I do not know it. Turning my horse I rode quietly around the hill and up its side opposite from the camp. They were astonished and indignant. The prisoner being ordered to stand remanded, Mr. Nichols rose to state a circumstance regarding the unfortu- nate man which had come under his personal observation. This was all their bodily protection against the elements, and their fullest concession to the conventions im- posed by the white people about. They would treat him hospitably, and talk with him about general matters of tribal interest. After the morning meal has been disposed of, all the young men, accompanied by some of the old fellows, again start away to the goonambang, carrying their spears and other weapons with them, and coinmence painting their bodies jet black with powdered charcoal and. The spirit of Kawal is embodied in the wedge tailed eagle, found throughout the Hunter Valley. Naturally I was eager to see this Interesting spectacle, and rode once more to the camp at the foot of the hill some days later. The congestion, the Insanitary conditions that obtained, and an entire lack of appreciation of the necessity for isolation caused the disease to spread with disturbing rapidity. P.S. Each mother has her yamstick with her, and sticks it into the ground beside her, the top end of it being ornamented with the bunch of bushes which were fastened to it the morning the novices were taken away from the kackaroo. The novices entered the water first, and as each boy plunged in, the men standing around gave a shout. About Mr Gordon Bennetts interesting articles on our Earliest Inhabitants just concluded. We would like to acknowledge the Wonnarua people who are the traditional custodians of this land. If a wanton slayer of the [womens] sacred bird were detected in his crime, the women would give way to outbursts of furious passion. I happened to have a few emu feathers stuck in the band of my hat as an ornament. In times of wet weather when long continued rain (Kueywon) made everyone and everything miserable and gloomy, the old men of the tribe would perform a remark- able ceremony to ensure a recurrence of fine weather. A few of the men at the back of the kweealbang commence chopping at a tree, and the boys are helped to their feet, and are put standing in a row near the fires, each boy being supported by his guardian. [8] Then there was the awfully cruel poisoning of the blacks at Bakers Creek out- station of the A.A. Co. The body was trussed up in as small a compass as possible, wrapped in rugs, and supported by two relatives, about four yards from the grave, lying on their knees, while they bent over it full of grief and affection. All you need to do is follow the two simple processes give above. The blacks were often sent out to get bark, as they were excellent at the job. Sometimes a blow on the head er e he fell would kill him, or if he were thrown down alive, those beneath would perform the final ceremony of dispatch. He appears painted with pipeclay and carries a fire-stick in his hand; but generally it is the [clever men] who alone perceive him and to whom he says Fear not come and talk. At other times he comes where the blacks are asleep and takes them up, as an eagle his prey, and carries them away for a time. Hurst wrote that fatal disease, introduced by licentious Europeans interfered with the natural source of supply and increase. After these singular appetisers, the chief would throw the carcase on the fire and leave the game to cook. One of the keerang now goes and meets the men and novices -who may be distinguished as the white mob - who are by this time waiting just out of sight, and tells them that everything is ready. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection, Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI), Australian Museum Lizard Island Research Station. The novices are placed sitting down on the nets, and bend forward and drink water out of the coolamins which are on the ground in front of them. These men, armed with their boomerangs and nulla-nullas, then start towards the kackaroo, some of them taking up their position on one side of the ring, and some on the other, but the majority of them stand near the front of it-that is, on the side from which the path emerges. The literature makes no reference to grass seeds having been ground, although Themeda australis was widespread (Bigge Evidence BT Box 5:2028-30, 2033) and it. . Join us, volunteer and be a part of our journey of discovery! The novices are then helped to their feet, and are taken to each of the marked trees in succession. Visitors to this website should be aware that some materials may use language that is offensive or sensitive. One would he deputed to climb for the quarry, and with his tomahawk would set about making toe-holds In the bark up the straight bole. endstream endobj startxref The hosts now get up and go outside, where they remain standing in a group, and one or more of their number commence sounding, the goonandhakeea or bull-roarer. The waddies. These performances are generally carried on at night by the light of the row of camp fires-the novices sitting in the shelter, while the men are acting on the other side of the fire. has publicly denounced the use of the word Guringai. 1 have been informed that in some tribes the blacks use a vine to aid in climbing, putting it round the tree and working It upwards to form a continual support. Such a camp would be formed on some tolerably level ground near a running stream or water-hole. I would respectfully call on His Excellency for instructions how to proceed that such evil and improper conduct may be speedily checked and further evil prevented. A long neck of land formed by the junction of a creek with the river [near Gresford] was the place chosen as that of interment. If, on the contrary, the tribe to whom the white stone was sent consider the time inopportune, or that there are other weighty reasons for post-poning the general gathering, no white stone is returned by the messenger, and the initiator then knows that they do not approve of his proposal, and the matter lapses for the present. . Wading through the complexities of the situation is now the responsibility of Ms Ley. The Dungog blacks spoke practically the same language as all the coastal tribes from the Manning River as far south as Botany Bay. The root of the problem lies in what the first settlers brought with them their assumption that the Aborigines would all speak the same language, their belief the Aborigines lacked any cultural complexity and a failure to come to grips with the people they encountered. But the blacks remained, and many of my earliest recollections are of them. A. Co. had established an out cattle station at Upper Ganghut a heifer run, in charge of [which were a few of] their assigned servants. The local Allyn River tribe were the first to erect their camp, around which the other tribes took up their positions, each in the direction of the country from which they had come. The attire usually consisted of a kangaroo skin tied round the middle with a belt of fibre or sinews. The Wonnarua people ( / hw n r ju r /), a group of indigenous people of Australia, are those Australian Aborigines that were united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as the Upper Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. The Wonnarua were part of the land. They ascended the lofty Mackenzie Table land and located the first body of fugitive natives camped on the northern face of the mountain on a narrow shelf above a gigantic cliff which overhung a tangled mass of brush and vines. There was a good reason fo r this, as the longer handle gave. This was usually done immediately after birth by the mother or some of the old women of the tribe, and as tho practice is common among blacks in all parts of the continent it can be accepted that this marked feature of the aboriginal physiognomy is thought to be beautiful. She was Indeed a wonderfully lucky fisher. Most of these plants would have occurred somewhere in the Hunter Region, and probably constituted part of Aboriginal diet in those areas. The Wonnarua people are the traditional land owners of the Maitland area and their lands extend throughout the Hunter Valley. The relatives of the novices now take them to some convenient place adjacent, and paint them all over with red ochre and grease. The perpetrators were the Barrington River natives. The men, exultant over the result of their prowess would immediately proceed to make a fire. Some of the game caught during the day is cooked for the novices, the bones and sinews being taken out of it, and the pieces cut small, so that they may not be able to distinguish what animals flesh is being given to them. The upper end of this pole is ornamented by having, a bunch of green leaves or grass tied around it. Bail steal em, master they protested vigorously, We only take it. This naive explanation was their manner of discrimi- nating between something taken with malicious intent, and something taken merely to gratify a fancy. When he had finished, he returned to the sky and people called him the Sky Hero or All Father or Sky Father. With this Captain Moffatt very promptly complied, and the men were mounted and off in an hour, and Mr. Chas. |Last modifications, Copyright 2000-2022 sensagent Corporation: Online Encyclopedia, Thesaurus, Dictionary definitions and more. The bias towards the coast applies to plant foods as to others, and this aspect of the evidence makes impossible any comparison between the relative importance of plant foods in coastal and inland environments. It may have had some- thing to do with the mystery bags that formed part of the equipment of the adults. The cause of it was Flash Tommy. He collected money from the whites who were watching the performance, and when asked what he was going to do with the money by Long Tommy, a black who worked at Irwins, he said he was going to keep it. Fishing lines were cleverly made from the inner bark of young kurrajong trees, the finished article being of extraordinary strength and capable of landing the heaviest of edible fish. hb```f``f`a``cg@ ~+s\ N(7?qr[>fz . They liked noise. Years afterwards their unburied skeletons could be seen. . The harden ing was, of course, done by fire later on. When the fumigating of the men and novices has been completed the women go away to their camp, which is close by, and the men proceed to theirsthe married men joining their wives later on. This noise is made so that if the string of one of the bull-roarers should break - which sometimes happens - the women would not hear it falling on the ground. Anxiety states were deliberately contrived by the guardians who told the boombits that the Goign (great spirit) was attacking the camp and killing the women and children. Another favorite food was the cobra found in decaying logs on the banks of the tidal watercourses. The women and children are also told to lie down, and are covered over with rugs and bushes, some of the men running round amongst them to see that this formality is properly carried out. These stones are raked out of the heap of earth and ashes in the middle of the ring, and are warm, owing to the fire which is burning on top of the heap. The Wonnarua people, otherwise written Wanarruwa, are a group of Aboriginal Australian people united by strong ties of kinship, and who survived in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as the Upper Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. They then see two men swing each a goonandhakeea (excretement-eater) on the cleared space beyond the line of fires. The adjoining parish, Belbora (correctly Baal Bora) owes its name to the tragedy. Within the cleared space, and on one side of it was a crude wooden effigy, colored vividly with some red pigment, having a cross-piece for arms, and a striking head-dress of grass and bark similar to the pattern used by the blacks when stalking kangaroos. For weeks and weeks he would labor, fashioning with the crude tools at his command, such things as he believed would bring him the best return in his bartering. One toy with which they delighted to play was a contrivance that gave out a deep booming din like the bull-roarers the elders used in the initiation ceremonies. Stings never seemed to trouble them beyond a shake of their woolly head and a squeak. They were in groups here and there in a little valley. One [researcher] described Frasers work as most unsatisfactory and unquestion- ably the most inaccurate and garbled account ever published about the Aborigines. Despite this demolition of Frasers credentials and abilities, the word Guringai wasnt demolished with its authors reputation and it was picked up from time to time until it became widely accepted as the name for the original inhabitants of northern Sydney or of their language. Grass never grows on the bora ring. Company despatched their small body of veterans time-expired soldiers from Carrington to supplement the civilians, but the soldiers never reached the scene of operations, having halted and retired when within 6 miles of the station, fearing an ambush, leaving the decision to the two civilian bodies, who enacted a terrible vengeance. ?j"PeezDl(K6+iwZaA[]l-{/;AC^(!.y>lz+=-e_!N AnWq%H0R"-L-+ Filling in under the logs with stones fitted, or saplings, with twigs woven in and out to let thee smaller fish get away. When not in use for this purpose the peg was kept in the cartilage of the nostrils which were pierced for the purpose. 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