Wiradjuri

The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life.

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, Dubbo, Forbes, Cootamundra, Darlington Point, Cowra and Young.

Etymology

File:Windradyne, Aust. Aboriginal warrior from the Wiradjuri.jpg

A Wiradjuri warrior, thought to be WindradyneTemplate:Sfn

Is it autonym or colonisers exonym?

Some colonial writers claim that the Wiradjuri is an autonym derived from , meaning "no" or "not", with the comitative suffix or meaning "having".Template:Sfn That the Wiradjuri said , as opposed to some other word for "no", was seen as a distinctive feature of their speech, and several other tribes in New South Wales, to the west of the Great Dividing Range, are similarly named after their own words for "no".Template:Sfn A similar distinction was made between Romance languages in medieval France, with the langues d'oc and the langues d'oïl distinguished by their word for "yes".

Debate about the name Wiradjuri

In his book Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (1974), Norman Tindale wrote that Wiradjuri was one of several terms coined later, after the 1890s had seen a "rash of such terms", following the publication of a work by ethnologist John Fraser. In 1892, Fraser had published a revised and expanded editionTemplate:Sfn of Lancelot Threlkeld's 1834 work on the Awabakal language, An Australian Grammar,Template:Sfn in which he created his own names for groupings, such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari.Template:Sfn

Tindale says that some of the later terms had entered the literature, although not based on fieldwork and lacking Aboriginal support, as artificial, collective names for his "Great Tribes" of New South Wales. He writes that there was such a "literary need for major groupings that [Fraser] set out to provide them for New South Wales, coining entirely artificial terms for his 'Great tribes'. These were not based on field research and lacked aboriginal support. His names such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari can be ignored as artifacts...During the 1890s the idea spread and soon there was a rash of such terms...Some of these have entered, unfortunately, into popular literature, despite their dubious origins."Template:Sfn

He lists Wiradjuri (NSW) as one of these artificial names, along with BangarangTemplate:Efn (Pangerang) (Vic.); Booandik (Vic. & SA); Barkunjee (Barkindji) (NSW), Kurnai (Vic.), Thurrawal (Dharawal) (NSW), and Malegoondeet (?) (Vic.).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He also mentions R. H. Mathews, A. W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of the "nations" concept. However, Tindale refers to Wiradjuri in his own work (p. 200): "Wiradjuri 'Wiradjuri (Wi'raduri)".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Alternative names

The variety of spellings for the name Wiradjuri is extensive, with over 60 ways of transcribing the word registered.Template:Sfn

History

British Colonial invasion

Wiradjuri territory was first invaded by British colonists in 1813.Template:Sfn In 1822 George Suttor took up an extensive lot of land, later known as Brucedale Station, after Wiradjuri guides showed him an area with ample water sources. Suttor learnt their language, and befriended Windradyne, nicknamed "Saturday", and attributed conflict to the harshness of his own [British] people's behaviour, since the Wiradjuri were in his view, fond of white people, as they would call them.Template:Sfn

Famine and genocide by British colonisers

Clashes between the British settlers and the Wiradjuri, however, multiplied as the influx of colonists increased, and became known as the Bathurst Wars. The occupation of their lands and their cultivation caused famine among the Wiradjuri, who had a different notion of what constituted property.Template:Efn In the 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee, but there were fewer clashes.

Ancient sites of significance

• Koonadan Historic Site, located 9 km north-west of LeetonTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
• The Wellington Convict and Mission Site in Wellington, a former convict settlement and Aboriginal mission
• 56 historical sites found during survey work at Yathong Nature Reserve, including scar trees, camp sites and cave artTemplate:Sfn
• A historical site, consisting of an open campsite, found during survey work at Nombinnie Nature ReserveTemplate:Sfn
• Mungabareena Reserve, a meeting place at Albury

Geography: Wiradjuri country

The Wiradjuri are the largest Aboriginal group in New South Wales. They once occupied a vast area in central New South Wales, on the plains running north and south to the west of the Blue Mountains. The area was known as "the land of the three rivers",Template:Sfn the Wambuul (Macquarie), the Kalare later known as the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee, or Murrumbidjeri.Template:Sfn

Norman Tindale estimated the territorial range of the Wiradjuri tribal lands at Template:Cvt. Their eastern borders ran from north to south from above Mudgee, down to the foothills of the Blue Mountains east of Lithgow and Oberon, and east of Cowra, Young and Tumut and south to the upper Murray at Albury and east to about Tumbarumba. The southern border ran to Howlong. Its western reaches went along Billabong Creek to beyond Mossgiel. They extended southwest to the vicinity of Hay and Narrandera. Condobolin southwards to Booligal, Carrathool, Wagga Wagga, Cootamundra, Parkes, Trundle; Gundagai, Boorowa, and Rylstone, Wellington, and Carcoar all lay within Wiradjuri territory.Template:Sfn

The Murray River forms the Wiradjuri's southern boundary and the change from woodland to open grassland marks their eastern boundary.

Culture

Wiradjuri language

Wiradjuri is a Pama–Nyungan family and classified as a member of the small Wiradhuric branch of Australian languages of Central New South Wales.Template:Sfn

The Wiradjuri language is effectively extinct, but attempts are underway to revive it, with a reconstructed grammar, based on earlier ethnographic materials and wordlists and the memories of Wiradjuri families, which is now used to teach the language in schools.Template:Sfn This reclamation work was originally propelled by elder Stan Grant and John Rudder who had previously studied Australian Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Some words

• 'native peach'. The English word for this in Australia, quandong, is thought to derive from the Wirandjuri term.Template:Sfn
• 'crow'. The Wiradjeri term perhaps lies behind the toponym for the town of Wagga Wagga. The reduplication may be a pluralizer suggesting the idea of "(place of) many crows". This has recently been questioned by Wiradjuri elder Stan Grant Sr and Tim Wess, an academic. The word behind the toponym is, they claim, , meaning "dance", and the reduplicative would mean "many dances/much dancing".Template:Sfn

Social organisation

The Wiradjuri were organised into bands. Norman Tindale quotes Alfred William Howitt as mentioning several of these local groups of the tribe:

• Narrandera (prickly lizard)
• Cootamundra (, kutamun turtle)
• Murranbulla (, two bark canoes)Template:Sfn

Burial rite

The Wiradjuri, together with the Gamilaraay (who however used them in bora ceremonies), were particularly known for their use of carved trees which functioned as taphoglyphs,Template:Sfn marking the burial site of a notable medicine-man, ceremonial leader, warrior or orator of a tribe. On the death of a distinguished Wiradjuri, initiated men would strip the bark off a tree to allow them to incise symbols on the side of the trunk which faced the burial mound. The craftsmanship on remaining examples of this funeral artwork displays notable artistic power. Four still stand near Molong at the Grave of Yuranigh.

They are generally to be found near rivers where the softer earth allowed easier burial.Template:Sfn Alfred William Howitt remarked that these trees incised with taphoglyphs served both as transit points to allow mythological cultural heroes to ascend to, and descend from, the firmament as well as a means for the deceased to return to the sky.Template:Sfn

Diet

The Wiradjuri diet included yabbies 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 (Microseris lanceolata), wattle seeds, and orchid tubers. The Wiradjuri travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on bogong moths.Template:Sfn

Attire

The Wiradjuri were also known for their handsome possum-skin cloaks stitched together from several possum furs. Governor Macquarie was presented with one of these cloaks by a Wiradjuri man when he visited Bathurst in 1815.Template:Sfn

Notable people

Historical

• Diana Mudgee, massacre survivor and early Aboriginal land owner
• Kitty Hanley (c1845 - 1917) matriarch and midwife
• Turandurey, explorer, guide and interpreter
• William Punch, massacre survivor and World War One serviceman
• Windradyne, important Aboriginal leader during the Bathurst War
• Yuranigh, a much prized guide for the explorer Thomas Mitchell, especially during his expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1845–1846. On hearing of Yuranigh's death in 1852, Mitchell put up £200 to have his gravesite marked with a tombstone.Template:Sfn

Modern

• Kirsten Banks, astronomer
• Tony Briggs, actor, writer and producer
• Linda Burney, member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Evonne Goolagong Cawley, tennis player
• Jimmy Clements, present at the opening of Provisional Parliament House in 1927
• Bill Ferguson – activist, leader, organiser of 1938 Day of Mourning protest
• Isobelle Mary Ferguson, nurse and activist, daughter of Bill
• Kevin Gilbert, 20th century author
• Stan Grant, journalist, son of Stan Grant Sr
• Stan Grant Sr, a Wiradjuri elder and linguistTemplate:Sfn
• Anita Heiss contemporary novelist
• Kate Howarth author
• Faye McMillan, academic
• Kerry Reed-Gilbert, poet, author and elder
• Isabel Reid (born 1932), elder and advocate for the Stolen Generation; NSW State Recipient of Senior Australian of the Year 2021; oldest living survivor of those forcibly removed under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW)Template:Sfn
• Jessa Rogers, founding principal of the Cape York Girl Academy
• Mum (Shirl) Smith, community activist
• Margaret Tucker, co-founder of the Australian Aborigines League
• Joyce Williams, Wiradjuri elder, health campaigner, native title activist
• Neville "Uncle Chappy" Williams, land activist and proponent in the Lake Cowal Campaign
• Tara June Winch, author
• Jack Charles (1943–2022), actor, elder, activist
• Jeanine Leane, poet and academic

Music/the arts

• Brook Andrew, contemporary artist
• Bianca Beetson, contemporary artist
• Luke Carroll, actor, presenter
• Alan Dargin, didgeridoo player
• Ella Havelka, dancer, first Indigenous person to join The Australian Ballet
• Melanie Horsnell, singer-songwriter
• Mo'Ju, musician
• Lin Onus, artist
• Harry Wedge, artist
• YNG Martyr, rapper/singer-songwriter

Sporting

Rugby league

• Josh Addo-Carr, rugby league footballer
• Braidon Burns, rugby league footballer
• Laurie Daley, rugby league footballer
• Scott Drinkwater, rugby league footballer
• Adam Elliott, rugby league footballer
• Blake Ferguson, rugby league footballer
• Jai Field, rugby league footballer
• Andrew Fifita, rugby league footballer
• Tyrell Fuimaono, rugby league footballer
• David Grant, rugby league footballer
• Nicho Hynes, rugby league footballer
• Ben Jones, rugby league footballer
• Cliff Lyons, rugby league footballer
• Latrell Mitchell, rugby league footballer
• Brent Naden, rugby league footballer
• David Peachey, rugby league footballer
• Tyrone Peachey, rugby league footballer
• Jesse Ramien, rugby league footballer
• Will Robinson, rugby league footballer
• George Rose, rugby league footballer
• Ron Saddler, rugby league footballer
• Reimis Smith, rugby league footballer
• Kotoni Staggs, rugby league footballer
• Robbie Simpson, rugby league footballer
• Joel Thompson, rugby league footballer
• Brad Tighe, rugby league footballer
• Esikeli Tonga, rugby league footballer
• Willie Tonga, rugby league footballer
• Connor Watson, rugby league footballer
• Jack Wighton, rugby league footballer
• Joe Williams, rugby league footballer
• Jonathan Wright, rugby league footballer

Australian rules football

• Jarrod Atkinson, Australian rules footballer
• Sean Charles, Australian rules footballer
• Aidyn Johnson, Australian rules footballer
• Zac Williams, Australian rules footballer

Other sports

• Wally Carr, Australian Commonwealth Boxing Champion
• Daniel Christian, member of the Australian cricket team
• Evonne Goolagong, champion tennis player
• John Kinsela, first Aboriginal Olympic wrestler
• Dylan Pietsch, rugby union player for the NSW Waratahs
• Joel Swift, Australian and Olympic water polo player
• Tai Tuivasa, mixed martial arts and Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter
• Mariah Williams Australian Olympic hockey player

In popular culture

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.Template:Sfn

In Bryce Courtenay's novel Jessica, the plot is centred in Wiradjuri region. Jessica's best friend (Mary Simpson) was from Wiradjuri.Template:Sfn

Noel Beddoe's novel The Yalda CrossingTemplate:Sfn also explores Wiradjuri history from an early settler perspective, bringing to life a little-known massacre that occurred in the 1830s.Template:Sfn

Andy Kissane's poem, "The Station Owner's Daughter, Narrandera" tells a story about the aftermath of that same massacre,Template:Sfn and was the inspiration for Alex Ryan's short film, Ngurrumbang.Template:Sfn

Anita Heiss's historical novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, set in 1852 around the time of the devastating Gundagai flood, follows the life of a young Wiradjuri woman named Wagadhaany.