The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. Together with the Boonwurrung people they are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of Melbourne, or, in their language, Naarm. They continue to live in this area and throughout Australia. They were called the Yarra tribe by early European colonists.
The Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation was established in 1985 by people of Wurundjeri descent.
Ethnonym According to the early Australian ethnographer Alfred William Howitt, the name Wurundjeri is composed to wurun, referring to a species of eucalypt, Eucalyptus viminalis, otherwise known as the manna or white gum common along the Yarra River, and jerri, a variety of grub found in the tree,. Nowadays, Wurundjeri take their ethnonym as meaning "Witchetty Grub People". The morpheme transcribed as 'jerri/'djeri' however might simply reflect rather the plural marker djirra. Barry Blake faulted Howitt's identification, and suggested that the eucalypt in question was the black peppermint. Ian Clark translates the term to mean 'white gum tree people'.
Language
Wurundjeri people spoke a variety of Woiwurrung, an eastern Kulin dialect.
Country
In anthropologist Norman Tindale's estimation – and his data, drawing on anthropologist R. H. Mathews's data which has been challenged – Wurundjeri Country (biik) extended over approximately . These took in the areas of the Yarra and Saltwater rivers around Melbourne, and ran north as far as Mount Disappointment, northwest to Macedon, Woodend, and Lancefield. Their eastern borders went as far as Mount Baw Baw and Healesville. Their southern confines approached Mordialloc, Warragul, and Moe.
In June 2021, the boundaries between the land of two of the traditional owner groups in greater Melbourne, the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung (Bunurong), were agreed between the two groups, after being drawn up by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council. The new borderline runs across the city from west to east, with the CBD, Richmond and Hawthorn included in Wurundjeri land, and Albert Park, St Kilda and Caulfield on Boonwurrung land. It was agreed that Mount Cottrell would be jointly managed above the line. The two Registered Aboriginal Parties representing the two groups were the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. However, these borders are still in dispute among several prominent figures and Wurundjeri territory has been claimed to spread much further west and south.
Cosmology and beliefs The idea, widely attested in indigenous traditions, that a skyworld, in many ways a replica of the earth, is inhabited both by the creator spirit(s) who shaped the land, and also by the souls of the dead. For the Wurundjeri this sky realm was known as Tharangalk-bek, namely 'gumtree/manna gum country' It is here that Bunjil, usually called mami-ngata (Our Father), dwells. It was Bunjil who created the landscape of earth (beek-narreen). He fashioned men from clay, while his brother, the bat Pallina, secured wives for them by fishing them out of the water.
Among the Kulin tribes Bunjil, aside from representing the eagle-hawk, is also identified as Altair. He is imagined as the celestial headman (ngurungaeta) of the tribe, who after his earthly life, went to dwell in the other land, which, like the Ngamat, is accessible to souls (murup) by the bridging pathways of the setting sun's rays (karalk). Bunjil had two wives, Ganaivarra, a black swan, and his son Binbeal, the rainbow. It was he who established the exogamous kinship system . He finally ascended to the sky after ordering Bellin-bellin, the Musk-crow, to release a whirlwind out of his skinbag, which swept Bunjil and his sons aloft. The Pleiades were created in a similar manner: ants which a group of women (Karat-goruk) had dug up with yam-sticks, tipped with burning coal, were stolen by Waang, the Crow. Bunjil had Bellin-bellin open her windsbag, and the Karat-goruk with their brightly burning yamsticks, once gusted up into the sky, became the Pleiades.
In Wurundjeri dreamtime legends, much of the physical landscape resonated with stories of the time associated with Bunjil's creation.There was a 120 foot deep cavernous hollow lying some two miles east of Brushy Creek/Narneian, between it and Running Creek, which was called bukkertillibe, the 'bottomless pit'. This was said to have been created when the sky-god Bunjil, outraged by bad people, had a star fall on them, killing many and leaving a gaping hole. The site, now destroyed, is identified as the David Mitchell Ltd. quarry at Cave Hill in Lilydale.
Initiation At a youth's coming of age initiation ceremony (Jiba-gop, pronounced Jibauk, also refers to the initiate himself), a 10-11 year old Wurundjeri boy, as his whiskers began to grow, was hooded with a rug and then taken to an enclosure some two to three hundreds yards from the main encampment (wilam ) by his guritch, (sister's husband) or kangun (maternal uncle). This area was fenced off by a screen of intrerwoven boughs. Naked until that age, he was then bequeathed one or more kilts (branjep) ) His head was close-shaven, leaving all but a crested ridge of hair, and, together with his shoulders, bedaubed with mud, while his face was smeared ear to ear with pipeclay, as was his trunk from his kilted waist to the back of his head. He kept a plucked possum he had captured in a woven bag, never leaving the jibbauk stockade without it and a firestick. He was allowed to beg for scraps of food accompanied by his guritch around the main camp, and taught what foods were forbidden him (emu, black duck, musk duck, flying tuan, iguana and the spiny ant-eater (echidna). Once his hair had grown back two inches, he was given a possum rug, and reintroduced to the camp where for several days his manhood was celebrated in dance and song. He was then supervised by a wirrarap and gradually allowed to partake of the forbidden foods, concluding with a right to eat emu at around 30–35 years of age, when fat was rubbed into his back to signal he now had permission.
Seasons The Wurundjeri shared the general Woiworrung division of the year into seven seasons:
Biderap, the dry season from January to February Iuk, eel season covering March Waring, the wombat season extending from April to July Guling, the season of orchids, in August Poorneet, the tadpole season of September–October Buarth Gurru, the season of grass flowering in November Garrawang, the kangaroo apple season in December.
Clans The Wurundjeri balug was composed of two patrilines who resided in distinct localities. These were respectively the Wurundjeri-willam and the Bulug-willam, where willam means "camping ground"/dwelling, or dwellers.
The Wurundjeri-willam were divided into three sub-groups known by their headsman's name: (1) Bebejan's mob (2) Billibellary's mob, and (3) Jakka-jakka (Borrunupton)'s mob., each respectively holding different stretches of Wurundjeri territory. Bebejan's mob resided from around the Merri creek-Yarra river junction up to Mount Baw Baw; Billibellary's mob held sway over the area from the Maribyrnong River north to Mount William ; Borrunupton's mob resided in the territory south of the Yarra from Gardiners Creek through to the northern slopes of the Dandenongs
The Bulug-willam''' ('swamp dwellers')s territory covered the area south from Mount Baw Baw to Dandenong and the swampland at the head of Western Port bay.
All the Kulin peoples belonged to one of two exogamous moieties of descent through the male line. These were respectively the Bunjil (Wedge-tailed eagle) and the Waa/Waang (Crow). In the two Wurundjeri classes the Bunjil moiety had a small hawk as totem, while the Waa(ng) lacked any such tutelary animal spirit. The two moieties were separated territorially.
History
Pre-colonisation The pre-colonial population of what is now known as the state of Victoria has been estimated as approximately 11,500 to 15,000 Aboriginal people, composed of some 38 tribal groups. The Wurundjeri population probably fluctuated around 400 individuals. Archaeological evidence from the Melbourne region has shown human habitation in the area dating back to 31,000 years before present. As was attested by early colonial observers like George Robinson and William Thomas in the first decade of colonization, the Melbourne area still figured prominently as one of the places where upwards of 800 men, women and children from all the Kulin groups would assemble for ceremonial rites, trading, marriage-making and dispute settlements.
The practice of firestick farming resulted in large areas of grassy plains extending inland from Melbourne, to the north and southwest, with little forest cover, providing pasture to expose the massive number of yam daisies (murnong) which proliferated in the area. These roots and various tuber lilies formed a major source of starch and carbohydrates. Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors would determine where campsites were located, many being along the Yarra River (Birrarung) and its tributaries. Bolin Bolin lagoon was a particularly important habitation, ceremonial and food resource site, where eels, fish and possum were procured.
The Wurundjeri-willam and Bulug-willam clans mined diorite at Mount William stone axe quarry which was a source for the highly valued greenstone hatchet heads, which were traded across a wide area as far as New South Wales and Adelaide. The mine provided a complex network of trading for economic and social exchange among the different Aboriginal nations in Victoria. The quarry had been in use for more than 1,500 years and covered 18 hectares including underground pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the Australian National Heritage List for its cultural importance and archeological value.
Onset of British colonisation In 1835, the Port Phillip Association of colonists from Van Diemen's Land, represented by John Batman, arrived on Wurundjeri Country with a view to purchasing a large tract of grazing land. The Wurundjeri had the impression that they were ngamajet, or red-faced sunset spirits (murup) returning from the land of the dead. At Merri Creek, Batman met with eight leading men (ngurungaeta) of the local clans, including Bebejan, Billibellary and Jakka-jakka (Jaga Jaga/Borrunuptun) of the Wurundjeri. They signed Batman's Treaty, after participating in a tanderrum ceremony, allowing the colonists temporary residence on their land. However, even though the treaty was later annulled, Batman and the Port Phillip Association used the agreement to appropriate 600,000 acres of land for an annual payment of flour, trinkets and clothing.
Within a few years other arriving British colonists had expropriated most of the traditional Wurundjeri land along the Yarra River and its tributaries, forcing them away from many sites that they depended on for food, water, shelter and ceremony.
Effects of colonisation