- Gandangara people
The Gundangara (also spelt Gundungara and Gundungurra) are a clan of
Indigenous Australians in south-easternNew South Wales ,Australia . Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn and the Southern Highlands.Location
The Gandangara lived in the south-east region of New South Wales from the
Nepean River to about Lake George, neighbours of theDharug , Tharawal,Yuin , Ngunawal andWiradjuri peoples."Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia", cited in cite web | url = http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/GLB01.shtml | title = Goulburn:Aborigines | work = [http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/ARCHIVE.shtml Archive associated with Australia Street project] | publisher =University of Technology, Sydney | accessdate = 2006-07-11]Norman Tindale recorded the location of the Gundangara as:At Goulburn and Berrima; down Hawkesbury River (Wollondilly) to about Camden. Feld seems to record their later-day movements rather than their original tribal limits. Their tribal name incorporates terms meaning 'west' and 'east.'cite web | last = Tindale | first = Norman | authorlink = Norman Tindale | year = 1974 | url = http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/archives/hdms/aa338/tindaletribes/gandangara.htm | title = Gandangara (NSW) | work = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia | publisher =
South Australian Museum | accessdate = 2006-07-11 Note: SA Museum caveat - "Please be aware that much of the data relating to Aboriginal language group distribution and definition has undergone revision since 1974. Please note also that this catalogue represents Tindale's attempt to depict Aboriginal tribal distribution at the time of European contact." ]History
In 1802, the explorer
Francis Barrallier met the Gundungara people as his party moved through "The Cowpastures" southwest of Sydney, through theNattai to theWollondilly River and up to the heights above where Yerranderie now stands. Barrallier noted in his journal that the Gundungara "themselves build huts for the strangers they wish to receive as friends." [ [http://dazed.org/npa/scraps/tranter.htm Fragments of a Song - A Brief Search for Historical Truth ] ]In 1816, fourteen Gundungara people were killed near Appin by troops sent by Governor Macquarie during punitive expeditions to capture and kill the Aborigines who had been involved in response to some attacks by Aborigines between 1814 and 1816. The Gundungara killed had probably not been involved in the earlier attacks.cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = | url = http://www.hi.com.au/resource/rfacts.asp?kla=16&subtopicid=2888 | title = British law and guerilla war | work = Australian History > Aborigines | publisher = hi.com.au (Heinemann Interactive) | accessdate = 2006-07-11] Kohen, James, "The Darug and their Neighbours", cited in cite web | url = http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/GLB01.shtml | title = Goulburn:Aborigines | work = [http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/ARCHIVE.shtml Archive associated with Australia Street project] | publisher =
University of Technology, Sydney | accessdate = 2006-07-11]In 1828, there was some interaction between the Surveyor-General,
Thomas Mitchell , and the Gandarangara, near Mittagong. Mitchell was supervising road construction. The Gandarangara are said to have composed a cheeky song about the building of the road (perhaps with appropriate mimicry): "Road goes creaking long shoes, Road goes uncle and brother white man see." It must have seemed that building a road just to visit kin was unnecessary effort. Men from the Gandarangara also acted as guides for Mitchell at the time.The Gundungara people were apparently badly affected by an
influenza epidemic of 1846/47, which was particularly severe. In 1848, the Goulburn Bench of Magistrates estimated the number of Aborigines in Goulburn to be 25."Goulburn Heritage Study" (1981) cited in cite web | url = http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/GLB01.shtml | title = Goulburn:Aborigines | work = [http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/ARCHIVE.shtml Archive associated with Australia Street project] | publisher =University of Technology, Sydney | accessdate = 2006-07-11]Beliefs
The Gandangara beliefs have been recorded as:
The Gandangara believed in animal-people who lived in the dreaming and were known as the "burringilling" . They lived in clouds, mountains, dense scrub, trees or water holes. Some could change the shape of their body, disappear underground, or change the landscape. Sometimes they had magical weapons or were helped by magical dogs.
Most important of the "burringilling" was "Dharamulan". The mythological basis for the initiation is that when the novices were brought to the place where the initiation ceremony was carried out, they had rugs placed over their heads so that they could see nothing. "Dharamulan" caught a boy and hit him on the back of the head, which caused one of his front upper incisors to fall out. The tooth became gunnabillang, or rock crystal, a stone used in the initiation ceremonies.
Eventually, "dharamulan" went into different kinds of trees, where he lived except during the times when the initiation ceremonies occur. The piece of wood which is cut from a tree to make a bullroarer is sometimes called a "dharamulan", because the noise it makes represents his voice.
"Burringilling", from the
Tharawal language , can be translated as 'Walking Together' and was the name of a 1993 celebration inMinto, New South Wales , part of the "International Year of the World's Indigenous People". [cite web | year = 2001 | url = http://austlii.law.uts.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/car/1994/11/70.html | title = Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Annual Report 1993-1994 - Burringilling | work = Reconciliation and Social Justice Library | publisher = Indigenous Law Resources (AustLII) | accessdate = 2006-07-11]The Gandarangara, like the
Tharawal people , buried their dead in the upright position. Important people were wrapped in bark and placed in trees, often surrounded by carved trees.References
External links
* [http://www.glalc.org.au/ Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council]
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