Kulin

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This article is about an Australian Aboriginal nation. For other meanings see Kulin (disambiguation).

The Kulin alliance is one of the Indigenous Australian nations of Australia who lived in central Victoria, Australia, around Port Phillip and Western Port, up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys. To their east lived the Gunai/Kurnai people of Gippsland.

Five distinct languages were spoken in two groups. The Eastern Kulin group includes Woiwurrung, Bunurong, Taungurong, Ngurai-illam-wurrung. The western language group included just Wathaurung.

Woiwurrung: spoken from Mount Baw Baw in the east to Mount Macedon, Sunbury and Gisborne in the west. The Wurrundjeri-willam were a clan who occupied the Yarra River and its tributaries. Referred to initially by Europeans as the Yarra tribe. Other Woiwurrung clans include the Marin-Bulluk, Kurung-Jang-Bulluk, Wurundjeri-Balluk, Balluk-willam. Wurundjeri is now the common term for descendants of all the Woiwurrung clans.

Bunurong: spoken by six clans along the coast from the Werribee River, across the Mornington Peninsula, Western Port Bay to Wilsons Promontory. Referred to by Europeans as the Western Port or Port Philip tribe. The Yalukit-willam clan occupied the thin coastal strip from Werribee, to Williamstown. Bunurong is now the common term used to describe all the people of this language group.

Taungurong: spoken north of the Great Dividing Range in the Goulburn River Valley around Mansfield, Benalla and Heathcote. Referred to by Europeans as the Goulburn River tribe. Taungurong is now the common term used to describe all the people of this language group.

Ngurai-illam-wurrung: spoken by the 16 clans of the Jaara or Jajowrong people around Murchison, the central highlands region, east to Kyneton, west to the Pyrenees, north to Boort and south to the Great Dividing Range. Referred to by Europeans as the Broken River tribe or Loddon Aborigines.

Wathaurung: spoken by 15 clans south of the Werribee River and the Bellarine Peninsula to Streatham. Referred to by Europeans as the Barrabool people. The escaped convict, William Buckley lived with this community for 32 years, between 1803 and 1835, before being found by John Batman on 6 July 1835.

[edit] References

People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days. By Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen ISBN 0-9577728-0-7
The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region. By Gary Presland ISBN 0-646-33150-7
Wauthaurong Too Bloody Strong: Stories and life journeys of people from Wauthaurong, By Bruce Pascoe (ed.), Pascoe Publishing Pty Ltd, Apollo Bay, Victoria, Australia.