Gunai

The Gunai or Kurnai (sometimes spelt as Gunnai and Ganai) is an Indigenous Australian nation of south-east Australia whose territory occupied most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The nation was not on friendly terms with the neighbouring Wurundjeri and Bunurong nations. Many of the Gunai people resisted early European settlement through the 19th century, resulting in many confrontations between Europeans and the Gunai.

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Structure and Clans

It is made up of five major clans:

The Gunai/Kurnai nation bordered on the lands of the Bidawal people to the east around Cann River and Mallacoota. The Kulin Nation occupied lands to the west, where Melbourne now stands.

Evidence of human occupation at Cloggs Cave, near Buchan, has been dated at up to 17,000 years [1]

Language

Various closely related dialects were spoken among the people of the region.

Creation Story

It is told that the first Kurnai came down from the north west mountains, with his canoe on his head. He was known as Borun, the pelican. He crossed the Tribal River (where Sale now stands) and walked on into the west to Tarra Warackel (Port Albert). He heard a constant tapping sound, as he walked, but could not identify it. At the deep water of the inlets Borun put down his canoe and discovered, much to his surprise, there was a woman in it. She was Tuk, the musk duck. He was very happy to see her and she became his wife and the mother of the Gunai people.

Resistance to European settlement

Main article: Gippsland massacres

The Kurnai people resisted the European invasion of their land. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the numbers killed in the guerilla warfare undertaken, or the numbers who died in the massacres that were inflicted upon the Kurnai by the superior weaponry of the Europeans. A partial list from letters and diaries for an exhibition called Koorie, mounted by the Museum of Victoria in 1991, included:

In 1846 Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England:

The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with … I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 500 have been murdered altogether.[2]

In 1863 Rev Friedrich Hagenauer established Rahahyuck Mission on the banks of the Avon River near Lake Wellington to house the Gunai survivors from west and central Gippsland. The mission sought to discourage all tribal ritual and culture. The Mission closed in 1908 and the few remaining residents were moved to Lake Tyers.

Namesake

Kurnai College, the state schools in the Latrobe Valley towns of Churchill Northways Road, Churchill 3842 and Cnr. Northways Road & McDonald Way, Churchill 3842 and Morwell Bridle Road, Morwell 3840, were named after the Gunai people, who are often referred to as the Kurnai people in many parts of Gippsland. http://www.kurnaicollege.vic.edu.au/

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Josephine Flood (2004) Archaeology of the Dreamtime, J.B Publishing, Marleston p, 25 ISBN 1 876 62250 4
  2. ^ Gippsland Settlers and the Kurnai Dead - Patrick Morgan - Quadrant Magazine

References

External links