Whadjuk

Noongar language groups

Whadjuk, also called Wadjuk, Whajook, Wajuk and Wadjug, is the name of the Noongar dialectical group inhabiting the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain, and extending below Walyunga into the surrounding Jarrah Forests according to Norman Tindale.[1] The etymology is unknown but it has been suggested that it may come from Wirtj, meaning "those who went before" (i.e. ancestral ones), and implied that Tindale's informants considered all Whadjuk people were dead. The boundaries of this region are the watershed division north of Yanchep between the Swan-Avon and the Moore Rivers, in the north, the Walyunga-Gidgegannup (from Gidgie = spear, gan- = make, -up = place) region to the north east, the Canning River catchment to the south east, to the coast at Port Kennedy. The boundaries as outlined by Tindale are still disputed by elders in the community today.[2] Within this region is Cottesloe, Karrakatta, Bassendean sand dune systems and intervening wetlands, extending out to the fertile loams of the Guildford area, and the Darling Scarp to the edge of the Wandoo region, inhabited by the Balardong people to the east. To the north, according to Tindale is the land of the Juat, Yued or Yuat, and to the south, the Pindjarup or Pinjareb peoples.

Culture and pre-history

The Whadjuk formed part of the Noongar language group, with their own distinctive dialect. Culturally they were divided into two matrilineal moieties:[3] Wardungmaat, from wardung ("crow", that is, the Australian raven, Corvus coronoides) and maat ("lineage"; literally "leg") and; Manitjmaat, from manitj ("sulphur-crested cockatoo, Cacatua galerita") and maat. Moieties were endogamous, and children took the moiety of their mother. Each moiety also contained two "sections" (or "skins"): in the case of the Manitjmaat these were Ballarok and Tondarup and for the Wardungmaat, they were Ngotak and Naganyuk.

The length of Whadjuk settlement of this area should not be underestimated. Finds associated with this group in the Guildford region show continuous settlement going back at least 35,000 years,[4] while stone tools recently found on Wadjemup, or Rottnest Island, have been estimated at 70,000 years old. The Whadjuk also preserved many stories of the Wagyl, a water-python held to be responsible for most of the water features around Perth.

Coastal dwelling Whadjuk have an oral tradition describing the separation of Rottnest from the mainland, which occurred between 10,000–6,000 BCE, technically a post-glacial Flandrian transgression.[5]

Like other Noongar peoples, the Whadjuk seem to have moved more inland in the wetter weather of winter, returning to the coast as interior seasonal lakes dried up.[6][7] The Whadjuk, like many Noongar people divided the year into six seasons.[6]

These seasons were roughly divided (rather than by specific date) and Whadjuk took account of environmental signals such as the spring call of the motorbike frog (green tree frog (Litoria moorei)) , in marking seasons. For example, the onset of Kambarang, or the flowering of the Western Australian Christmas tree (Nuytsia floribunda showing the onset of Bunuru.

Whadjuk used high quality wilgi (red ochre) in ceremonies, which they obtained through trade with peoples to the east.[3] In pre-contact times it was used to colour hair, which was worn long (in a style similar to "dreadlocks"). Among indigenous groups that practised initiatory circumcision, the territory of the Whadjuk was known as "The Land of the Boys". Quartz from the Darling Scarp was also traded with Balardong groups for the making of spears.

Contact history

The Whadjuk peoples bore the brunt of the European invasion and colonisation, as the cities of Perth and Fremantle were built in their territory.

No doubt Whadjuk peoples had been familiar with Dutch explorers like Vlamingh, and the occasional visit of whalers to the coast, before the arrival of settlers under the command of Governor James Stirling. After a near disaster at Garden Island, a long-boat under the command of Captain (later Lieutenant Governor) Irwin was dispatched and met with Yellagonga and his family at Crawley, on the coast of what is now the University of Western Australia or by Mount Eliza (Noongar = Goonininup). As Aboriginal women had been earlier seized by European seal hunters, Yellagonga subsequently moved his encampment to what is now Lake Monger (Noongar = Kallup).[3]

The Whadjuk people were divided by the Swan River into four resident groups, each with its own territory:[3]

Several Europeans in particular contributed to modern understanding of Whadjuk Noongar language and culture.

European settlers were called Djanga, by the Whadjuk people, a term referring to spirits of the dead. This seems to have been an attempt to fit the Europeans into the social structure of the Noongar peoples but it seems to have been reinforced by the following principal factors:

Work by Neville Green in his book Broken Spears has shown how Aboriginal culture could not explain the high death rates associated with European infections, and believed that Aboriginal sorcery was involved, leading to rising numbers of reprisal spearing and killings within the Aboriginal community. Coupled with the declining birth rates, these factors led to a collapsing population in those areas nearby European settlement.

With the alienation from their lands due to settlers claiming land and fencing it off, Aboriginal people lost access to important seasonal foods, they did not understand or accept private ownership of their lands, which led to spearing of stock and digging in food gardens. Reprisals led to a cycle of increased violence on both sides. The first attempted Aboriginal massacre was the "Battle for Perth" when there was an attempt to surround and capture Aboriginal people who had retreated into Lake Monger. The area was cordoned, but the hunted people escaped. Once Lake Monger was settled by the Monger family, Yellagonga moved to Lake Joondalup. In 1834 this Wanneroo area was explored by John Butler, and in 1838 by George Grey. With the lands seized for settlement in 1843, Yellagonga was reduced to begging for survival, and shortly thereafter he accidentally drowned.[9]

The situation for Midgegooroo was even more precarious. Violence flared when it was said 200 "savages" were going to attack the ferry from Fremantle, and citizens armed themselves and rushed to the site to find nothing but a bemused ferryman. A Tasmanian settler shot one of the local Aboriginal men and Yagan, Midgegooroo's son and Yellagonga's nephew, speared a white in revenge. Yagan was arrested and sent to Carnac Island in the care of Robert Lyon who claimed he was a freedom fighter. Yagan escaped from the island in a boat, and waged a guerrilla campaign on both sides of the river. He was eventually killed by one of two European boys he had befriended and his head was smoked and sent to England, finally being recovered and returned home by Ken Colbung in 1997.

Following the Battle of Pinjarra, Whadjuk Aboriginal people became totally dispirited, and were reduced to dependent status, settling at their site at Mount Eliza for handouts under the authority of Francis Armstrong. An Anglican school was established for a number of years at Ellenbrook, but was never very successful and was greatly under funded.

Relations between the settlers and the Noongar people had deteriorated badly in the final years of Stirling's reign, with settlers shooting at Aboriginal people indiscriminately for the spearing of stock, leading to payback killings of settlers. Stirling's response was to attempt to subdue the Aboriginal people through harsh punishment. When Stirling retired he was replaced as Governor by John Hutt, 1 January 1839, who rather than adopting Stirling's vindictive vengeful policies against Aborigines, tried protecting their rights and educating them. This ran foul of frontier settlers intent on seizing Aboriginal lands without compensation, who felt they needed strong-arm tactics to protect themselves from Aboriginal "reprisals". In 1887 a reserve for the remaining Whadjuk people was established near Lake Gnangara, one of a whole series of wetlands which may have, within the memory of Aboriginal people here, been a series of caves along an underground river whose roof fell in. This reserve was re-established in 1975. In addition to the "feeding station" at Mount Eliza, under the control of Francis Armstrong, first "Protector of Aborigines". Hutt also tried to establish an Aboriginal yeomanry by giving Aboriginal "settlers" grants of government land. The lands chosen for this venture were marginal and Aboriginal people were expected to make improvements without giving them access to needed bank finance, so the scheme quickly collapsed. Aboriginal campsites were temporarily established at many metropolitan locations including Ellenbrook, Jolimont, Welshpool and Allawah Grove. These sites however were frequently moved at the discretion of European authorities once an alternative use was found for the land (as happened at Karrakatta Cemetery, the Swanbourne Rifle Range and Perth Airport).

Daisy Bates claimed she interviewed the last fully initiated Whadjuk Noongar people in 1907, reporting on informants Fanny Balbel and Joobaitj, who had preserved in oral tradition the Aboriginal viewpoints of the coming of the Europeans. Fanny had been born on the Aboriginal sacred site, that underlies St George's Cathedral, while Joobaitj's sacred lands were near the current Youth Hostel at Mundaring Weir.

Aboriginal camping sites around Perth

References

  1. Tindale, Norman (1930) "Aboriginal Tribal Boundaries" (Museum of South Australia)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bates, Daisy (1938) "The Passing of the Aborigines" (Albermerle Street, London)
  3. Jarvis, NT (Ed)(1979), "Western Australia — An atlas of human endeavour 1829-1979" (Western Australian Government by Government Printer)
  4. The early British settler and diarist George Fletcher Moore wrote an account of this tradition: Fletcher Moore George, 1892, A descriptive vocabulary of the language in common use amongst the aborigines of Western Australia: embodying much interesting information regarding the habits, manners, and customs of the natives and the natural history of the country, London, Wm S. Orr & Co.; p11.
  5. 1 2 Green, Neville (1984) "Broken spears — Aborigines and Europeans in the South West of Australia" (Focus Educational Press, Perth)
  6. Hallam, Syvlia (1986) "Aboriginal Resource Usage along the Swan River" (Swan River Symposium, WAIT)
  7. Grey, George, (1841), "Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in the North West and Western Australia, 1837-38" (Hesperian Press, Perth, 1984)
  8. Hallam, Sylvia J (1974) "Fire and Hearth: Aboriginal Usage and European Usurpation in the South West of Western Australia" (Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies, Canberra)
  9. http://www.creativespirits.info/ozwest/perth/aboriginalhistoryperth.html Accessed 29 March 2011
  10. http://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/Welcome/History.aspx Retrieved 29 Mar 2011
  11. 1 2 http://www.det.wa.edu.au/aboriginaleducation/apac/detcms/navigation/district-websites/swan/local-resources/?oid=Category-id-9193555 Accessed 29 March 2011
  12. Carter, Jennie. The History of Bassendean. Perth, Western Australia: Town of Bassendean, 1986.
  13. 1 2 Delmege, S., A Trans-Generational Effect of The Aborigines Act 1905 (WA): The Making of the Fringedwellers in the South-West of Western Australia, Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, 2005
  14. Association of Independent Schools (AICS Support Unit). "Aboriginal Community College". Archived from the original on September 12, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
  15. http://www.ahl.gov.au/hostelunit.asp?id=12
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