The Wotjobaluk are an
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
people of the state of
Victoria. They are closely related to the
Wergaia
The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee (Victoria), Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj ( ...
people.
Language
R. H. Mathews supplied a brief analysis of the
Wotjobaluk language (now known as Wergaia
), describing what he called the Tyattyalla dialect of the Wotjobaluk around
Albacutya He stated that it was characterised by
four numbers: the singular, the
dual,
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...
, and
plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
. There were, in addition, two forms of the trial number for the
1st person, depending on whether the person addressed was included or excluded. Thus one obtains: ''wutju'' (a man); "wutju-buliñ" (two men); ''wutju-kullik'' (three men); ''wutju-getyaul'' (several men).
In mid-2021 a
language revival
Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community group ...
project started up at the Wotjobaluk Knowledge Place, established in December 2020 at
Dimboola. A Wergaia language program would run over 20 weeks.
Country
Wotjobaluk territory took in some inclusive of the
Wimmera River
The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimm ...
, Outlet Creek and the two
eutrophic lakes,
Hindmarsh and
Albacutya. Their southern borders down ran to
Dimboola,
Kaniva, and
Servicetown. Their western frontier lay beyond Yanac, and to the east, as far as
Warracknabeal
Warracknabeal ( ) is a town in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, located in the Wheatbelt (Australia), Victorian wheatbelt. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km northwest of Melbourne, it is the bus ...
and
Lake Korong. Their northern horizon reached Pine Plains.
Social organisation
The Wotjobaluk were divided into 11
bands or clans:
# ''Lail-buil'' between Pine Plains and the River Murray
# ''Jakelbalak'' between Pine Plains and Lake Albacutya
# ''Kromelak'' at Lake Albacutya
# ''Wanmung Wanmungkur'' at Lake Hindmarsh
# ''Kapuu-kapunbara'' on the River Wimmera, towards Lake Hindmarsh
# ''Duwinbarap'' west of River Wimmera
# ''Jackalbarap'' west of Duwinbarap
# ''Jarambiuk'' at Yarriambiack Creek (so called)
# ''Whitewurudiuk'', east of Yarriambiack Creek
# ''Kerabialbarap'' south of
Mount Arapiles
# ''Murra-murra-barap'' in the
Grampians
The Grampian Mountains () is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range extends northeast to so ...
Hunting lore
Wotjobaluk hunters told
Adolf Hartmann that kangaroos had acute hearing, and could twig the presence of a predator at 150 yards simply by hearing the noise of ankle-bones cracking. Older kangaroos were apt to cast their young from their
marsupial pouch if chased by dingos, to distract the dogs from their main prey.
Cultural centre
The Wotjobaluk Knowledge Place, apart from teaching language (see above), displays artworks, conducts workshops, and is a centre for social get-togethers.
Alternative names
* ''Buibatjali'' (dialect name), ''buibatyalli''
* ''Gnallbagootchyourl''
* ''Gourrbaluk'' (Gour =Lake Hindmarsh, name used by
Wemba-Wemba)
* ''Kurm-me-lak'' (horde name = Gromiluk)
* ''Malikunditj'' (northern tribal exonym)
* ''Malleegunditch''
* ''Ngalbagutja'' denoting Lake Albucutya, a Wemba-Wemba
exonym
An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
used of northern hordes of the Wotjobaluk)
* ''Tjatijala'' (regional name west of Lake Hindmarsh)
* ''Tyattyalla, Djadjala''
* ''Wattyabullak''
* ''Wimmera tribe''
* ''Woitu-bullar'' (plural of man as used in
Barababaraba tribe)
* ''Wotjo-ba-laiuruk'' (lit. "men and women")
* ''Woychibirik'' (name for man = ''wotjo''])
* ''Wuttyabullak, Wuttyuballeak''
Some words
* ''dhallung'' (male or buck kangaroo)
* ''gal'' (dog)
* ''kulkun'' (a boy)
* ''laiaruk'' (a woman)
* ''lanangurk'' (a girl).
* ''mindyun'' (a kangaroo)
* ''muty'' (doer or female kangaroo)
* ''winya nyua'' (Who is there?)
* ''wotjo'' (a man)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (state)