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The Bungandidj people 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 from the
Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with a population of 25,591 as of the 2021 census. The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier (volcano), Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about ...
region in south-eastern
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
, and also in western
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
. Their language is the
Bungandidj language Bungandidj is a language of Australia, spoken by the Bungandidj people, Indigenous Australians who lived in an area which is now in south-eastern South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of A ...
. Bungandidj was historically frequently rendered as Boandik, Buandig, or Booandik.


History


Prehistory

The territory of not only the Bunganndidj but also their neighbours the Meintangk, has been revealed, by archaeological explorations, to have been inhabited for some 30,000 years. Coastal occupation around the Robe and Cape Banks attests that habitation from, at a low estimate, 5,800 BP. Their name comes from ''Bung-an-ditj'', meaning "people of the reeds", which indicates their connection to land and water.


First contact

First contact between the Bungandidj and Europeans occurred in the early 1820s. Panchy from the Bungandidj recounted to Christina Smith the story of the first sighting of ships at Rivoli Bay in either 1822 or 1823, and his mother's abduction for three months before she was able to escape when the ship put in at Guichen Bay. When Governor George Grey led an expedition of surveyors, overland from Adelaide to Mt Gambier during April–May 1844, the diarist and painter
George French Angas George French Angas (25 April 1822 – 4 October 1886), also known as G.F.A., was an English explorer, naturalist, painter and poet who emigrated to Australia. His paintings are held in a number of important Australian public art collections. ...
who accompanied them, noted that they found, from Woakwine Range onwards, numerous native tracks, and old encampments with abandoned wurleys, and heaps of banksia cones, which were used to make sweet drinks, mud weirs in swamps to catch fish, wicker-work traps to snare birds, and raised platform structures for spotting emus and kangaroos to hunt.


Conflict and dispossession

In November 1834
Edward Henty Edward Henty (28 March 1810 – 14 August 1878), was a pioneer British colonist and is regarded as the first permanent settler in the Port Phillip district (later known as the colony of Victoria), Australia. Early life and family background ...
settled near
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...
, starting the movement of European settlers and their sheep, cattle, horses and bullocks across the Western plains of Victoria and the south east region of South Australia. Settlement occurred rapidly over the following two decades with significant frontier conflict taking place involving theft of sheep, spearings, massacres and
mass poisoning Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementary partic ...
of the natives. Grey's expedition reported encountering very few indigenous people, no more than groups of two or three. The abundance of signs of previous native land use with the scarcity of sighted natives was explained as due to the smallpox, introduced by Europeans in the north, which has spread out, after devastating the Murray tribes and decimated Aboriginal people further south. There are a number of reports of poisoned flour or
damper A damper is a device that deadens, restrains, or depresses. It may refer to: Music * Damper pedal, a device that mutes musical tones, particularly in stringed instruments * A mute for various brass instruments Structure * Damper (flow), a mech ...
being given or left for natives in the settlement of Victoria and South Australia at the time. According to the accounts given by Pendowen, Neenimin and Barakbouranu, and narrated to Christina Smith: :"We tasted the mutton, and found it very good; but we buried the damper, as we were afraid of being poisoned." In 1843
Henry Arthur Henry Arthur (1801 – 9 June 1848) was nephew to the fourth lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land, George Arthur. He was an original investor in the Port Phillip Association and was the first European to settle in the area now known as Ar ...
joined his brother Charles in establishing a sheep run at
Mount Schank Mount Schank is a high dormant volcano in the southeast corner of South Australia, near Mount Gambier. It was sighted by James Grant on 3 December 1800 and named after Admiral John Schank, designer of Grant's ship, HMS '' Lady Nelson''. Mo ...
. Trouble with Buandig people and dingoes, however, drove the Arthur brothers to sell up in 1844. The Hentys also had problems with their Mount Gambier sheep runs with theft of their sheep and shepherds speared to death in 1844. Such heavy losses occurred that the Hentys were forced to withdraw all their flocks from the Mount Gambier run.The Leake brothers on their Glencoe Station also reported problems losing 1,000 sheep from their 16,000 flock during 1845. Hostilities are reported to have continued around the Glenelg River region for the next two years. Mistreatment of Aboriginal people was at a level in 1845 where the commissioner of police drew attention to the atrocious treatment in the Rivoli Bay District: :"... damper poisoned with corrosive sublimate … nddriving the Natives from the only watering places in the neighbourhood. The Native women appear likewise to have been sought after by the shepherds, whilst the men were driven from the stations with threats". In 1848, the
Avenue Range Station massacre The Avenue Range Station massacre was a murder of a group of Aboriginal Australians by white settlers during the Australian frontier wars. It occurred in about September 1848 at Avenue Range, a sheep station in the southeast of the Colony of ...
occurred in the Guichen Bay region of South Australia. At least 9 indigenous Bungandidj Wattatonga clan people were allegedly murdered by the station owner
James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
who was subsequently charged with the crime. The case was dropped by the Crown for lack of European witnesses. Until that year, blacks were unable to testify under oath. Christina Smith's source from the Wattatonga tribe refers to 11 people killed in this incident by two white men. The cause of the massacre was the theft of sheep for food. A report by Mr Smith to Dr Moorhouse, the
Protector of Aborigines The Australian colonies in the nineteenth century created offices involved in managing the affairs of Indigenous people in their jurisdictions. The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role beca ...
, in April 1851 reveals that "the natives belonging to the Rivoli Bay Tribe (Buandig) are all quiet, and most of them usefully employed in one way or another by the settlers." The report also raises with concern that "infanticide has been and is still practised among the natives here.", and "relations existing between native woman and the Europeans are very discreditable." As late as 1854, settlers on Bungandidj land still expressed fears of being attacked. The Leake Brothers of Glencoe Station built what they called their 'Frontier House' in 1854 which is described as a 'large homestead with slits in the walls through which rifles could be used against any likely ''intruder'',' according to local historian Les Hill. Gradually a certain accommodation was made with Buandig people working as station hands, shearers and domestic servants while remaining on their own land. According to Bell and Marsden, Aboriginal people made wurley encampments on the edge of
Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...
and even moved into cottages at Rosetown on Kingston's northern side in 1877. The people often moved camp seasonally gathering and using traditional foods and using the traditional local burial ground. They record that the Blackford Reserve on the Bordertown Road was another locality where Aboriginal people lived until the 1970s. Kingston and Bordertown were the territorial border shared between the Buandig and the
Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...
.


Today

There are many people in the region who identify as Bungandidj today. Descendants of the Bungandidj and the Meintangk continue to nurture and protect their culture through the Kungari Aboriginal Cultural Association based in Kingston SE. In 2022 many of the landmarks around Mount Gambier, including the lakes of the dormant volcano known as Mount Gambier, have been
dual-named Dual naming is the adoption of an official toponymy, place name that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are polit ...
with Bungadidj names. The town of Mount Gambier is not yet dual-named, but is being signposted "Berrin / Mount Gambier", Berrin being the name by which the town is known to its present-day Indigenous inhabitants. The names include: * Blue Lake / Warwar, meaning "crow country", or "the sound of many crows" * Leg of Mutton Lake / Yatton Loo (unknown meaning) * Brownes Lake / Kroweratwari, meaning "emus, rtheir tracks" * Valley Lake / Ketla Malpi, meaning "sacred talking tree" * Umpherston Sinkhole / Balumbul, meaning "buttercup flower * Cave Garden / Thugi, meaning " bullfrogs


Country

According to Christina Smith in her 1880 book on the Bungandidj – ''The Boandik Tribe of South Australian Aborigines: A Sketch of Their Habits, Customs, Legends, and Language'' - :"The aborigines of the South-East were divided into five tribes, each occupying its own territory, and using different dialects of the same language. Their names were ''Booandik'', ''Pinejunga'', ''Mootatunga'', ''Wichintunga'', and ''Polinjunga''." The largest clan, according to Smith, was the Bungandidj who occupied country from the mouth of the Glenelg River to Rivoli Bay North ( Beachport), extending inland for about . Some controversy exists as to which tribe, the Bungandidj or Meintangk, occupied the stretch of land between Rivoli Bay and Cape Jaffa, and in particular which of the two was in possession of the Woakwine Range. The other clans occupied country from between Lacepede Bay to Bordertown. The Bungandidj shared tribal borders with the
Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...
people of the Coorong and Murray mouth to the west, the Bindjali and
Jardwadjali The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd ( Grampians) and west to Lake ...
to the north and the
Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria in Australia. They are the Traditional Owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. ...
people to the east. Anthropologist
Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...
argued in 1940 and again in 1974 that at the time of European settlement the Bungandidj were under territorial pressure from the
Jardwadjali The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd ( Grampians) and west to Lake ...
people to the north forcing the Bungandidj territorial boundary south from
Gariwerd The Grampians National Park, commonly known as the Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated between a ...
towards present day Casterton. However the historian Ian D. Clark has challenged Tindale's conclusions, arguing that the ethnohistoric and linguistic evidence does not support Tindale's claims regarding the boundaries between the Bungandidj and Jardwadjali.


Social organisation

The Bungandidj were divided into two marriage classes: ''Kumite'' and ''Kroke'', with children being assigned their mother's class. Within the Kumite class there were five major animal totems * : fishhawk * : pelican * : crow * : black cockatoo * : (harmless) snake The Kroke class had four major totems: * : owl * : teatree scrub * : an edible root * : white crestless cockatoo Each of these divisions had many animals, plants, and inanimate elements correlated with it. These totemic items were treated as the friend of all members of a totemic clan, and restrictions were imposed on eating species associated with them, except under extreme circumstances when due sorrow and remorse was expressed. The southerly groups appeared to have a migratory cycle consisting of setting up camps for fishing in the south over the warmer seasons, and then, with the onset of winter, leaving the stormy coasts to hunt and fish inland. Later reports describe their housing arrangements, of mud-daubed wurlies more comfortable than the shepherds' huts later constructed by pastoralists.


Language

The
Bungandidj language Bungandidj is a language of Australia, spoken by the Bungandidj people, Indigenous Australians who lived in an area which is now in south-eastern South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of A ...
is a Pama-Nyungan language, and is classified as belonging to the ''Bungandidj/Kuurn-Kopan-Noot'' subgroup of the Victorian
Kulin languages The Kulin languages are a group of closely related languages of the Kulin people, part of the ''Kulinic'' branch of Pama–Nyungan. Languages * Woiwurrung (Woy-wur-rung): spoken from Mount Baw Baw in the east to Mount Macedon, Sunbury and ...
. Their own name for their language was ''Drualat-ngolonung'' (speech of man), or, alternatively, ''Booandik-ngolo'' (speech of the Bungandidj). It consisted of 5 known dialects, ''Bungandidj, Pinejunga, Mootatunga, Wichintunga'' and ''Polinjunga''. It has recently been studied by
Barry Blake Barry John Blake (born 1937) is an Australian linguist, specialising in the description of Australian Aboriginal languages. He is a professor emeritus at La Trobe University Melbourne. Career Blake was born in the northern Melbourne suburb of A ...
. Related vocabulary in Bungandidj includes: ''drual'' (man); ''barite'' (girl); ''moorongal'' (boy); and ''ngat'' (mother).


Some words

* ((male) kangaroo) * (tame dog) * (wild dog) * (father) * (mother) * (white man)


Alternative names

Given the range of early interactions and encounters with the Bungandidj people, several
demonym A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of people ( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place ( hamlet, village, town, city, region, ...
s and
orthographies An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and emphasis. Most national and international languages have an established writing syst ...
exist: * ''Barconedeet, Bak-on-date'' * ''Booandik-ngolo'' * ''Buanditj, Boandik, Buandic, Booandik, Bangandidj, Buandik, Buandic, Boandiks'' * ''Bunganditjngolo'' (name for a language) (''Borandikngolo'' is a misprint) * ''Bungandity, Bungandaitj, Bungandaetch, Bungandaetcha'' * ''Drualat-ngolonung'' * ''Nguro'' (Mt Gambier dialect, of eastern tribes) * ''Pungandaitj, Pungantitj, Pungandik'' * ''Smoky River tribe''


In the arts

Bob Maza Robert Lewis Maza (25 November 1939 – 14 May 2000), known as Bob Maza, was an Aboriginal Australian actor, playwright and activist. Early life and education Robert Lewis Maza was born on Palm Island in North Queensland on 25 November 1939, ...
's play ''The Keepers'' was about the dispossession of the Buandig people. It was performed several times in 1988, including in Naracoorte by Mainstreet Theatre and at the Adelaide Fringe Festival by Troupe Theatre, both directed by Geoff Crowhurst, and at Belvoir Street Theatre in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, starring Lillian Crombie and
Danny Adcock Danny Adcock is an Australian actor. Career Film and television Adcock has worked extensively in television. After scoring a handful of guest roles, he landed his first film role as a policeman in the Ozploitation film '' The Cars That At ...
, and directed by Maza. Maza won the National Black Playwright Award for the production.


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of South Australia Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (state) History of South Australia History of Victoria (state)