The Djilamatang were thought to be a distinct

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

people of the

state of Victoria Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

, Australia. This has recently been questioned by Ian Clark.

Language

The

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

is formed from the word for man, ''djere''.

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 ...

maintained that the Djilamatang were exterminated by other Aboriginal groups "in post-European times". He places them in the northeast corner of Victoria, "west of

Mount Kosciuszko Mount Kosciuszko ( ; ; Ngarigo: ) is the highest mountain of the mainland Australia, at above sea level. It is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park, a part of the Australian Alps National Parks and ...

on the upper headwaters of the Murray River", but the words he quotes (''waananga'', meaning "no" and ''djere''. "man") as belonging to this group are in fact, according to

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 ...

, Pallanganmiddang and since there is no independent testimony for the Djilamatang lexicon, it is reasonable to surmise that this group spoke a tongue similar to

Dhudhuroa The Dhudhuroa people (or Duduroa) are an Indigenous Australian people of North-eastern Victoria, in the state of Victoria, Australia. About 2,000 descendants exist in Australia in the early 21st century. Name The endonym Dhudhuroa has been analys ...

Country

Area 1,500 sq. m. west of

and on the upper headwaters of the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

. They appear to have been exterminated in a period of tribal conflict in the

Albury Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...

area after white settlement had begun to affect the region. It was then that their traditional enemies, the

Jaitmathang The Jaitmatang, also spelled Yaithmathang, are an Indigenous Australian people of the State of Victoria. Name Jaitmatang/Yaithmathang, according to the early ethnographer Alfred William Howitt, may have derived from ''Ya-yau'' their word for "yes ...

, Walgalu, and

Ngarigo The Ngarigo people (also spelt Garego, Ngarego, Ngarago, Ngaragu, Ngarigu, Ngarrugu or Ngarroogoo) are Aboriginal Australian people of southeast New South Wales, whose traditional lands also extend around the present border with Victoria. They ...

forged a pact or mutual alliance to get rid of their common enemy.

People

classified the Djilamatang as probably constituting a distinct tribal unity, though he noted that

Alfred William Howitt Alfred William Howitt (17 April 1830 – 7 March 1908), also known by author abbreviation A. W. Howitt, was an Australian anthropologist, explorer and naturalist. He was known for leading the Victorian Relief Expedition, which set out to est ...

considered them to be a horde of the

. Recently, Ian Clark has argued that the bare 5 sources used by Tindale to make this inference, the first dating from 1860 do not support his conclusion.

Lifestyle

When the

Bogong moth The bogong moth (''Agrotis infusa'') is a temperate species of Nocturnal, night-flying moth, notable for its biannual long-distance seasonal Lepidoptera migration, migrations towards and from the Australian Alps, similar to the diurnal monarch ...

began to proliferate, the Djilamatang, together with several other tribes of the region, such as the

, the Jaitmathang, the

, the

Ngunawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal and Gundungurra are Australian Aboriginal languages from the Pama-Nyun ...

and the Minjambuta (postulated by Dr Ian Clark to be a Wiradjuri exonym for PallanganmiddangClark, Ian, 'Aboriginal languages in North-east Victoria – the status of "Waveru" reconsidered', ''Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues'', 2011, Vol. 14(4): 2-22) entered into negotiation to settle outstanding disputes, and meet up to engage in rites of transit on the territories, and trade, in order to collectively forage in the Bogong areas to hunt the moth. These multitribal assemblies were often as large as 700 people, and coincided with bora ceremonial rituals and

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...

s to initiate the young men.

Alternative names

* ''Waananga'' (Their word for "no")

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (state) History of Victoria (state)