A humpy, also known as a gunyah, wurley, wurly, wurlie, mia-mia, or wiltija, is a small, temporary shelter, traditionally used by
Australian Aboriginal people. These impermanent dwellings, made of branches and bark, are sometimes called a
lean-to, since they often rely on a standing tree for support.
Etymology
The word humpy comes from the
Jagera language (a
Murri people from
Coorparoo in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
); other
language groups
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics anal ...
would have different names for the structure. In
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 ...
, such a shelter is known as a "wurley" (also spelled "wurlie"), possibly from the
Kaurna
The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...
language. They are called wiltjas in
Pitjantjatjara and
Yankunytjatjara
The Yankunytjatjara people, also written Yankuntjatjarra, Jangkundjara, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia.
Language
Yankunytjatjara is a Western Desert language belonging to the Wati lan ...
languages, mia-mia in
Wadawurrung language.
Usage
They were temporary shelters made of bark, branches, leaves and grass used by Indigenous Australians. Both names were adopted by early white settlers, and now form part of the
Australian lexicon. The use of the term appears to have broadened in later usage to include any temporary building made from any available materials, including canvas, flattened metal drums, and sheets of corrugated iron.
In ''
Dark Emu'',
Bruce Pascoe argues that contrary to popular perception of Aboriginal dwellings being only temporary, some gunyahs in the
Channel Country
The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous Braided river, intertwined rivulets that cro ...
could accommodate up to 50 people and formed part of permanent agricultural communities.
[https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-our-new-archaeological-research-investigates-dark-emus-idea-of-aboriginal-agriculture-and-villages-146754]
Gallery
File:Aboriginal family group, Eugene Von Guerard, ca. 1859.jpg, Aboriginal family and their temporary bark ''gunya'' (shelter),
File:Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya (shelter), Johns Album ca. 1872.jpg, Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya (shelter), Victoria, c. 1872
File:Two Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya (shelter) wrapped in traditional pelt cloaks, John Hunter Kerr. ca. 1850s.jpg, Two Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya, c. 1850s
File:Aboriginals under temporary bark gunya (shelter), ca. 1888.jpg, Temporary lean-to bark gunyah, c. 1888
File:Aboriginal temporary bark gunyah (shelter), ca. 1870.jpg, Temporary lean-to bark gunyah, 1889
File:Four Aboriginal people at the entrance to their dwelling, Western Australia, Gustav Riemer ca. 1876.jpg, Aboriginal people at the entrance to their dwelling, Western Australia, c. 1876
File:Humpy, Gunyah, south west Queensland. part of scenes of far western Queensland, Fred McKay gulf patrol, 1937 - (John Flynn?) (19306853893).jpg, Framework of a humpy in far western Queensland, 1937
File:Native Wurley.jpg, Native Wurley, 1886
File:StateLibQld 1 113072 Bushman with his dog and horse outside a humpy, Hughenden district^, 1910-1920.jpg, Bushman humpy, 1910s
File:StateLibQld 2 239273 Bark humpy on Cleveland Road, Brisbane, 1874.jpg, Bark humpy, Brisbane, 1874
File:Govers 067.tif, boriginal peopleand wurlie near Alice Springs (Mparntwe), c. 1930s.
File:Govers 193.tif, Aboriginal wurlie near Alice Springs, c. 1930s
See also
*
Wiltja
*
Wigwam
A wigwam, wikiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wikiup'' ...
*
Goahti
Notes
External links
State Library of Victoria photo of Aboriginal people and humpy
Australian Aboriginal bushcraft
Australian Aboriginal cultural history
Huts in Australia
Human habitats
Indigenous architecture
Architecture in Australia
Australian Aboriginal words and phrases
House types
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