The Kooma are a contemporary aggregation of
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 ...
peoples descending from tribes living in the border region of
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
and
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. They are descendants of the
Koamu.
Country
Contemporary Kooma people state their forebears lived upstream from, and to the east of, the
Kunja, along parts of
Nebine Creek and the
Culgoa River
The Culgoa River is a river that is part of the Darling catchment within the Murray–Darling basin and is located in South West Queensland.
Course and features
The river is a continuation of the western branch of the Balonne River in southe ...
. They call this area ''yumba'', literally "camp" but now bearing the broader sense of "home", and the
Murra murra station is of particular importance to them. Other tribes in this area, which more broadly encompasses the area beyond the middle reaches of the Nebine to take in the
Warrego,
Paroo,
Bulloo and
Wilson rivers, were the
Bitjara,
Kalili,
Wangkumara
The Wanggumara, also spelt Wangkumara, Wongkumara, Wangkumarra, and other variants, are an Aboriginal people of the state of Queensland, Australia.
Language
Old Wankumara, spoken along the Bulloo River with the Kalali people, was a " Karna� ...
Kunggari
The Gunggari ( /ˈgʊŋgəri/ ) are an Aboriginal Australian tribe of southern Queensland. The traditional land of the Gunggari centres on the Maranoa River and overlaps with the land of the surrounding Mandandanji, Kooma, Kunja, Margany, Dha ...
and
Muruwari
The Muruwari, also spelt Murawari, Murawarri, Murrawarri and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of New South Wales and the southwestern area of Queensland.
Language
A monograph on and a dictionary of Muruwari langua ...
.
A special remote sitting of the
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indictable (mo ...
on Kooma country, at the Shire Hall in
Bollon, south-west Queensland, marked the successful resolution of the Kooma people's claim for native title with a consent determination hearing.
The Kooma People's determination spans an area approximately 2,950 square kilometres in the
south-west region of Queensland, and falls within the Maranoa, Balonne, Murweh and Paroo local
government regions. This country includes the Bendee Downs and Murra Murra pastoral
properties; and also includes other areas around Bollon. Bordering the town to of Wyandra at the north-west,
spanning south to the Culgoa River, and east-west from Wideegoara Creek to Belingra.
The area is of strong cultural, spiritual and historical significance for the Kooma People, and has been the
focus of the Kooma People’s struggle for native title recognition.
People
According to one Kooma tradition, there was one group among them, taller and of lighter skin, who appeared to have an Asiatic appearance. According to folk traditions, in the 1880s a German scientist was fascinated by a group of Kooma who were hairless, and wished to collect from them skin samples for examination. The clan refused, and yet a Kooma corpse was later reported to have been shipped back to Berlin.
Mythology
The
dreamtime
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...
in Kooma lore was called ''Matya Mundu''. One tale relates how the rainbow serpent as it slithered along the Warrego River, dug out waterholes and populated them with
yellow-belly,
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...
, and cod.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Aboriginal peoples of Queensland