Awabakal
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The Awabakal people , are those
Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
who identify with or are descended from the Awabakal tribe and its clans, Indigenous to the coastal area of what is now known as the
Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...
of
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
. Their traditional territory spread from
Wollombi Wollombi ( ) is a small village in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within the Cessnock City Council LGA, situated southwest of Cessnock and north of Sydney. To the south is the village of Laguna, to the east, the villa ...
in the west, to the Lower Hunter River near
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
and
Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area in Greater Newcastle and part of the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city from 7 September 1984. The area is situated adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is ...
in the north. The name
Kuringgai Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamila ...
, also written Guringai, has often been used as a collective denominator of the Awabakal and several other tribes in this belt, but
Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
has challenged it as an arbitrary coinage devised by ethnologist
John Fraser John Fraser may refer to: Politics *John Simon Frederick Fraser (1765–1803), commanded the Fraser Fencibles in Ireland and was (M.P.) for Inverness-shire *John James Fraser (1829–1896), 5th Premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, 18 ...
in 1892. For Tindale, Kuringgai was synonymous with Awabakal.
Arthur Capell Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. Early life Capell was born in Newtown, New South Wales ...
however asserted that there was indeed evidence for a distinct Kuringgai language, which, in Tindale's schema, would imply they were a distinct people from the Awabakal.


Name

In their language, ''awaba'' was the word for Lake Macquarie, meaning flat or plain surface, and by extension referred to the people native to that area. The Awabakal were bounded to the north–west by the
Wonnarua The Wonnarua people, otherwise written Wanarruwa, are a group of Aboriginal Australian people united by strong ties of kinship, and who survived in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as the Upper Hunter ...
, the
Worimi The Worimi (also spelt Warrimay) people are Aboriginal Australians from the eastern Port Stephens and Great Lakes regions of coastal New South Wales, Australia. Before contact with settlers, their people extended from Port Stephens in the sout ...
to the north–east, and the Darkinung peoples to the west and south. Awaba is now the name of a small town in the region.


Language

Awabakal language was recorded by Lancelot Edward Threlkeld and Awabakal Leader Birabahn in 'An Australian grammar : comprehending the principles and natural rules of the language as spoken by the Aborigines in the vicinity of Hunter's River, Lake MacQuarie & New South Wales' -'and this is the first, and most comprehensive record of any indigenous language in Australia. The City of Newcastle is in the process of educating the wider community about dual name sites and traditional language history of Newcastle ''Muluubinba.'' * ''Whibayganba'' –
Nobbys Head Nobbys Head ( Aboriginal and dual name: ''Whibayganba'') is a headland located on the southern entrance to Newcastle Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. The headland is situated above the Hunter River and the Tasman Sea of the South Pacific Oc ...
land * ''Tahlbihn'' – Flagstaff Hill (
Fort Scratchley Fort Scratchley, a former coastal defence installation, is now a museum. It is located in Newcastle East, a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales in Australia. It was built in 1882 to defend the city against a possible Russian attack. However, it ...
) * ''Burrabihngarn'' – Pirate Point ( Stockton) * ''Yohaaba'' –
Port Hunter The Port of Newcastle is a major seaport in the city of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the world's largest coal port. It is made up of facilities located at Port Hunter - Yohaaba in the Hunter River estuary. The port was the fi ...
* ''Coquun'' –
Hunter River Hunter River may refer to: *Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia *Hunter River (Western Australia) *Hunter River, New Zealand *Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada **Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada ...
* ''Khanterin'' – Shepherds Hill (The Hill) * ''Toohrnbing'' – Ironbark Creek * ''Burraghihnbihng'' – Hexham Swamp.


Country

Tindale estimated Awabakal territory to cover some . More recent estimates are that Awabakal territory covers 2870 square kilometres.


Practices

The eaglehawk or
wedge-tailed eagle The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...
has special significance for the Awabakal people. Kon, their "celestial entity", looks like an Aboriginal man, but in flight resembles an eagle-hawk. The Awabakal people played a significant part in shaping the environment of their region. They practised fire-stick farming extensively, which helped them to hunt and to navigate through dense prickly scrub along the coast. Newcastle's main city thoroughfare, Watt Street was built over an Awabakal path from the shore to the top of a hill. Fishing, particularly for shellfish, was a significant part of the Awabakal people's diet and culture pre-colonisation. The Awabakal, in pre-colonisation times, were noted as being strong and determined defenders of their territory, the means by which the defence occurred need to be explored to deepen understanding of the culture. They had possession of their rich coastal territory for thousands of years, during which time they successfully repelled incursions by the neighbouring
Gamilaraay people The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Aust ...
and established places of defence, "virtual armouries", high in the
Watagan Mountains The Watagan Mountains or Watagans or Wattagan Mountains, a mountain range that is part of the Great Dividing Range, is located on the Lower Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The range is situated between the Upper Hunter River catchme ...
.


Today

Descendants of the traditional owners, that is, descendants of those Awabakal forebears who survived the British invasion/colonisation massacres, especially during the land grab of 1826, are direct descendants of Margaret and Ned or Mahrahkah. These descendants are connected through their families/family culture together and represented by the Awabakal Descendants of the Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation. These people, the
traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...
of the Awabakal region have lived on, loved and looked after the magnificent Awabakal land and water systems continuously for millennia, at least since the last Ice Age, 11,800 years ago. Their extraordinary resilience, is in part due to their excellence in civic relations, as demonstrated by their forebear, the most important Indigenous Intellectual of Australia in C19th, Birabahn and this is seen in their consideration of newly settled Aboriginal people on Awabakal lands and water places. Recently settled Aboriginal people in this region partake in community support organisations like 'The Awabakal Newcastle Aboriginal Cooperative Limited', which is a not-for-profit community controlled organisation operating in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter Region. It was established in 1976. It is responsible for the delivery of community and health services to Aboriginal people in this region, including: * the Awabakal Medical Centre; * the Awabakal Disability Service which provides "short to medium term support to young people living with a disability"; * culturally appropriate care for older people; * and child care services.


Butterfly Cave

The Butterfly Cave at
West Wallsend West Wallsend is a suburb and small town in the City of Lake Macquarie, Greater Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. It is near the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway and the western suburbs of Newcastle. History The Awabakal are the traditional p ...
is part of “women’s business” related to
birthing Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births globall ...
, and has been the subject of decades of active protection by women. However, the site sits on privately owned land allotted for a growing housing estate, owned by Hammersmith Management which is owned by the Roche Group. As of late 2021, women must seek permission to cross the owned land, despite the site being a protected site under the Federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection (ATSIHP) Act and was recognised as a New South Wales 'Aboriginal Place' in 2013.Aboriginal sacred sites across Australia still at risk as traditional owners 'locked out' of reforms
Shahni Wellington and Kirstie Wellauer,
ABC News Online ABC News, or ABC News and Current Affairs, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting within Australia and the rest of the world, the service covers both local and world affairs. The division of ...
, 2021-12-01


Centres

The Awabakal Environmental Education Centre began operating in 1976. It is an NSW Department of Education and Communities facility. The centre provides opportunities for teachers and students in the Hunter Region to learn about the environment and human interactions with the natural world. ''Wollotuka'', meaning an 'eating and meeting place' originally began as a support programme in 1983 to assist and promote university studies for indigenous people. Wollotuka's all indigenous staff moved into their new building, Birabahn in 2002, and the Wollotuka Institute was officially established in 2009.


Native title

In 2013 an association of Awabakal and Guringai descendants laid claim to
native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
over land from
Maitland Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...
to Hornsby. The claim was opposed by representatives of the Worimi and Wonnarua as asserting rights over their own traditional territories. In 2017 the claim was withdrawn after the NSW government claimed that, while the claim group, the Descendants of the Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation had shown descent from the original people indigenous to the area, it was argued that they had failed to demonstrate continuous preservation of customary laws and practices since the onset of white colonization.


Notable Awabakal people

*
Biraban Biraban ( – 14 April 1846) was a leader of the Awabakal people, an Aboriginal Australian people who lived in the area around what is today Lake Macquarie. His native name prior to Awabakal initiation was We-pohng; his naming as Biraban is refe ...
a recognised headman of the Awaba clan who assisted the Rev Lancelot Threlkeld compile the first grammar of an Aboriginal language in Australia.


Alternative names

* ''Awaba'' (Awabakal
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
designating Lake Macquarie) * ''Awabagal'' * '' Kuri'' (generic term ("man") in Sydney area languages). * ''
Kuringgai Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamila ...
'' * "Lake Macquarie, Newcastle" tribe * ''Minyowa'' (Awabakal horde at Newcastle) * ''Minyowie'' Source:


See also

* Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association *
Kuringgai Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamila ...


Notes


Citations


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Bibliography of Awabakal language and people resources
at the
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...
{{authority control Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales Central Coast (New South Wales)