The Dharug or Darug people, formerly known as the Broken Bay tribe, are an
Aboriginal Australian
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 Isl ...
people, who share strong ties of kinship and, in
pre-colonial
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
times, lived as skilled hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout much of what is modern-day
Sydney.
The Dharug, originally a Western Sydney people, were bounded by the
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 ...
to the northeast around Broken Bay, the
Darkinjung to the north, the
Wiradjuri
The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...
to the west on the eastern fringe of the
Blue Mountains, the
Gandangara
The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire ...
to the southwest in the
Southern Highlands, the
Eora to the east and the
Tharawal
The Dharawal people, also spelt Tharawal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Dharawal language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, s ...
to the southeast in the
Illawarra
The Illawarra is a coastal region in the Australian state of New South Wales, nestled between the mountains and the sea. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongo ...
area.
Darug language
The
Dharug language
The Dharug language, also spelt Darug, Dharuk, and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language, Gadigal language ( Sydney city area), is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in th ...
, now not commonly spoken, is generally considered one of two dialects, the other being the language spoken by the neighbouring Eora, constituting a single language. The word ''myall'', a pejorative word in
Australian dialect denoting any Aboriginal person who kept up a traditional way of life, originally came from the Dharug language term ''mayal'', which denoted any person hailing from another tribe.
Country
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 ...
reckoned Dharug lands as encompassing , taking in the mouth of the
Hawkesbury River
The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.
...
, and running inland as far as
Mount Victoria. It took in the areas around
Campbelltown,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
,
Camden,
Penrith and
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
.
Social organisation
Traditionally, there was a cultural divide between the western Dharug and the
Eora, whom they call the coastal Dharug, ''katungal'' or "sea people". They built
canoe
A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle.
In British English, the ter ...
s, and their diet was primarily seafood, including fish and shellfish from
Sydney Harbour,
Botany Bay
Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
and their associated rivers. The inland Dharug were ''paiendra'' or "tomahawk people". They hunted
kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
s,
emu
The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The emu ...
s and other land animals, and used stone axes more extensively.
Clans
The Dharug nation was divided up into a number of woodland
clans who each tended to live in a certain geographic area. This geographic area would also house descendant clans. Each clan typically included 50 to 100 people. According to James Kohen, they numbered 15:
* (1) ''Bediagal''
* (2) ''Bididal''
* (3) ''Boolbainora''
* (4) ''Burreberongal''
* (5) ''Burramattagal''
* (6) ''Cabragal''
* (7) ''Cannemegal''
* (8) ''Cattai''
* (9) ''Gommerigal''
* (10) ''Kurrajong''
* (11) ''Mulgoa''
* (12) ''Murringong''
* (13) ''Tugagal''
* (14) ''Wandeandegal''
* (15) ''Warrawarry''
History of contact
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, introduced in 1789 by the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
settlers, wiped out up to 90% of the population in some areas. They lived in the natural caves and overhangs in the
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
of the Hawksbury region, although some did choose to make huts out of bark, sticks and branches.
Recent controversy
A strong centre of cultural attachment for the Dharug people has been the "Blacks Town" (at the modern suburb of
Colebee
Colebee is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Colebee is located 47 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Western Sydney re ...
) in the
Blacktown
Blacktown is a suburb in the City of Blacktown, in Greater Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Blacktown is located west of the Sydney central business district. It is one of the most multicultural places within Great ...
local government area. However, in September 2012 the
City of Blacktown decided to cease recognising the Dharug people as 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 right ...
of the area. The council also passed a motion, opposed by some councillors, to begin a process to consider changing the name "Blacktown". An online petition was launched calling for the recognition of the Dharug people in 2012.
In 2020, the
Hills Shire Council, whose local government area covers Dharug land, caused controversy by rejecting requests to include an
Acknowledgement of Country at its meetings. The
Hills Shire Council is the only Sydney local council that does not include an Acknowledgement of Country at its meetings.
Notable Dharug people
*
Kurtley Beale
Kurtley James Beale (born 6 January 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union representative player who has made over 90 national representative appearances in a ten-year playing career at the world-class level. He is of Aboriginal desce ...
, Australian professional rugby union player
*
Anthony Fernando
Anthony Martin Fernando (6 April 1864 – 9 January 1949) was an early Aboriginal Australian toymaker and early political activist.
Biography
Fernando was born in Woolloomooloo, New South Wales as a member of the Dharug nation. He spent most of ...
, early twentieth century activist
*
Daniel Moowattin, third Australian Aboriginal person to visit England
*
Marion Leane Smith, only Australian Aboriginal woman known to have served in the First World War
*
Yarramundi
Yarramundi (ca. 1760 – after 1818) was an Indigenous Australian called by Europeans "the chief of the Richmond Tribe" or "Tribes". He was a member of the Boorooberongal clan of the Darug people, and was a ''garadyi'' or "doctor".
Yarramundi ...
, Boorooberongal clansman, whose daughter Maria Lock and son Colebee have a significant role in early assimilation history
**
Maria Lock
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
*170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
*Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
, Aboriginal Australian landowner in colonial times
Alternative names
* Broken Bay tribe
* Dharruk, Dharrook, Dhar'rook, Darrook, Dharug
Source:
See also
*
Wangal
The Wangal people ( Wanegal or Won-gal,) are a clan of the Dharug ( ?) Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of what is now the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, centred around the Municipality of Strathfie ...
*
Eora
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
Bibliography of Dharug people and language resources at the
Dharug clan names– website Our Black and White family. Lists different clan names from above, and says "Our language group is EORA". (Lists Wategora, among others.)
{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales
The Hills Shire
Sydney