The Dhudhuroa people (or Duduroa) are an
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
people of North-eastern Victoria, in the
state of Victoria
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...
, Australia. About 2,000 descendants exist in Australia in the early 21st century.
Name
The
endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
Dhudhuroa has been analysed as being composed of the initial syllable ''dhu-'' of their word for "no" (''dhubalga'') and a form of the word for "mouth" (''wurru'').
Language
Dhudhuroa has been classified as belonging to the
Gippsland branch of the
Pama-Nyungan language family.
Robert M. W. Dixon classifies it, with
Pallanganmiddang, as one of the 2 languages comprising an Upper Murray Group.
Lexicostatistical analysis however shows that it something of a language isolate within neighbouring languages, with which it shares no more than 11-16% of common vocabulary. It has various dialects, one being ''Ba Barwidgee.''
The language is currently undergoing a revival, and is being taught at
Bright
Bright may refer to:
Common meanings
*Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness
*Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence
People
* Bright (surname)
* Bright (given name)
*Bright, the stage na ...
Secondary College,
Harrietville
Harrietville is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Great Alpine Road, in the Alpine Shire. At the , Harrietville and the surrounding area had a population of 338.
History
Harrietville was named after the first white woman who lived ...
Primary School and
Wooragee
Wooragee is a locality in north east Victoria, Australia. The locality is in the Shire of Indigo local government area, north east of the state capital, Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capita ...
Primary School.
Country
The Dhudhuroa language is a language of north-eastern Victoria, existing from before European settlement. According to
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 ...
, the people inhabit a stretch of territory that encompasses around , embracing the areas defined by the
Mitta Mitta and
Kiewa
Kiewa is a locality in north east Victoria, Australia. The locality is in the Shire of Indigo local government area and on the Kiewa River, north east of the state capital, Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naa ...
rivers. It includes
Tallangatta
Tallangatta () is a town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. The town lies on the banks of the Mitta Arm of Lake Hume, approximately south-east of Albury-Wodonga along the Murray Valley Highway. At the , Tallangatta had a population of 1,17 ...
and the
Murray River Valley land from
Jingellic
Jingellic is a small town that straddles the boundaries of the Greater Hume Shire and Snowy Valleys Council local government areas in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located near a crossing on the upper M ...
and
Tintaldra
Tintaldra is a town in northeast Victoria, Australia in the Shire of Towong local government area and on the upper reaches of the Murray River, northeast of the state capital, Melbourne and east of the regional centre of Wodonga. At the , Ti ...
to
Albury
Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
. Tindale's reconstruction of the scanty source evidence to arrive at this conclusion has been judged "poor" due to its over-reliance on a single source, that of
A. W. Howitt, by R.M. Dixon.
it is estimated that there are about 2000 descendants of Dhudhuroa, and there is a Dhudhuroa Native Title Group.
Social organization
The early Australian ethnographer
Alfred Howitt categorized the Dhudhuroa as a
horde
Horde may refer to:
History
* Orda (organization), a historic sociopolitical and military structure in steppe nomad cultures such as the Turks and Mongols
** Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s
** Wings of the Golden Hord ...
of the Jaitmathang, an opinion shared by
Aldo Massola
Aldo Massola (9 September 1910 – 6 July 1975) was an Italian people, Italian-Australians, Australian anthropologist, a curator at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne from 1954 to 1964, who overcame scandal in his personal life to a ...
in 1962. Linguistically however the vocabulary they used differed from that noted down from tribal informants of various hordes of the Jaitmattang.
Alternative names
Tindale
* ''Tharamirttong, Tharamittong''
* ''Tharomattay''
* ''Jeenong-metong'' (strong-footed ones)
* ''Dyinning-middhang''
* ''Ginning-matong''
* ''Dhooroomba.( ?)''
* ''Theddora mittung.'' (hordal term)
AIATSIS
* Djiningmiddang tribe
* Yaithmathang
* Jaitmatang
* Duduroa
* Djilamatang
* Kandangora
* Omeo tribe
* Theddora
* Yaitmathang
* Dhudhruwa
* Dhuduroa
* Do
* dor
* dee
* Dodora
* Dodoro
* Toutourrite
* Theddora mittung
* Duduruwa
* Tharamirttong
* Tharamittong
* Tharo mattay
* Jeenong metong
* Dyinning middhang
* Ginning matong
Some words
* ''ngiyambanba'' (fire)
* ''geberri'' (bad)
* ''gundja'' (good)
* ''yambo'' (fish)
* ''bandjina'' (child)
* ''mema'' (father)
* ''baba'' (mother)
* ''wingga'' (dog)
* ''dalga'' (mountain)
* ''gumbarro'' (gum tree)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (Australia)
History of Victoria (Australia)