The Gumbaynggirr people, also rendered Kumbainggar, Gumbangeri and other variant spellings, 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 Islands ...
people of the
Mid North Coast
The Mid North Coast is a country region in the north-east of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region covers the mid northern coast of the state, beginning from Port Stephens north of Sydney, and extending as far north as Woolgoolg ...
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 ...
. Gumbathagang was a probable clan or sub-group. The traditional lands of the Gumbaynggirr nation stretch from
Tabbimoble Yamba-Clarence River to Ngambaa-Stuarts Point, SWR- Macleay to
Guyra
Guyra is a town situated midway between Armidale and Glen Innes on the Northern Tablelands in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within Armidale Regional Council and at the 2016 census, it had a population of 1,983. M ...
and to
Oban
Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, th ...
.
History
Clement Hodgkinson
Clement Hodgkinson (1818 – 5 September 1893) was a notable English naturalist, explorer and surveyor of Australia. He was Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey from 1861 to 1874.
Exploration in New South Wales
Qualified ...
was the first European to make contact with the local Aboriginal community when he explored the upper reaches of the
Nambucca and
Bellinger River
Bellinger River, an open and trained mature wave dominated, barrier estuary, is located in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Bellinger River rises below Point Lookout within the Great Dividing Ra ...
s in March 1841. Three decades later, loggers began to work their way up through the
Orara River
Orara River, a perennial stream of the Clarence River catchment, is located in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Orara River rises on the eastern slopes of the Dorrigo Plateau, Great Dividing Range, ...
cedar stands in the 1870s. Over c.1873-1874,
J.W. Lindt produced photographs of local indigenous people both in their environment and conducting actual traditional ceremonies in the
Clarence River district, and made portraits in his studio. Contemporary commentary records them as "the first successful attempt at representing the native blacks truthfully as well as artistically."
[''Australian Town and Country Journal'' 5 December 1874, p.21] The ''Sydney Morning Herald'', of 24 November 1874 expanded on what made the photographs attractive to Europeans:
The report clearly sets out a cynical nostalgia for the traditional ways of these people made sentimental by noting their 'decreasing numbers', expressing a common attitude amongst the colonists that the Indigenous populations were doomed. However, the individuals in Lindt's group portraits and their clans and languages (Gumbaynggirr and
Bandjalung), are not named, the 'scenery' is generic, and the accessories not those of the people depicted.
In clearing the land, the loggers opened up the prospect of
selectors to squat on the tribal territories in the early 1880s. Soon after, in that same decade, a shepherd was murdered in the area and a hunting party was dispatched to exact revenge, resulting in the
Red Rock Massacre. The slaughter started at Blackadder Creek where the Gumbaynggirr were camping. Mounted troopers entered the camp and began shooting. Those who fled were tracked down to the
Corindi Creek where more were shot. Those who survived were driven to the headland and herded off the rocks into the sea. The hunters kept shooting at the swimmers, but some hid in a cave and made their way to Corindi Lake further south. One of the survivors was the present day elder Tony Perkins' grandmother, who crouched down in a thicket of bulrushes with a child in her arms.
After a court battle lasting two decades, the Gumbaynggirr claim to much of the reserve around the site in 2014 was confirmed by the New South Wales Land and Environment Court.
Many
Aboriginal reserve
An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...
s and
missions were established in NSW by the
Aboriginal Protection Board
Aboriginal Protection Board, also known as Aborigines Protection Board, Board for the Protection of Aborigines, Aborigines Welfare Board (and in later sources, incorrectly as Aboriginal Welfare Board), and similar names, refers to a number of hi ...
. This resulted in relocation of Aboriginal people from their ancestral homes, only to be returned later after years of trauma (the
Stolen Generations
The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...
)
The Gumbaynggirr have the largest
midden
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
-shell deposit in the
Southern Hemisphere.
Country
The Gumbaynggirr lands extend over an estimated , covering an area of the
Mid North Coast
The Mid North Coast is a country region in the north-east of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region covers the mid northern coast of the state, beginning from Port Stephens north of Sydney, and extending as far north as Woolgoolg ...
from the
Nambucca River
The Nambucca River is a river located in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Nambucca River rises below Killiekrankie Mountain on the Dorrigo Plateau, part of the Great Dividing Range, and flows general ...
to as far north as the
Clarence River (
Grafton), and eastward to the
Pacific coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas
Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...
.
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 ...
specified its limits as bounded by the lower course of
Nymboida River
The Nymboida River, a perennial stream of the Clarence River catchment, is located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
The Nymboida River rises in the northern foothills of the Barren Mountain, on t ...
, stating that the territory ran toward
Urunga,
Coffs Harbour
Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...
, and
Bellingen. It included
South Grafton and
Glenreagh
Glenreagh is a small town in the Clarence Valley in the Northern Rivers region of north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, Glenreagh had a population of 900 people.
It is on the North Coast railway line, completed to Gl ...
. It took in the coastal strip south from near One Tree Point,
Woolgoolga
Woolgoolga is a town on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Pacific Highway (Australia), Pacific Highway, approximately 550 km north of Sydney and 365 km south of Brisbane. The closest city to Woolgoolga is ...
and
Nambucca Heads
Nambucca Heads is a town on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia in the Nambucca Valley. It is located on a ridge, north of the estuary of the Nambucca River near the Pacific Highway. Its 2021 population was 6,675 (6,327 in 2016 ...
. The thin coastal zone from Coffs Harbour to Evans Head was
Yaygir territory.
To their north were the twenty groups speaking various dialects of the Bandjalang. The
Jukambal
The Jukambal were an indigenous Australian people located in northern New South Wales, Australia.
Name
The ethnonym Jukambal is form from the word ''juka'', meaning 'no'.
Country
The traditional lands of the Jukambal stretched over an estimated ...
were to their west and the
Nganyaywana/Anēwan in the environs of (
Armidale
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...
). Their southern boundaries met with those of the
Djangadi
The Djangadi people, also spelt Dhungatti, Dainggati, Tunggutti or Dunghutti are an Aboriginal Australian people resident in the Macleay Valley of northern New South Wales.
Language
Dhanggati / Dunghutti belongs to the Yuin–Kuric languag ...
and
Ngamba
The Ngamba were an Australian Aboriginal people of New South Wales.
Language
The Ngamba language is poorly described because little has been transmitted of its nature. It is generally believed to have been similar to Gumbaynggirr.
Country
Ngamba ...
.
Language
Gumbaynggir is classified as one of the two
Gumbaynggiric languages of the
Pama–Nyungan family. In 1986, the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative was established by Gumbaynggirr elders to revive their language and hand it on. Language classes began in 1997, and by 2010, some several hundred people had some partial grasp of the language.
Culture
Muurrbay in Gumbaynggir means
the white fig tree and plays an important part in the ''Gumbaynggir Yuludarla'' (Gumbaynggir
Dreamings).
The Gumbaynggirr made sweets (bush lollies, called ''jaaning'') by rolling tender shoots from the
Acacia irrorata in the sap oozing from the tree.
Some words
* ''Giinagay'' (hello).
* ''Yaam darruy ngiina gaduyaygu'' (It's good to meet you).
* ''Yaarri yarraang''. (goodbye).
Alternative names
* Coombagoree, Gumbanggar
* Coombangree, Coombyngura, Coombyngara, Coombargaree, Kombinegherry
* Gumbainggar, Gunbainggar, Gumbaingar, Guinbainggiri
* Gumbangeri
* Kombaingheri, Kombinegherry, Kumbangerai, Koombanggary, Koombanggherry, Koombainga
Possible clans or sub-tribes
* Gumbathagang, under "King Robert" in the late 19th century (aka "King Bobby" "King Malawangi", or Bobby/Billy King)
* Nimboy (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 ...
)
* Orara (name of a river)
* Woolgoolga (a horde)
Notable people
* Frank Archibald, after whom the
Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture Series
The University of New England (UNE) is a public university in Australia with approximately 22,500 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern central New South Wales. UNE was the first ...
was named
*
Aretha Brown
Aretha Brown, or Aretha Stewart-Brown (born 11 November 2000), is an Indigenous Australian youth activist, comedian, artist, and the former Prime Minister of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament.
Brown has appeared doing talks, speeches and ...
, youth activist
*
Troy Cassar-Daley
Troy Cassar-Daley (born 18 May 1969) is an Australian country music songwriter and entertainer.
Cassar-Daley has released thirteen studio albums, two live albums and five compilation albums over 30 years, including the platinum-selling ''The G ...
, country music singer-songwriter from Halfway Creek/Grafton NSW
*
Emma Donovan
Emma Donovan (born 1981) is an Aboriginal Australian singer and songwriter. She is a member of the renowned musical Donovan family. She started her singing career at age seven with her uncle's band, the Donovans. In 2000, she became a founding m ...
, singer and songwriter (Gumbaynggirr heritage from mother's side)
*
Gary Foley
Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbainggir people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Abo ...
, activist, academic, writer and actor
*
Albert Kelly
Albert Kelly (born 21 March 1991) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Redcliffe Dolphins in the Brisbane Rugby League.
He has previously played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Gold Coa ...
, rugby league player
*
Tasman Keith, hip hop artist
*
Loretta Kelly
Loretta Kelly is an Australian Aboriginal law academic, specialising in Aboriginal dispute resolution.
She is of Gumbaynggirr and Dungutti descent and has traditional land at Corindi.
She is currently a senior lecturer at Southern Cross Univ ...
, law academic
*
Aden Ridgeway
Aden Derek Ridgeway (born 18 September 1962) is an Australian former politician.''The Age'' (2006)Present politics Retrieved 6 July 2006. He was a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005, representing the Australia ...
, former
Australian Senator
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a ...
Notes
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{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales