Munangabum (? - 1846) was an influential clan head of the Liarga balug and Spiritual Leader or ''neyerneyemeet'' of the Dja Dja Wurrung people in central Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He was influential in shaping his peoples response to invasion and European settlement in the 1830s and 1840s. He was gaoled in 1840 for sheep-stealing which resulted in Dja Dja Wurrung people traveling to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

to plead for his release. Woiwurrung and Djadja wurrung people feared that unless Munangabum was released, he would move

Bunjil Bunjil, also spelt Bundjil, is a creator deity, culture hero and ancestral being, often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle in Australian Aboriginal mythology of some of the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria. Creation stories In the Kulin nation ...

to release the Mindye causing a plague to black and white. Munangabum was released from gaol in August 1840. On 7 February 1841 Munangabum was shot and wounded in the shoulder above the shoulder blade by settlers while his companion Gondiurmin died at Far Creek Station, west of Maryborough. Three settlers were later apprehended and tried on 18 May 1841 for the murder of Gondiurmin but were acquitted for want of evidence, as aborigines could not give evidence in courts of law. In 1841 he acted as an envoy for Assistant

Protector of Aborigines The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role became established in other parts of Australia pursuant to a recommendation contained in the ''Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Abori ...

Edward Stone Parker Edward Stone Parker (1802–1865) was a Methodist preacher and assistant Protector of Aborigines in the Aboriginal Protectorate established in the Port Phillip District of colonial New South Wales under George Augustus Robinson in 1838. He est ...

, and almost died from lack of water for three days on an expedition to the Mallee. Munangabum was murdered in 1846 by a rival clan-head from the south.Keir Reeves,
Munangabum Biographical Entry
', Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia, 28 June 2007. Accessed 12 November 2008

References

1846 deaths 1846 murders in Australia People murdered in Australia Indigenous Australian people History of Victoria (Australia) Dja Dja Wurrung Year of birth unknown {{IndigenousAustralia-stub