The Mununjali clan are one of nine distinct named clan estate groups of the

Yugambeh people The Yugambeh ( ''(see alternative spellings)'', also known as the Minyangbal ( , are an Aboriginal Australian people of south-east Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, their territory lies between the Logan and Tweed river ...

, 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 ...

nation whose traditional lands are the Beaudesert area in the

Scenic Rim The Scenic Rim is a group of forested mountain ranges of the Great Dividing Range, located south of Brisbane agglomeration, straddling the border between south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. In 2021, the S ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

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 ...

Name

The

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''Mununjali'' has been related to a Yugambeh word, ''munun'', which refers to a type of "black soil" with ''-jali'' meaning "people" and thus means "Black Earth People". Their country was typified by the abundance of black soil.

Language

The Mununjali people spoke a dialect, of which a few hundred words have been preserved, of the

Yugambeh language Yugambeh (or ''Mibanah'', from , 'language of men' or 'sound of eagles'), also known as Tweed-Albert Bandjalang, is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Yugambeh living in South-East Queensland between and within the Logan Rive ...

. Knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary was recorded from Joe Culham, son of Coolum known as the "King of the Mununjali", by Margaret Sharpe in 1968 and the Swedish linguist Nils Holmer compiled a grammar and dictionary from Mununjali people in 1978. Comparisons with neighbouring clan word lists such as the Wanggeriburra's supplied by John Allen in 1913 showed they spoke the same variety of language.

Country

Their tribal boundaries are said to have extended east to the Birnam range, north to Jimboomba, south to Tamrookum, and west to the Teviot Brook. According to John Allen's map, the Mununjali were located south of the Gugingin clan on the Logan River, centred in Beaudesert and north of the Migunburri, with the Wangerriburra in the hinterland to their east.

Notable people

Ellen van Neerven Ellen van Neerven (born 1990) is an Aboriginal Australian author, educator and editor. They are queer and non-binary. Their first work of fiction, ''Heat and Light'' (2013), won several awards, and in 2019 Van Neerven won the Queensland Premier ...

, award-winning writer and poet *

Chelsea Watego Chelsea Joanne Watego (formerly Bond, born 1978/1979) is an Aboriginal Australian academic and writer. She is a Mununjali Yugambeh and South Sea Islander woman and is currently Professor of Indigenous Health at Queensland University of Techn ...

, academic and writer

Citations

Sources