Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes (colourmap)

The Wemba-Wemba 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 in north-Western Victoria and south-western

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 ...

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 ...

, including in

the Mallee The Mallee covers the most northwesterly part of Victoria, bounded by the South Australian and New South Wales borders. Definitions of the south-eastern boundary vary, however, all are based on the historic Victorian distribution of mallee ...

and the Riverina regions. They are also known as the Wamba-Wamba.

Language

Wemba-Wemba The Wemba-Wemba are an Aboriginal Australian people in north-Western Victoria and south-western New South Wales, Australia, including in the Mallee and the Riverina regions. They are also known as the Wamba-Wamba. Language Wemba-Wemba bears st ...

bears strong similarities to Woiwurrung. When Moravian missionaries came and started to learn a language in Wemba Wemba territory, at Archibald Macarthur Camppbell's ''Gannawarra'' station, they quickly noted that the Aboriginal people, perceiving they were understood, slipped into using another language, not willing to allow this "cultural conquest" to enable the white men to learn of matters they wished to keep secret from outsiders.

Country

Before European settlement in the nineteenth century, the Wemba-Wemba occupied the area around the

Loddon River The Loddon River, an inland river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Loddon Mallee regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The headwaters ...

, reaching northwards from Kerang, Victoria to Swan Hill, and including the area of the

Avoca River The Avoca River, an inland intermittent river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The head ...

, southwards towards

Quambatook Quambatook is a town in northern Victoria, Australia. Description and history Quambatook is located on the Avoca River in the Shire of Gannawarra local government area, from the state capital, Melbourne. At the Quambatook had a population ...

. In a northeasterly direction, their territory ran up, over the New South Wales-Victorian border to Booroorban and Moulamein, and extended to the vicinity of Barham.

Lake Boga Lake Boga () is a town in Victoria, Australia, located next to the lake of the same name. It is situated within the Rural City of Swan Hill within the Mallee region of north-west Victoria. At the 2016 census, Lake Boga had a population of 985. ...

and Boora in Victoria also fell within their domain. The overall extension of their territory has been calculated by Norman Tindale to be roughly .

Social structure

The Wembawemba were registered as consisting of five hordes. Stone lists these hordes, residing around Towaninny, Meelool Station (with a name indicating they were thought to be quarrelsome), Lake Boga, Gonn on the Murray River (called the ''Dietjenbaluk'' ("always on the move"), and Bael Bael.

Contact history

The explorer Thomas Mitchell was the first white man to cross Wembawemba territory, in 1836.

Attempt to evangelize the Wembawemba

The Wembas-Wemba's religio-cultural worldview was centered on a dreaming, which they called ''yemurraki''. Two German Moravian missionaries, Reverend A.F.C. Täger and Reverend F.W. Spieseke, convinced that the Wembawemba, whom they called ''culli'', were "the most wretched and bleakest (people), who live on God's earth", established

Lake Boga mission Lake Boga Mission station was established on the south-eastern shores of Lake Boga, Victoria, Australia in 1851 by the Moravian Church on the land of the Wemba-Wemba. The mission was established by two Moravian missionaries from Germany, Andreas T ...

in 1851. The mission closed in 1856 due to lack of converts, disputes with local authorities and hostilities from local landholders. The Moravian Church established a subsequent mission site in Wergaia territory near Lake Hindmarsh in 1856 (see Ebenezer Mission).

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (Australia) Mallee (Victoria) Riverina