The Western Bundjalung or Bundjalung people are an aggregation of tribes of
Australian Aboriginal
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 I ...
people who inhabit north-east NSW along the
Clarence River, now within the
Clarence Valley,
Glen Innes Severn Shire,
Kyogle
Kyogle () is a town in the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales, Australia. It falls within the local government area of Kyogle Council. At the 2016 census, Kyogle had a population of 2,751 people. Kyogle is known as a "gateway" ...
,
Richmond Valley, and
Tenterfield Shire Council
Tenterfield Shire is a local government area located in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is situated adjacent to the New England Highway.
The mayor of the Tenterfield Shire Council is Cr. Bronwyn Petrie, an una ...
areas.
Country
Descendants of the Western Bundjalung claim a land extending over extending from the Hogarth Range westwards as far as
Bald Rock National Park
Bald Rock National Park is a national park in northern New South Wales, Australia, just north of Tenterfield on the Queensland border. The border passes over the rock on the Western side. On the other side of the border national park continues ...
and taking in the
Clarence River a
Moleville north of
Grafton, to Carpet Snake Creek, north of
Tabulam
Tabulam is a rural village in the far north-east of New South Wales, Australia, 800 kilometres from the state capital, Sydney. Tabulam is located on the Bruxner Highway (Highway 44) between Tenterfield and Casino and on the Clarence River. Ac ...
.
Language
The Western Bundjalung a range of dialects, known as the Middle Clarence dialects, belonging to the
Bandjalangic languages. It comprised several dialects:
* ''
Waalulbal''
* ''Baryulgil/Wirribi'' versions of Wehlubal
* ''Casino,'' a
Galibal dialect.
History of contact
Squatters began taking up tracts of West Bundjalung land in the 1840s. The first grant of land was made to one, Stapleton, in 1840. One of the colonials, a Scottish squatter Peter Cunningham Pagan from
Dumfries, who had come up with his companion William Evans with a large flock of sheep from the
Hunter Valley
The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and ...
, was speared on 22 April 1841. Various contemporary reports survive, but the exact sequence of events which led to a revenge massacre are not clear. Pagan had observed blacks entering and leaving his hut while he was working outside. He waited for them to move on, fetched his gun and followed them to a river nearby, suspecting them of theft. He was speared and died immediately. A posse of white vigilantes organized a night raid on the aborigines camped at
Yulgilbar. In the initial 3 a.m. assault, several aborigines were shot, and a New Zealander felled many others, 'tomahawk(ing) all he could get at-young or old.' Failing to find any trace of Pagan's good, the posse moved on, and a policeman brandishing a shotgun blasted his way through another camp where, after the massacre, Pagan's hat, nothing else, was found. A native tradition of the incident was retrieved in an interview with the Western Bundjalung man ''Mundi'', who managed to escape as a child, carrying a bullet hole in his ear for the rest of his life. According to Bundjalung oral history, at least 17 members of the tribe were cut down in these incidents.
Native title
On 29 August 2017 the
Federal court justice
Jayne Jagot
Jayne Margaret Jagot () is an Australian judge. She has been a Justice of the High Court of Australia since 17 October 2022. She was previously a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and before that of the Land and Environment Court of New S ...
ruled in favour of the Western Bundjalung granting recognition of their claim to
native title
Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
, while severely criticising the
New South Wales government
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governme ...
for its bureaucratic foot-dragging in settling a claim that had been made six years earlier, in 2011. This determination covered more than 800 areas of land and was the 10th in NSW.
People
*
Archie Roach
Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...
(father's family)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales