The Yurlayurlanya, formerly spelt ''Ulaolinya'', were an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

tribe living in the Glenormiston region of South West Queensland.

Language

The Yurlayurlanya language is classified by Gavan Breen as one of the Palku subgroup of the Karnic languages. They also had a sign language.

Country

They were indigenous to the

Boulia Boulia () is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. In the , Boulia had a population of 301 people. Boulia is the administrative centre of the Boulia Shire, population approximately 600, which covers an area ...

area, but were eventually pushed out as white pastoral settlements expanded in their territory.

Pituri

The Yurlayurlanya seemed to have played an important role in trading the aboriginal narcotic

pituri Pituri, also known as mingkulpa, is a mixture of leaves and wood ash traditionally chewed as a stimulant (or, after extended use, a depressant) by Aboriginal Australians widely across the continent. Leaves are gathered from any of several specie ...

in Queensland. That form of the word is conserved in their language, while all the surrounding tribes in the Boulia area used a different term Thus for the

Ayerrereng The Yaroinga (Yuruwinga) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Country Yaroinga country covered, according to Tindale's estimation, some , straddling both the Northern Territory and Queensland, at such places in the latt ...

(

Yaroinga The Yaroinga (Yuruwinga) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Country Yaroinga country covered, according to Tindale's estimation, some , straddling both the Northern Territory and Queensland, at such places in the latt ...

) tribe round

Lake Nash Station Lake Nash Station, most commonly known as Lake Nash, is a cattle station on the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory, Australia. Location It is situated approximately west of Alpurrurulam and south of Camooweal. The property shares ...

and Urandangi it was ''neempa''; for the Antekerrepenh (Undekerebina), just southwards, between the Georgina and the Northern Territory, it was ''undakora'', for the Kalkatungu, to their west it was ''moda''; while the contiguous Pitta Pitta and Karanya of the Boulia district called it ''tarembola'' and ''tirumbola'' respectively.

History

By the 1890s,

Walter Roth Walter Edmund Roth (2 April 1861 – 5 April 1933) was a British colonial administrator, anthropologist and medical practitioner, who worked in Queensland, Australia and British Guiana between 1898 and 1928. Roth and his brother, Henry Ling Ro ...

stated that the displaced Yurlayurlanya had congregated around Carlo Springs (Mungeribar) and the upper

Mulligan River The Mulligan River is a tributary of Eyre Creek in the Channel Country region of southwest Queensland. It is in the Lake Eyre Basin. The river rises in Glenormiston Station and flows generally south through Marion Downs Station into Eyre Cree ...

Reports of sexual abuse in traditional culture

Louis Nowra writing of violence in Aboriginal communities cited a report that the Yurlayurlanya, like other tribes in the Glenormiston area, would ambush girls to deflower them. Four would pin one down, and, while her eyes were covered, one, presumed to be elderly, would emerge from a nearby hide-out, slit her perineum with a stone knife, and penetrate her with 3 fingers. This 'operation' was a prelude to

gang rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

, the original four copulating with her three times, the last occasion being the following morning. The original source, the ethnographical report by Walter Roth, discussed the Yurlayurlanya case in the context of tribes practising both sub-incision on males and, in this case, introcision on females. It is a ceremonial rite, following a

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the l ...

. A girl who is recognized as having achieved full puberty is enticed out of the camp by an aged woman, the pretext being to harvest papa-seed. The introcision transforms her from a to a . The first copulation is followed by her being adorned with red and white bands of charcoal and feather-down, fixed by the blood from her wound. After successive copulations, the semen is scooped into a coolamon and, mixed with water, used as a curative for the sick and elderly males. On completion of the rite, the initiated young woman may then wear a variety of ornaments, such as kangaroo teeth on her forehead, and a grass necklace. Reviewing the book, together with

Sven Lindqvist Sven Oskar Lindqvist (28 March 1932 – 14 May 2019) was a prolific Swedish author whose 35 books range from essays, aphorisms, autobiography, and documentary prose to travel and reportage. He was educated at Stockholm University, and spent a ye ...

's ''Exterminate All the Brutes'',

Robert Manne Robert Michael Manne (born 31 October 1947) is an Emeritus Professor of politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a leading Australian public intellectual. Background Robert Manne was born in Melbo ...

argued that Nowra tried to anchor the sociopathic elements of contemporary broken Aboriginal societies back in time to the traditional cultures prevailing in their pre-white nomadic world. Manne notes a number of key distortions of sources, and while allowing that violence was not alien to the older Aboriginal world, it was acknowledged almost universally that children were exempt from it, and indeed it was thought they were overindulgent.

Notes

Citations

Sources

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