The ''Bunuba'' (also known as Bunaba, Punapa, Punuba) are a group of

Indigenous Australians 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 ...

and are one of the traditional owners of the southern West Kimberley, in Western Australia. Many now live in and around the town of

Fitzroy Crossing Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: ** FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Bea ...

Language

Bunuba The ''Bunuba'' (also known as Bunaba, Punapa, Punuba) are a group of Indigenous Australians and are one of the traditional owners of the southern West Kimberley, in Western Australia. Many now live in and around the town of Fitzroy Crossing. ...

is one of only two members of the Bunuban language family.

Country

The Bunuba's traditional territory extended over some . The northern frontier ran along the Lady Forrest Range. To the west, it reached as far as Mount Broome, and ran along the

Richenda River The Richenda River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise in the Wunaamin-Miliwundi Ranges near Mount Broome and flow in a southerly direction. The river then flows through Richenda gorge an ...

as far as the Granite Range and Mount Percy. Its southeastern boundary lay along the Oscar Range as far as Brooking Springs. It encompassed also the

Geikie Gorge Geikie Gorge (known locally as Darngku) is a feature of the Napier Range and is located within the grounds of Danggu Gorge National Park (formerly, Geikie Gorge National Park), from Fitzroy Crossing, northeast of Perth and east of Broome in ...

and Stony Creek's headwaters in the northeast. The Bunuba were also masters of the eastern part of the

Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges The Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (formerly between 1879 and 2020, the King Leopold Ranges) are a range of hills in the western Kimberley region of Western Australia. There are two conservation parks within the ranges, the Wunaamin Conservation P ...

, at least until the

Ngarinjin The Ngarinyin or Ngarinjin are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Their language, Ngarinyin, is also known as Ungarinyin. When referring to their traditional lands, they refer to themselves as Wilinggi ...

managed to expel them from that territory, sometime before the advent of white settlement.

History of contact

As white penetration and appropriation of their lands advanced, the pastoralists began to press the government to take strong measures against the presence of "blacks" on their property, some of whom they would nonetheless employ during the dry season. A resistance movement eventually emerged, in the mid 1890s, when the Bunuba leader Jandamarra, nicknamed "Pigeon", from a base in Tunnel Creek in the Oscar Ranges, organized guerilla warfare forays against the intruding cattle- and sheepmen. Jandamarra himself had formerly been enlisted by white authorities to hunt down an earlier Bunuba resistance leader Ellemarra. A crackdown under Inspector Lawrence led to killings among, and the "dispersion" of, many communities, some of the victims being also Gooniyandi. Jandamarra was killed in 1897, but sporadic attacks continued on livestock, and massacres of the indigenous population persisted, one being said to have taken place as late as the 1930s.

Modern period

The Bunuba acquired Leopold Downs and Fairfield Downs stations in 1991. Together the properties occupy an area of . In 2012, after the collapse of their Indonesian market, the Bunuba entered into an agreement with the

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...

where AACo would manage the operations and the Bunuba would receive an annual rent and training opportunities and have complete access to their lands.

Alternative names

* ''Bunaba'' * ''Punamba'' (

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...

) * ''Kunamba'' (derogatory exonym, formed by ''kuna''. meaning "dung") * ''Bunapa, Booneba''

Famous Bunuba

* Jandamarra, who led one of the few organised armed insurrections documented against European settlement in Australia. * June Oscar, winner of the 2018 National NAIDOC "Person of the Year" award.

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia