INDIGENOUS HISTORY

THE DJA DJA WURRUNG:

THE BEGINNING, EARLY SETTLEMENT,

THE GOLD RUSH & BEYOND

H T T P : / / W W W. S B S . C O M . A U / F I R S TA U S T R A L I A N S/

When were these photos taken?

Where? (How far from here?)

Who took the photo?

Why?

Are the people in the photo happy or sad?

Well fed or hungry?

Proud or ashamed?

Are they living traditionally?

Are they farmers? Station hands? Gold miners?

What’s their religion?

What rights do they have?

What’s their life like?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

This photo shows Dja Dja Wurrung aboriginals at Franklinford, about 38.5kms west of Clunes.

It was taken in 1858. Photographer unknown.

One of the men is probably Yerrebulluk, known as Dicky (1827-1862), and another is probably Beernbarmin, or Tommy Farmer (~1827-1880) .

In 1858, E. S. Parker was still alive, but the Loddon Aboriginal Protectorate had ended 10 years ago. Dicky and Tommy Farmer had chosen to stay and farm at Franklinford.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

This image shows men from Bathurst Island, off the coast of the Northern Territory.

Although the men look more traditional, it was taken in 1939, by the Hon. C L A Abbott during his term as Administrator of the Northern Territory.

The names of the men are not known, but the photo’s description says: “Aborigine Chief of Bathurst Island who died of fright in Darwin when he saw his first motor car.”

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

What did you think?

What did you notice about your assumptions?

We can know some things, but can only guess at what they THOUGHT, FELT or BELIEVED.

But these images show that change happened at different times in different places.

THE BEGINNING – LIFE BEFORE WHITE CONTACT

Cave paintings in Northern Gariwerd have been dated as 22,000 years old.

Research suggests that Victoria has been inhabited for around 40,000 years.

THE BEGINNING - 40,000 YEARS AGO

It was estimated that there were 60,000 aborigines in Victoria in 1840. Of those, roughly 1500 were the local Dja Dja Wurrung.

[By December 1852 the population of Dja Dja Wurrung was estimated at 142 people.]

The Dja Dja Wurrung were made up of 16 clans.

Evidence suggests that they were a peaceful nation, and had peaceful relationships with most of their neighbours.

However, they were enemies with their eastern neighbours, the Daung Wurrung, as well as the Kurnai in the south west, and the Jardwadjali to the west.

HOW MANY?

“Dja Dja Wurrung” translates as “Yes Yes Speakers”.

This map shows the boundaries of Dja Dja Wurrung country prior to settlement.

Mt Beckworth (10kms east of Clunes) was called Gurabungalid Gundidj.

The border with the Daung Wurrung was volatile country.

THE DJA DJA WURRUNG

What is aboriginal spirituality?

The depth of belief may be more like our faith in science and technology (our complete acceptance of cars, phones, computers, airplanes, doctors, medicines, weather forecasts, etc…) than our faith in religion.

It:

• identified natural objects, like birds, snakes, trees, waterholes, rocks, medicines, and poisons,

• explained natural phenomena like rivers and mountains and changing weather patterns,

• explained the law, customs and how to behave in society.

This would clash with white settlers’ and missionaries’ religious beliefs as well as their beliefs about law and science. Why?

TRADITION, CULTURE, SPIRIT

These beliefs and traditions were passed down in the form of stories.

These stories could be represented in dances and through paintings. Traditionally, these were done in the dirt as part of the telling of the story – like drawing a map for someone.

The character of Bunjil (the eagle) is central to many of the dreamtime stories of Aborigines from this part of the country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajebg9K1Viw

TRADITION, CULTURE, SPIRIT

There are no signs of permanent dwellings near Clunes – no rock carvings or cave paintings.

However, there are midden sites on local farms.

A “midden” is a cooking spot. Aborigines built their fires on the remains of the previous fires, so regular camping spots can be identified.

There are also stone wells near Talbot (17kms away). These are 130cm deep and have a capacity of approximately 160 litres.  

The wells have never been known to dry up.

FOOD, CLOTHING, SHELTER

Local aborigines would have eaten yam daisies (a tuber like a turnip) which was abundant before sheep arrived.

They also hunted possum and wallaby, which provided skins for clothing.

Trees provided weapons (clubs, spears, boomerangs) and shields, as well as timber and bark for building shelter.

Medicines were provided by the bush. The maternity tree – a giant 700 year old red gum – provided a sacred space, and a shelter, for women to give birth. Men could not enter.

Everything was provided by the land: the land was the kitchen, the medicine cabinet, the bathroom, the laundry, and the supermarket.

FOOD, CLOTHING, SHELTER

CONTACT, SETTLEMENT & THE PROTECTORATEDJA DJA WURRUNG LIFE IN THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST WHITES AND THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE CLUNES AREA.

Mitchell came through Dja Dja Wurrung country in 1836, passing very near Clunes (Mt Greenoch).

He had: 11 horses, 52 bullocks, 100 sheep, 22 carts, 22 convicts – all outfitted on grey trousers, red shirts, and white cross braces - 1 blacksmith, 2 carpenters, a butcher, enough supplies to last for 1 year and a boat.

This trip led to the opening up of rich pastoral land of central Victoria. Many pastoralist followed his tracks back from Sydney to find the country he called “Australia Felix.”

CONTACT? MAJOR THOMAS MITCHELL - 1836

There was no doubt that the Dja Dja Wurrung people would have known that Mitchell passed through their country, but there is no record of them making contact.

It can be reasonably guessed that the local aborigines knew that Mitchell had killed nine aborigines earlier in his trip.

CONTACT? MAJOR THOMAS MITCHELL - 1836

This map shows the spread of pastoral leases throughout Dja Dja Wurrung country.

Some have called this an “invasion”. What do you think? What does this word mean?

Clunes is here:

The Loddon Protectorate, another important location for our story, is here:

Ballarat is just off the bottom of the map.

This “invasion” happened soon after Major Mitchell came through and declared the country “Australia Felix”.

THE DJA DJA WURRUNG

HOW TO SETTLE A RUN

Neil Black, a squatter in Western Victoria writing on 9 December 1839, wrote:

"The best way [to get land] is to go outside and take up a new run, provided the conscience of the party is sufficiently seared to enable him without remorse to slaughter natives right and left. It is universally and distinctly understood that the chances are very small indeed of a person taking up a new run being able to maintain possession of his place and property without having recourse to such means -- sometimes by wholesale..."

SICKNESSWhile frontier conflict, murder and massacre took their toll, the impact of disease had a far greater impact. Epidemics of smallpox had already decimated the tribe even before first contact with Europeans.

From the late 1830s European contact introduced consumption, venereal disease, the common cold, bronchitis, influenza, chicken pox, measles and scarlet fever.

Venereal diseases of syphilis and gonorrhea reached epidemic proportions with estimates of 90% of Dja Dja Wurrung women thought to be suffering from syphilis by late 1841. This also had the effect of rendering aboriginal women infertile, and infecting any infants born causing high infant mortality and a plummeting birthrate.

With so many settlers arriving and bringing with them violence, hunger, disease and dissatisfaction, the government realised that they needed to come up with a “solution” to the problem of indigenous people.

They came up with a system called the Protectorate system.

The Assistant Protector for this area was a young Methodist Minister named Edward Stone Parker (1802-1865)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVGcfqj04Qk

THE PROTECTORATE1841-1848

In 1841, E. S. Parker set up the Larnebarramul (Jim Crow) station at Franklinford to “civilise and Christianise” the aborigines and to provide a refuge.

His attitude was:

“Let men on the world say, if they will, “let the people alone:” – “Let them die, as die they must,” and, as has been actually said to me, - “The sooner they perish the better.” But let every Christian man, and especially every Christian young man rise, and say with one voice, to the government, the legislature, and the nation; - occupy the land, till its broad wastes, extract its riches, develop its resources, if you will; but in the name of God and humanity, SAVE THE PEOPLE.” (May, 1854)

THE PROTECTORATE1841-1848

Parker tried to prosecute European settlers who had killed aborigines in January 1840 and February 1841.

Both cases were thrown out of court due to the inadmissibility of aboriginal witness statements and evidence in Courts of Law.

Aboriginals were regarded as heathens, unable to swear on the bible, and therefore unable to give evidence.

This made prosecution of settlers for crimes against aborigines exceedingly difficult, while also making it very difficult for aborigines to offer legal defences when they were prosecuted for such crimes as sheep stealing

THE PROTECTORATE1841-1848

The station was in Dja Dja Wurrung country, so was almost exclusively a place for Dja Dja Wurrung people.

It “flourished” for a time: the white staff included a teacher and several free and assigned labourers; the protector's homestead was constructed among several out-buildings; and the presence of up to 200 Aboriginals gave the station the appearance of a populous village.

But by 31 December 1848 the protectorate ended; only twenty or thirty Aboriginals were then on the station and only a handful had learnt to read and write or acquired a trade.

THE PROTECTORATE1841-1848

Dicky and Tommy Farmer asked for the land and the chance to stay.

Others were moved to Coranderrk.

Thomas Dunolly, a Dja Dja Wurrung child when he was forcibly resettled at Coranderrk Reserve,.

Literate and erudite, he became William Barak’s scribe when the elder led protests to gain aboriginal rights to land at Coranderrk in the 1880s.

He died in 1923 and is survived by numerous descendants, one of whom is senior Jaara elder, Brien Nelson.

One of Brien’s sons, Rick, conducted the first smoking ceremony (Tanderrum) held at Wesley in Clunes on Monday, 14/10/2013.

THE PROTECTORATEA FAILURE?

WHITE SETTLERS’ ATTITUDES – WHAT WERE MOST PEOPLE THINKING?“The remnant of the aboriginal people of Victoria is so small, and their ultimate extinction at no distant period seems so certain, that they attract very little attention. Their appearance, more-over, is unprepossessing, and more likely to excite disgust than to awaken curiosity. The filthy, half-naked, leering savages, who go about soliciting six-pences from township to township, will not be regretted when they are gathered to the blankets of their forefathers, and can beat their lubras no more. Yet the Australian negroes, despise them as we may, are entitled to our merciful consideration. We have usurped their territory; banished them, from their hunting-grounds and their battle-fields. "We have insinuated ourselves," as a learned judge said the other day, "into their country by a kind "of intimidation, amounting to conquest." We have denied them the privileges of citizens, but subjected them to our criminal laws. As aliens and sojourners we treat them in their native land. Their condition is hardly better now than in the early times, when the settlers, for self-protection, hunted them as they would the kangaroo, or shot them down, like opossums, by moonlight.”

The Argus, 1860

GOLD!

OPPORTUNITIES, PRESSURES… BIG CHANGES!

Looking at the history of The Loddon Protectorate, and the dwindling numbers of Dja Dja Wuurung people, it would be easy to assume that there were almost no aborigines on the gold fields.

This is not true, but how many is hard to guess.

GOLD1851

‘In this province of Victoria many of them [Aborigines] have been made useful as constables, shepherds, stockmen and otherwise. A respectable squatter told us he treated them just as he would treat a white man – he paid them’ Mossman, 1853

But did Aborigines actually take part in the Gold Rush? And if so, how?

GOLD LED TO A SHORTAGE OF WORKERS – AND A CHANGE OF THINKING

DISCOVERERS OF ALLUVIAL GOLD

Time and again a member of the tribe would drop in at a local bank to sell a parcel of gold. Knowing ones about town got to hear of this, and considerable manoeuvring went on to win over the confidence of the seller. A slick townsman invited Jackie for a ride, and in gleeful anticipation the pair drove off into the country. The merry travellers lubricated at every pub on the way then got down to business. ‘You are a very fine fellow Jackie.’

Jackie agreed with a wide grin. ‘You sell ‘em plenty gold? “Yes Boss” ‘Now you tell me where you get the gold and l like you very much”

Jackie unabashed and apparently not a bit stupid with liquor, immediately replied: “Boss, blackfellow no bloody fool!” Jonathan Moon, Maldon, 1864

During the winter of 1862, the aborigines of the Loddon were in the habit of visiting the township frequently and disposing of gold that evidently had come from some reef.

They were solicited to point out the spot from whence they took it, and they assented, but led the messengers who went with them far away from the scene of their discovery. At length they were tracked by a couple of miners from Pegleg gully, who are reported to have found a large body of natives busy knocking out stone from a reef somewhere towards that known as Fentiman’s.J.A Patterson, 1863

DISCOVERERS OF QUARTZ REEFS

‘There was one black fellow of this tribe [‘Wardy Yaloak’] who told me he knew where there was plenty of gold…We made arrangements to go with him…The same place, but a short time after, turned out to be a good gold district, known as the Ararat diggings’

Charles Ferguson ‘Experiences of a forty-niner ‘ (1888)

DISCOVERY OF NEW GOLD FIELDS

S. Mossman (1853) encountered a party of four miners near Castlemaine, including an Aboriginal man who was: ‘fully bent on realising some of the extraordinary sums which were said to be amassed by lucky diggers’

W.Nawton recorded his impressions in 1852:

‘You have of course every grade of character amongst the diggers- from the most courteous gentleman to the commonest black- but all seem to harmonise with each other’

AS COLLABORATIVE OR COMPANY MINERS

‘We noticed the other day a party of native men and women fossicking about the old holes in one of our gullies. Their keenness of sight enables them to detect particles of gold that would escape the observation of most Europeans’Mount Alexander Mail, 21 March 1862

Even the Aborigines are wealthy. I met a party of them at Bullock Ck with money in their pockets. One remarked with becoming expression of dignity “me no poor blackfellow now, me plenty rich blackfellow”J Bonwick, 1852

INDEPENDENT MINERS

‘Their [the would-be reformists on the Ballarat goldfield] design for a diggers flag should also represent the native blacks flag, as there were several’W.Howitt, 1855

REFORM ON THE GOLDFIELDS

A group of Aboriginal diggers at Forest Creek in 1852, when asked to show their licenses, replied to the mounted police that: ‘the gold and land were theirs by right so why should they pay money to the Queen?’

ABORIGINAL ATTITUDES:THE “RED RIBBON” REBELLION

The Ballarat Times reported on a corroboree that was staged at Lake Wendouree in March 1857. The reporter added:

In leaving the place we stumbled on the mia-mia of King Billy…The old man seemed grieved at the revelry and debauch which on all hands surrounded him, and was evidently taking no part in the noisy performance. The princess did not imitate her father’s taciturnity, but at once with all the volubility of a female tongue proclaimed that the whole district of Ballarat was at one period the patrimony of her sire.

Miners often noted Aboriginal people expressing their dissatisfaction of being dispossessed of their land without recompense.

ABORIGINAL ATTITUDES: ALL THIS LAND WAS OURS

‘My mother and wife saw a mob of Native Blacks come across the gully…So up they come yabbering, “Goodday, Missie. You my country woman now.” My Mother had to be spokesman. The Blacks said “You gotum needle, missie? You gotum tea? You gotum sugar? You gotum bacca?” So mother had to say yes to get rid of them and had to give them all they asked for. That was what was called the Bun[in]yong tribe’Walter Bridges, 1855

ABORIGINAL ATTITUDES:YOU’RE ON MY COUNTRY NOW

Many miners remarked on Aboriginal people’s sense of humour, egalitarianism and their love of pouring scorn on class divides.

One of the tribe could excellently imitate the language and gesture of a new chum swell he had met at an hotel, pronouncing distinctly, with an affected air, “Waiter, bring me a glass of brandy”J F Hughes , 1850s

ABORIGINAL ATTITUDES:USING HUMOUR TO PROMOTE EQUALITY

Some of them [Djadjawurrung], not satisfied with having this station as a home to which they might, at will, resort, had requested to have pieces of land for their own exclusive cultivation.

W.Howitt, 1855

Djadjawurrung farmers requested to stay on their land at Franklinford as “this farm is their own”.

CPA, 1861

“SOME LAND FOR OURSELVES”

The first Australian Cricket team to tour England was made up mostly of indigenous players from the western districts of Victoria. One was named Jim Crow. Jim Crow was a common name, but Jim Crow Creek runs next to the Loddon Protectorate and aborigines were often named for where they came from. (Thomas Dunolly, for example, was literally Thomas from Dunolly.)

This photo was taken at the MCG in 1867, before they sailed.

AN INTERESTING CONTRAST: CRICKET IN 1868

AND THEN… WHAT NOW?AFTER GOLD… FEDERATION.. THE WAR… THE REFERENDUM… LAND RIGHTS… APOLOGIES

THE STORY CONTINUES• Federation & the White Australia Policy: 1901 – 1975

http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/discoverycentre/identity/people-like-them/the-white-picket-fence/timeline/?selected=1

• Indigenous involvement in the wars.

• The Referendum on the rights of Indigenous People: 1967.

• Mabo: the High Court’s decision on native title: 1992.

• The Redfern Speech by Prime Minister Paul Keating, 1992.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1S4F1euzTw

• The Sorry Speech by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: 2008.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3TZOGpG6cM

THE WAR"THE COLOURED DIGGER"

He came and joined the colours, when the War God's anvil rang,He took up modern weapons to replace his boomerang,He waited for no call-up, he didn't need a push,He came in from the stations, and the townships of the bush.He helped when help was wanting, just because he wasn't deaf;He is right amongst the columns of the fighting A.I.F.He is always there when wanted, with his Owen gun or Bren,He is in the forward area, the place where men are men.He proved he's still a warrior, in action not afraid,He faced the blasting red-hot fire from mortar and grenade;He didn't mind when food was low, or we were getting thin,He didn't growl or worry then, he'd cheer us with his grin.He'd heard us talk democracy--, They preach it to his face--Yet knows that in our Federal House there's no one of his race.He feels we push his kinsmen out, where cities do not reach,And Parliament has yet to hear the Aborigine’s maiden speech.One day he'll leave the Army, then join the League he shall,And he hope's we'll give a better deal to the Aboriginal.

This poem, by Sapper Bert Beros, a non-Aboriginal soldier in WWII, was written about Private West - one of his Aboriginal comrades.

It is mounted on the wall in the Clunes RSL.

TODAY?What can you see?

What evidence is there of indigenous heritage around campus, around town?

On 26 May 2004 Aunty Susan Rankin, a Dja Dja Wurrung elder peacefully reoccupied crown land at Franklinford in central Victoria, calling her campsite the Going Home Camp. Rankin asked the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment to produce documents proving that the Crown has the right to occupy these lands. According to the 2 June 2004 Daylesford Advocate, local DSE officers admitted they "cannot produce these documents and doubt that such documents exist".

Rick Nelson (one of Thomas Dunolly’s descendants) conducted the first smoking ceremony (Tanderrum) at Wesley in Clunes on Monday, 14/10/2013.

Jaara dancers are taking part in a Tanderrum with all of the other Kulin nations of Victoria to open the Melbourne Festival in late 2013. According to a Jaara elder, this will be the first time the nations have come together in this way in more than 100 years.

(Reported in The Age Sat 12/10/13)

MORE INFORMATIONWebsites:

http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/golden-victoria/life-fields/aborigines-gold-rush

www.sbs.com.au/gold/story

www.ingentaconnect.com

www.slv.vic.gov.au

www.nla.gov.au

www.prov.vic.gov.au

http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00045b.htm

http://trove.nla.gov.au

http://www.reconciliationvic.org.au/news/historic-settlement-of-dja-dja-wurrung-native-title-claim.php

Books:

Attwood, B. My Country: A History of the Djadja Wurrung 1837-1864 (available as a PDF and through the public library)

Cahir, F. Black Gold: the role of Aboriginal people on the Gold Fields of Victoria (available as a PDF and in the Wesley at Clunes Library)

Public Record Office Victoria. Finding Your Story: A Resource Manual to the Records of the Stolen Generations in Victoria (available as a PDF)

Video:

SBS: The First Australians:

http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/

REVIEW – CAN YOU…?1. name the local aboriginal group?

2. name the most significant turning points in local indigenous history?

3. describe three impacts that white settlement had on local aborigines - outlining both the causes and effects?

4. write down three things – facts – that you found interesting or significant?

5. Write one potential topic that someone could pursue for his or her Clunes Project?