Walbunja

The Walbunja, also spelt Walbanga, Walbunga and Wulbunja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales, part of the Yuin nation.

Language

The Walbunja language may be a dialect of Dhurga.^[1]

Country

The Walbunja people are a subgroup of the Yuin nation.^[2][3][4]

Walbunja Country covers 2,500 square miles (6,500 km²) a region from Cape Dromedary northwards to the vicinity of Ulladulla. Their inland extension is as far as the Shoalhaven River. Braidwood, Araluen and Moruya all lie on what is Walbunja land. The Wandandian peoples lay on their northern boundary, and to their south are the Djiringanj^[5] and Thaua.^[6]

Alternative names

Alternative spellings include Walbanga,^[7] Walbunga,^[8] and Wulbunja.^[9][10]

According to Norman Tindale, alternative names included:^[6]

• Thurga (tirga, is the Walbunja word for "no")
• Thoorga
• Bugellimanji (A Walbunja horde)
• Bargalia
• Moruya tribe

Walbunja Rangers

The Walbunja Rangers Programme was established by the Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Council in response to the Black Summer fires in 2019–20 . The group comprises 10–15 young Indigenous rangers who undertake cultural burning, pest eradication, and monitoring species monitoring on Country. In March 2024 the group won the Marie Byles Award for the most inspiring community action initiative in the NSW Environment Awards, a group of awards given by the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales.^[4]

Notable people

• In 2023, Aunty Maryanne Nye, a member of the Walbunja community, was given the Paul Harris Fellow Award (a Rotary Club award) for her work at the Boomerang Meeting Place in Mogo, New South Wales.^[11]

References

Citations

1. Dixon 2002, p. xxxv.
2. Reconciliation Australia 2014.
3. "Sharon Mason". Australian National Maritime Museum. 3 May 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
4. "NSW Environment Awards honour the grassroots". Nature Conservation Council of NSW. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
5. Slattery 2015, p. 122.
6. Tindale 1974, p. 199.
7. S53 Walbunja at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
8. "Our Culture and Heritage". Wagonga Local Aboriginal Land Council. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
9. "4 March 2024". NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News. 4 March 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
10. "Kiama Downs community battery goes "live"". Kiama Council. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
11. "Aunty Maryanne Nye awarded for her dedication to Boomerang Meeting Place". Bay Post-Moruya Examiner. 8 September 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2024.

Sources

• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
• Howitt, Alfred William (1904). The native tribes of south-east Australia (PDF). Macmillan.
• "Returning to country brings wellbeing". Reconciliation Australia. 6 May 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
• Slattery, Deirdre (2015). Australian Alps: Kosciuszko, Alpine and Namadgi National Parks. Csiro Publishing. ISBN 978-1-486-30172-0.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Walbanga (NSW)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University.