Koori

Koori

Daguerreotype photograph, c. 1847, described as "Group of Koorie men" by the National Gallery of Victoria
Total population
323,452 (2016 census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
New South Wales	265,685[1]
Victoria	57,767[1]
Languages
English (Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English, Koori English), Australian Aboriginal languages
Related ethnic groups
Aboriginal Australians, Anangu, Arrernte, Murri, Noongar, Palawa

Koori (also spelled koorie, goori, or goorie) is a name used for Aboriginal Australians from an area that includes southern New South Wales and Victoria. The word comes from the Awabakal Indigenous language.^[2] For some people and groups, using "Koori" is a way to reclaim their Indigenous language and culture instead of using European words like "Aboriginal."^[2] The term is also used in names of groups and services related to Koori people, such as the Koori Court, Koori Radio, and Koori Knockout.

The Koori region has the largest number of Indigenous Australians in the country, with 40.7% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in New South Wales or Victoria.^[3] However, Koori people make up only 2.9% of the population in New South Wales and 0.8% in Victoria.^[3] Most Koori people speak English at home, but some still use traditional Indigenous languages.^[4]

Koori culture is based on the Dreaming, a belief system that values the connection between the land and the community.^[5] Koori art and writing continue today in Australia, often using traditional Indigenous art styles.

The first recorded meeting between Koori people and Europeans was in 1770. Since then, the Koori population has decreased a lot because of European colonization.^[6][7] The effects of colonization are still felt today and continue to affect Koori people's lives and wellbeing.^[8]

The word "Koori" comes from gurri, which means "man" or "people" in the Awabakal language. Awabakal is an Indigenous language spoken on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.^[2] In the far north coast of New South Wales, the word may be spelled "goori" or "goorie" and pronounced with a harder "g" sound.^[9] The first known use of the term was in 1834 in a book called An Australian Grammar, where it was written as "Ko-re" and meant man or mankind.^[10]

Koori Indigenous Australians live in a large area covering southern New South Wales and Victoria. There are many different Indigenous groups within this region. Some examples are the Eora nation around modern Sydney, the Ngunnawal nation near Canberra, and the Woiwurrung nation around Melbourne.^[11]

Koori painting is similar to traditional Indigenous painting and is mostly made up of dot patterns. The colors used are natural earth tones like black, white, red, and brown.^[12] Some Koori elders see this style as a way to reconnect with their traditional culture and ancestors.^[12]

A special art form unique to the Koori people is "shell craft." This uses shells found near the coast to decorate items like baskets and shoes.^[13] In the 1880s, Koori women sold these shell craft items to settler women at markets in places like La Perouse and Circular Quay, which seems to be a tradition unique to the Sydney area.^[14]

Shell craft remains important today. In 2008, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney held an exhibit featuring Indigenous shell craft.^[15] In 2005, Koori shell artist Esme Timbery won the Parliament of New South Wales Indigenous Art Prize for her shell-covered model of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.^[14] The value of shell craft has grown too; for example, shell craft shoes that sold for about AUD$20 in 2005 were sold for AUD$140 at a Sydney gallery in 2009.^[16]

Another unique Koori tradition is the possum-skin cloak. These cloaks were given to Koori babies and decorated with marks showing the child's clan and family. As the child grew, more designs were added, making the cloak like a personal story or autobiography.^[17] Although making possum-skin cloaks became less common, contemporary Koori artists like Kelly Koumalatsos are helping to bring this craft back.^[17][18]

The Koori region has many traditional Indigenous languages. In Victoria, there are speakers of 38 Aboriginal languages,^[19] while New South Wales has had more than 70 languages historically.^[20] However, few Koori people speak an Indigenous language at home today. Only about 0.8% of Kooris in New South Wales and 1% in Victoria speak an Indigenous language at home, which is one of the lowest rates in Australia outside Tasmania.^[4]

There are efforts to bring back Koori languages. In New South Wales, more Koori families are speaking Indigenous languages at home,^[4] and the number of speakers increased by 123% between 2006 and 2016.^[4] The New South Wales Government passed the Aboriginal Languages Act in 2017 to help protect and preserve Indigenous languages.^[4]

Besides traditional languages, many Kooris speak "Koori English," a special form of English used in their communities.^[21] This dialect developed from the pidgin English that Kooris used to talk with settlers during colonization.^[22] Koori English uses nonverbal cues like silences, gestures, and lip movements.^[23] Some grammar in Koori English comes from traditional Indigenous languages, such as unique ways to show plural nouns.^[24]

Historical records show that Koori birthing rituals involved song, dance, and ceremonies.^[25] The Gunditjmara Kooris from southwest Victoria used sand heated by fire to warm newborn babies and welcome them to their land.^[17] There are also records of Kooris using natural pain relief methods during birth and teaching these methods to European settler women.^[17]

"Birthing trees" were very important in Koori birthing rituals.^[26] These trees were places where mothers, families, and communities gathered to give birth and welcome the baby to their land.^[26] Sometimes, the baby's placenta was buried under the birthing tree to show the newborn's connection to country.^[26] One such birthing tree in Western Victoria is now recognized as a significant tree by the Australian National Trust because of its importance to the Koori people.^[26]

Radiocarbon dating shows that Indigenous people lived in the Koori region as far back as 50,000 to 45,000 years ago.^[27] Ancient Koori artifacts, including human remains and tools, have been found at Lake Mungo in New South Wales. These are dated to be between 50,000 and 46,000 years old.^[27]

In Western Victoria, ancient Koori people built stone-walled fishing traps that are up to six meters high and three kilometers long.^[28] These traps are about 6,600 years old and are among the oldest known fish-trapping systems in the world.^[28] Similar ancient village sites have been found in southeastern Victoria, with wooden buildings, gardens, and farming wetlands.^[29]

In New South Wales, small tools used for hunting and processing plants are about 10,000 years old.^[30] Fishhooks have been used along the Koori coastline for at least 1,000 years.^[31] These fishhooks likely came from outside Australia, possibly from the Torres Strait or Polynesia, showing that there was trade between regions.^[32]

The first recorded meeting between Indigenous Australians and Europeans in Koori land happened in 1770 during Captain James Cook's voyage on the HMS Endeavour.^[33] Cook wrote about meeting Indigenous groups at Botany Bay near what is now Sydney. When Cook tried to land, two Indigenous men resisted, and Cook fired his weapon, wounding one man.^[34] The ship stayed in the bay for seven days, so most contact between the explorers and the Koori people was from a distance.^[34]

Cook's crew saw Koori tools, weapons, and watercraft but did not record much about their religious or cultural life.^[34] The Indigenous people at Botany Bay did not accept Cook's trade offers and resisted the explorers moving further into their land.^[35]

Following this initial contact, Great Britain established a penal colony at Botany Bay in New South Wales.^[33] The first settlers of this colony arrived in 1788 aboard the First Fleet, beginning the official colonisation of Australia by Europeans.^[36]

Over the century following colonisation, there occurred a steep decline in the Aboriginal population.^[6] Approximations of overall Indigenous population decline range from 80 to 96%,^[6] with estimates of around 80% in the Koori region in the first 20 years of contact.^[7]

Generally accepted estimates approximate that 2000 non-Aboriginals (mostly Europeans) and 20,000 Aboriginals were killed in armed conflict between the two groups.^[37] This included the Waterloo Creek massacre on New South Wales Koori territory in 1837, during which an estimated 200–300 Kooris were killed.^[38] In the 1830s and 40s, the Western District of Victoria was recorded as one of the two worst regions for violence.^[7] Sexual violence also occurred, particularly towards Koori women and children, sometimes resulting in death or infertility.^[39]

Many Kooris also died from epidemics of European diseases to which they had no tolerance.^[40] In 1791, all but two of the Koori inhabitants of inner Sydney died of smallpox or chickenpox.^[41] Another smallpox epidemic affected the New South Wales and Victoria regions in 1830.^[7] Deaths also occurred due to sexually transmitted infections, transported to Australia by the settlers.^[42] In Port Phillip, Victoria, two-thirds of the Koori population died of sexually transmitted infections.^[42]

In the 20th century, the Aborigines Protection Board in New South Wales and Victoria enforced policies that separated Koori people onto government-run missions and reserves.^[43] In the 1910s, these boards gained more power to remove Koori children from their families to assimilate them into non-Indigenous society.^[43] Some children were placed with white families, while others were sent to institutions like the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls^[44] and the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home.^[45] This forced removal of children is known as the Stolen Generations and happened across Australia.^[46]

In 1937, William Ferguson , a Koori activist from New South Wales, started the Aborigines Progressive Association in Sydney to protest against the Aborigines Protection Board's oppressive policies. About 1,000 Indigenous Australians joined the association's first rally on January 26, 1938.^[43]

Starting in the 1970s, attitudes and policies began to change. In 1987, New South Wales introduced the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, which required that Indigenous children be placed with Indigenous families whenever possible.^[46] In 1997, the leaders of New South Wales and Victoria officially apologized for the past mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, including the Stolen Generations, and promised to work towards reconciliation.^[43]

Statistics show that Koori Australians face ongoing challenges compared to non-Koori Australians in health, education, income, and incarceration rates.^[8][47] Researchers link these differences to the lasting effects of colonialism.^[8]

Koori Australians generally have poorer health and shorter life expectancy than non-Koori Australians. Between 2015 and 2017, people in New South Wales and Victoria who were not Koori lived 8 to 10 years longer on average.^[48] The Koori population is younger, with a median age of 22 in New South Wales, compared to 38 for non-Koori people.^[49]

In New South Wales, 7.6% of Indigenous people have severe or profound disabilities, compared to 5.6% of non-Indigenous people, and this gap is growing.^[50] Also, Koori people with disabilities tend to be younger; 36% are under 25 years old, while only 12.7% of non-Indigenous disabled people are that young.^[50]

Koori Australians have lower education levels than non-Koori Australians.^[51][52] In New South Wales, Koori children are half as likely to finish secondary school.^[53] In Victoria, only 56.5% of Kooris aged 25–34 have some tertiary education, compared to 74.9% of non-Kooris.^[52]

Koori Australians are more likely to live near or below the poverty line.^[54] About 32.4% of Koori households in New South Wales earn less than A$500 per week, compared to 22.3% of non-Indigenous households.^[54] Less than half of Koori people in New South Wales own their homes, while 70% of non-Kooris do.^[55]

Kooris in New South Wales are less likely to be employed, with an underemployment rate of 43%, compared to 35.9% for non-Kooris.^[56] The biggest difference is in professional services, where non-Kooris are three times more likely to work.^[57]

Koori Australians are much more likely to be in prison.^[58] In 2019, Koori adults were 9.3 times more likely to be incarcerated in New South Wales^[58] and 14.5 times more likely in Victoria than non-Koori adults.^[58]

This pattern is also seen in youth detention. In New South Wales, Koori children aged 10–17 were 16 times more likely to be detained in 2018 and 2019.^[59] In Victoria, they were 10 times more likely.^[59]

To address these issues, New South Wales and Victoria have started programs to reduce the gaps between Koori and non-Koori people.^[1] In March 2019, both states partnered with the Australian Federal Government and Indigenous groups to work on the goals of the Closing the Gap initiative.^[47]

There are a number of other names from Australian Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography:

• Anangu in northern South Australia, and neighbouring parts of Western Australia and Northern Territory
• Pama in northern Queensland
• Murri in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales
• Nunga in southern South Australia
• Nyoongar in southern Western Australia
• Palawa (or Pakana) in Tasmania

• Bangerang Cultural Centre. Australia's first Aboriginal museum.