Walbunja

An Aboriginal Australian people of the Yuin nation of New South Wales

The Walbunja, also spelt Walbanga and Walbunga, are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales, part of the Yuin nation.^[1]

Language

The Walbunja language may be a dialect of Dhurga.^[2]

Country

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^[3] and Thaua.^[4]

Alternative names

Alternative spellings include Walbanga^[5] and Walbunga.^[6]

According to Norman Tindale, alternative names included:^[4]

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

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.^[7]

Notes

Citations

^ Reconciliation Australia 2014.
^ Dixon 2002, p. xxxv.
^ Slattery 2015, p. 122.
^ ^a ^b Tindale 1974, p. 199.
^ S53 Walbunja at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
^ "Our Culture and Heritage". Wagonga Local Aboriginal Land Council. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
^ "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.