In Brief : Cairns Regional Claim Native Title Tribes
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In Brief : Cairns Regional Claim Native Title Tribes In Cairns region, the Frontier Wars started over 80 years after the first British ship arrived in Sydney 1788; then taking decades for the colonial frontier to move up through Queensland to reach the far north. Atherton 1875, Cairns 1876, Port Douglas 1877, Emerald End 1877 and Kuranda 1888 townships were "Established" by the colonial invaders, displacing the former settlements of Bama people across the region. See T.Bottoms Bama Bulmba (Aboriginal Rainforest Homelands) 2018 map below. Decades of Frontier Wars saw the massacre of most Bama living from coast to tablelands: by disease, guns, poison, fire and imprisonment. The Bamapopulation was reduced to only hundreds, the survivors then forcibly removed from their homelands and incarcerated at Yarrabah 1893 and Mona Mona 1913 Aboriginal Missions. From 1913 Mona Mona Mission, Djabugay country north of Kuranda, was home to people from Djabugay and neighbouring Kuku Yalanji, Muluridgi, Buluwai, Yirrgay, Gunggay, Yidindji, Ngadjan and Mbabaram tribes. The mission was repository for people surviving the massacres and remained open for generations (49 years), finally closed it’s dormitories in 1962 due to plans for damming Flaggy Creek. The generational dislocation and disruption of Bama families and tribal culture was catastropic. When the mission closed, theMona Mona Descendants were relocated to Kuranda, Koah and Mareeba where the following generations continue to reside. Bama families at Mona Mona Mission, c ___ SIDE In 1938-9 Norman Tindale and Joseph Birdsell Joseph Birdsell, height 186cm, Photographs reproduced without permission for travelled with their wives by truck on an expedition from with twenty-four-year-old male of history and educational purposes only. A the SA Museum to visit and record an anthropologicaltime the Kongkandji tribe, height Special thank you to FNQ historian Timothy Bottoms for preserving extensive Bama history in books, maps, videos and interviews. capsule of 150 Aboriginal tribes across Australia.Tindale 140cm. Taken at Mona Mona Mission, 1938 Short-statured Bama men centre, at Mona Mona Mission, c ___ created genealogies of Aboriginal families, for up to three generations, and recorded the Bama people living at Mona Mona. In the Wet Tropics rainforest, Joseph Birdsell noted a separate grouping where“Physical characteristics of the Barrinean type, in addition to diminutive stature, include the un-Australian characteristic of crisp curly hair.”The Ngatjan tribe were living at Lakes Barrine and Eacham on the tablelands. The BIRDSELL GROUPING (12 tribes of short-statured/ pygmy people):Ngatjan, Mamu, Wanjuru, Tjapukai, Barbaram, Idindji, Kongkandji, Buluwai, Djiru, Djirubal, Gulngai, Keramai In 2012, this grouping was recognised in the World Heritage listing as Aboriginal Rainforest People: Port Douglas Legend Wet Tropics (1877) Some of the Identified Massacre Sites National Heritage 4 Mile Beach Kuku Yalanji T listed for Indigenous Spring Creek r Approximate tribal boundaries Massacre early 1880s i n heritage values MowbrayX R. Mowbray River Native Police Camp X Native Mounted Police camps i t Skull Pocket-Mulgrave River- The Aboriginal Rainforest Peoples of y Skeleton Creek Battue Bunda Bugal Dec 1884/Jan 1885 (Black Mt.) the Wet Tropics of Queensland have Mt Molloy Rifle Cr eek Wunyami lived continuously in the rainforest B (Green Island) Djabuganydji Bunda Bundarra a (Macalister environment for at least[6]5,000 years Flaggy y and this is the only place in Australia Creek Range) Wangal Djungay Yurrbing where Aboriginal peoples have Mona Mona 1873 (Great Barrier Reef, (1913) (Double Island) "Grinding Teeth") (Barron R.) Y permanently inhabited a tropical irrganydji rainforest environment. uruu Din Din Baan Bero Ngunbay (Barron Falls) Native Mounted Bana W (Kuranda 1888) Police Camp Clohesy R. (Old) Smithfield Muluridji X Clohesy R. Djilibirri The Aboriginal Rainforest Peoples Dammrri Bada X (Cape Grafton) (Glacier Rock) Native Mounted Police developed a distinctive cultural heritage Horse Paddock Speewah 1890 Gimuy determined by their dreamtime and Bunda Damarri Yarrabah (1892) Gububarra creation stories and their traditional (Cairns (Fitzroy Island) on R.) Buluwanydji 1876) food gathering, processing and land (Barr Bana Gidiirri Bunda Dilbandji (Skeleton Ck) Emerald End (Bare Hil) Yaln.giri management techniques. (Crystal Cascades) 1884 Gungganydji Granite Ck. Bunda Djarruy Gimbul Reliance on their traditions helped them (Mareeba) (Lamb Range) Gubuda survive in this at times inhospitable (Gordonvale) Tinaroo X Mulgrave River Native Police Camp environment. The distinctiveness of the Djibalurn (Riverstone) traditions and technical innovation and Bunda Djarruga Murrugu expertise needed to process and (Walsh's Pyramid) prepare toxic plants as food and their Mbabaram Mulgrave R. uses of fire is of outstanding heritage Yidinydji Bones Knob Skull value to the nation and are now Pocket 1884 protected for future generations under Cockatoo Atherton Bora 1886 national environmental law. (1875) Djanggaburra (Yungaburra) Madjanydji Bundjabili Bama Bulmba (Butcher's Creek) Herberton In Brief: Cairns Regional Claim Native Title Sides A/B Aboriginal Rainforest is part of the series Aboriginal Rainforest Peoples Ngadjanydji Homelands Evelyn X History Project. Massacre Cairns Region, QLD Nigger Creek Native Mounted Police Camp Please email [email protected] for enquiries, (c) T Bottoms, 2018 (now Wondecla) suggestions, correctons or further information..