Yarra Valley Aboriginal BARNGEONG BARNGEONG Sites of Significance The Traditional Wurundjeri ● Aboriginal sculptures at William Ricketts Birthing Place and Female -BRUSHY CREEK Sanctuary, Mt. Dandenong, Melways ref. 52 H10. ● Coranderrk Aboriginal Cemetery Barak Lane, Initiation Site at Brushy Creek badger Creek, 300 Kulin graves, Melways 277 K9 In WONGA PARK This pamphlet was produced by Reconciliation ● Battle of Yering Memorial Rock. Site of battle Manningham in close cooperation with the between Border Police & Wurundjeri 13/ 1/ 1840. Wurundjeri Tribe Council and the Manningham ● William Barak Memorial at Brushy Creek. City Council with the aim of increasing public Stone monument plaque and tree, Melways 37 C7. appreciation and knowledge of sacred and ● Barngeong Birthing Site is a gorge at the significant sites along the Birrarung (Yarra River) confluence of Brushy Creek and Yarra which is a in Manningham. The Barngeong Gorge Birthing Wurundjeri birthing and female initiation site where Place, where the famed 19th Century civil rights William Barak was born, Melways ref. 24 k6. figure William Barak was born, is one such place. ● Gawa Wurundjeri Resource Trail 340 metre On 25th October 2013, a special ceremony was held, bushland walking trail at Watson’s Creek with 9 led by Wurundjeri Women Elders, to formally re- resource markers along the way. Melways 272 D5. dedicate the site. This began with a private ● Pound Bend South Memorial Rock dedicated to ceremony at the gorge by the Wurundjeri women Reserve & 1852 corroboree site, Melways 23 C12. and was then followed by a public celebration. This ● Wurundjeri Stories Walk. Starting at Pound included a smoking ceremony and traditional Led by Elders Aunty Alice Kolasa (left), Aunty Doreen Bend tunnel, follow interpretive signage. M 23A11 women’s dance which was taught to all the women Garvey-Wandin (right), Aunty Vicki Nicholson-Brown ● Pound Bend North Memorial Rock dedicated to attending. (with beanie) Aunty Irene Morris (5th in line, left) and th Reserve & 1852 corroboree site, Melways 23 C9. This was a landmark event that was probably the Aunty Diane Kerr (6 in line, right) the Wurundjeri ● Fish Farms at Finns -Traditional fish & eel trap women return from their private ceremony at Barngeong largest women’s ceremony held by the Wurundjeri th area, yabbie & mussel farms etc. Melways 33 B3 Gorge on 25 October 2013 to begin the public since colonial settlement 1835, and it was a celebration. ● Moorrul Viewing Platform in Kangaroo Ground. significant step in the process of reconciliation. Interpretive panels, war memorial. Melways 271 e11 For further information on contact details for ● Message Stick sculpture Eltham Lower Park plus Reconciliation Manningham, visit our website at: unmarked Kulin woman’s grave, Melways 21 J11. The Wurundjeri ● Yingabeal –the Scar Tree at Heide Museum. www.Reconciliation-Manningham.org.au Not just a canoe tree, also Marker Tree at junction of five Songlines (walking trails) Melways 32 E5. Or contact the Secretary, Jim Poulter on 9842 3598 ● Bolin-Bolin Billabong. Eel and duck hunting site This pamphlet was proudly supported by Birthing Place adjacent to corroboree ground. Melways 32 C8. Manningham City Council’s ● Bunjilaka Centre Melbourne Museum Carlton, Community Grants Program ‘First Peoples Exhibition’ Melways ref. 2B J9 & Initiation Site ● Birrarung Marr, celebrating Wurundjeri culture, displays etc along riverside walk. Melways 2F K6 One of Manningham’s most ● Koorie Heritage Trust, Federation Square, Melb. Interactive displays, souvenirs, Melways 1A P 10. significant Aboriginal sites River confluence is the true location of the umbilical cord cut and the placenta buried. The child A Sacred Women’s Site birthplace of William Barak. was then introduced to their father who was often also presented with the umbilical cord which he placed Traditional stories and songs indicate where the around his neck. In Manningham camp was located in this is consistent with camps Barngeong is the traditional Aboriginal name of commonly being located on high ground at the The child’s totems would then be confirmed by the Brushy Creek in Wonga Park, a tributary of the confluences of major creeks with the primary river. family. Totems signifying spiritual relationships or Yarra . Manningham is fortunate to have a number The houses at these sites always had had their spiritual protectors which linked the child to their of sacred and significant sites within its boundaries, doorways facing northeast with the backs of the language group, tribe, clan, family, moiety and skin but Barngeong is certainly the most important huts therefore toward the Barngeong Birthing Place. group were predetermined and involved no individual heritage site in Manningham. More than this though, This was for two reasons, first that the backs of the choice. These totems are usually an animal or bird. Barngeong is of State and National significance. houses were against the cold south-west winds and The child’s personal totem or spiritual protector was Probably only Bunjil’s Cave in the Grampians and second, male faces had to be averted from the however determined by the parents. This would be the Wurundjeri male initiation site of Hanging Rock location. This is why Wurundjeri women Elders according to some environmental sign that occurred in the Macedon Ranges rank ahead of the Brushy have decided to keep the exact location undisclosed. prior to or at the birth. The child’s warning totem was decided after the child was about age two or three, but Creek Gorge in terms of heritage significance in Until it fell over only a few years ago, a Ring it remained a secret to the child and parents. Victoria. Marker Tree stood as a signpost to Barngeong only As a Women’s Site however, Barngeong most a couple of hundred metres away. It can be fairly probably ranks number one in Victoria. This is safely assumed that an Arched Birthing Marker The Ceremonial Inclusion of because it is not only a traditional birthing and Tree probably also marked the actual birthing site female initiation site, but it is the known birthplace itself at Bukkertilibul. Such marker trees were men in Female Initiation of the famed 19th century Wurundjeri leader, the created by tying two sapling gums together to grow Birthing places were also used as female initiation internationally renowned William Barak. in the form of an arch, with a single trunk growing sites and in some language groups, such as the above the twin trunked arch. Such an arched marker Woiwurung, which is the language of the tree signifying a birthing spot stood for many years Wurundjeri, these rituals involved men. When a girl How Barngeong was on the ridge above Mullum-Mullum Creek on what came of age the Wurundjeri ritual of Murrum is now Newman’s Road, near the corner of Turukuruk was conducted whereby the girl was preserved in Wurundjeri Webster’s Rd. inducted into womanhood. Story and Song This involved two smoking fires being lit and the Birthing as exclusively initiate being dusted with powdered charcoal by For many years the location of William Barak’s women of her family. Food was placed on a stick like birthplace was mistakenly believed to be a cave in Women’s Business a shishkebab and held by the girl. The young men of Lilydale, but this is incorrect. It was wrongly Women were of course entirely responsible for care the tribe would form a row and stamp their feet in identified as such by William Brough-Smyth, who of the site and the preparations for birthing. Men unison as they slowly approached and encircled her. was head of the Aborigines Protection Board later in were forbidden to enter birthing sites unless at the th The young men would then throw sticks or flowers the 18 century. More than simply a mistake it express invitation of women for specific ceremonial toward the initiate and vow to protect her as a sister. would seem that he was at least in part motivated by purposes other than an actual birth. This was They would then each take food from the stick she the wish to establish favour with the owner of the entirely women’s business. The role of men was held, chew it and spit it into one of the two fires, then property on which the cave was located, David therefore only to leave food at a designated spot and return to their line formation facing the girl. The Mitchell, who was the father of Dame Nellie Melba. otherwise pace up and down in worried sticks or flowers were then collected by the women anticipation. Extensive research on the subject by Nillumbik and buried or otherwise destroyed in the fire. Men author Mick Woiwod has however unquestioningly Following the birth the mother was smoked with and women would then participate in a common ritual established the gorge at the Brushy Creek and Yarra herbs, the child ritually daubed with ochre, the dance to end the ceremony. .