Monday 29 February 2016

Wongkumara People Native Title Claim Meeting

Wongkumara People Native Title Claim Meeting

Currently the Claim Group is described as any of the biological descendants of:
(i) the full-blood Aboriginal parents of Charlotte;
(ii) Maggie and Tommy:
(iii) Polly of Coopers Creek;
(iv) Charlie Nockatunga;
(v) any other ancestor who is determined by Wongkumara People to have been
Wongkumara in accordance with traditional law and custom who identifies as
Wongkumara and is accepted as Wongkumara by the Wongkumara People in
accordance with traditional law and custom.

It is proposed to amend the description to provide that the persons who may exercise
the Native Title rights and interests, subject to and in accordance with the traditional
laws acknowledged and traditional customs observed by them, are the Wongkumara
People and that the Wongkumara People are the descendants of one or more of the
following people:
a) Charlotte (mother of Jack, Queenie and May Hines, Rosie Jones and Willy Dutton;
b) Siblings Polly (mother of Albert Ebsworth Sam and Tommy Burgamar) and Charlie Nockatunga;
c) Maggie and Tommy (parents of Nellie Flash and Angelina);
d) Kutji (mother of George Dutton);
e) Tarella and her children Elizabeth and Harry (Fred) Hartnett;
f) Norman Harding;
g) Siblings Nellie (mother of Lucy Harding) and Judy (mother of Donald David Gillis);
h) Jenny (mother of Alf Barlow); and
i) Neddie and Nancy (grandparents of Jimmy Sedeek);
j) And such other person or persons who might from time to time be recognised
by the Wongkumara People as a Wongkumara ancestor.

Appeared in the Koori Mail of February 24, 2016.

Some Notes

Sarah Martin's paper 'Corner Talk' Mentions a lot of these people. This paper was at one stage on the web but no longer is. Following are some of these references.

A Table titled 'Some Families Associated with Tibooburra in the 1901-1938 Period' giving the following information
Family         Jones / Hines / Dutton / Clayton
Father        
Mother         Charlotte
Children       Rosie Jones, Jack Hines, Queenie Hines, May Hines, Willy Dutton
Group          Wangkumara / Paakantyi (Willy Dutton)

Family
Father
Mother         Polly
Children       Albert Ebsworth, Sam Burgamar, Tommy Burgamar (Bugmy)
Group          Wangkumara

Family          Dutton
Father          George
Mother         Alice Bates
Children       Jim, Evelyn, Lorraine, George, Norma, Charlie
Group          Paakantyi and Malyangapa

Family          Harding
Father          Norman
Mother         Lucy 
Children       ?
Group           Wangkumara

Family           Barlow
Father           Jimmy
Mother          Jennie
Children        Alf
Group           Malyangapa and Wangkumara

Family           Hartnett
Father           Thomas
Mother          Tarella
Children        Elizabeth, Fred
Group           White and Paakantyi

Family           Hartnett
Father           Fred
Mother          Una Ebsworth
Children        Rita, Cyril, Cliff, John, Shirley, Agatha
Group           ? Wangkumara

"Two Aboriginal women are buried at Yalpungah cemetery just outside the Olive Downs boundary, both these women are the matriarchs of large families still closely connected to the Tibooburra area and who worked and lived at Olive Downs over a long period. Tarella or Trella died at Yalpungah on the 14th of May 1907.
 ............................
The other woman who died at Yalpungah around the same time as Tarella was Judy Quayle (Quail), the mother of the three Quayle brothers from Momba Station near White Cliffs, John, William and James."

This paper contains a vast amount of information about people mentioned above.

6 comments:

  1. Sarah Martin's 'Corner Country' is not to be relied upon as a source of accurate information. One example is she lists my grandmother Edna Kerwin and her older brother as the child of BENNY KERWIN & IVY PARKER. The mother of Lenny Kerwin and Edna Kerwin was Nelly Parker and Benny Kerwin. their Godmother was Ivy Morris.

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  2. One correction in Corner Talk by Sarah Martin. Lenny Kerwin and Edna Kerwin are not the children of Ivy Parker. They are the children of Nelly Parker of Nappa Merrie, Queensland. Ivy Morris was their God-mother, she married Bill Gorringe and was later known as Ivy Gorringe. Ivy Morris was Paakintji tribe. Edna Kerwin and Lenny Kerwin have two Yandruwandha parents, Benny Kerwin of Innamincka, South Australia and Nelly Parker of Nappa Merrie, Queensland.

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    Replies
    1. Comment added to the Corner Talk web page.

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    2. Innamincka talk: a grammar of the Innamincka dialect of Yandruwandha with notes on other dialects
      Gavin Breen
      ANU Eview 2015

      The Informants

      While working at Nappa Merrie, Benny met his first wife, Nelly Parker, usually known (later, if not then) as Tim. Like Benny, she had a white father and Aboriginal mother, and she was employed as a housemaid. They were married about 1915. They had six children, of whom the first two died in childhood. The marriage broke up about 1932. In 1927 Benny and his close friend Bill Gorringe represented Innamincka Station at a rodeo in Adelaide staged to celebrate the 75th birthday of Sir Sidney Kidman (Paterson n.d.; Tolcher pers. comm.). Benny’s second wife was Mary Stafford (nee Moore), borm at Cordillo of a white father and Aboriginal mother. They had seven children; Mary died at Broken Hill giving birth to the seventh, who also died. Most of this family were born at Tibooburra, New South Wales. Benny’s last station job was at Arrabury in 1967. His last years were spent living with one or other of his children or, occasionally, grandchildren, and he was with his daughter Joan Dennis at Roma when he died on 8th January 1976.

      Nelly Parker (Manngidrikani in Yandruwandha, Tim to many people6) was born at Nappa Merrie and brought up at Innamincka. She had a white father, who may have been John Conrick, the owner of Nappa Merrie (Paterson n.d.), and an Aboriginal mother. After leaving Benny she married Archie Guttie, but she and Benny were together again before she died in 1969.

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  3. Mutawintji
    Aboriginal Cultural Association with Mutawintji National Park
    Dr Jeremy Beckett, Dr Luise Hercus and Dr Sarah Martin; editor, Claire Colyer 2008

    Page 68

    Albert (Albie) Bates Junior (c. 1912-14 – )

    Albert (Albie) Bates junior was born around 1912 at Milparinka (MC) and married Ivy Quimby, a Paaruntyi woman from Wanaaring, at Tibooburra on 28 December 1937 (MC). Ivy and Albie had five
    children (Alice, Malcolm [Johnny], Peggy [Margaret Joan], Albert Rex and Thelma Joyce). The family was forcibly taken to Brewarrina Mission in 1938 (see section 2 and above under Albert and Rose Bates) but later returned to Tibooburra. The couple separated and Ivy later married Bill Gorringe and
    moved to Western Queensland where Ivy and Bill had more children. Ivy and Albie’s family are mainly based in western Queensland but they retain strong ties with the family and regularly make the long trip back to visit the rest of the Bates family.

    ReplyDelete