Some items of interest

The following publication is available as a paperback and ebook.
Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate
Peter Sutton, Keryn Walshe
Melbourne University Press 2021

"An authoritative study of pre-colonial Australia that dismantles and reframes popular narratives of First Nations land management and food production Australians' understanding of Aboriginal society prior to the British invasion from 1788 has been transformed since the publication of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu in 2014. It argued that classical Aboriginal society was more sophisticated than Australians had been led to believe because it resembled more closely the farming communities of Europe. In Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe ask why Australians have been so receptive to the notion that farming represents an advance from hunting and gathering. Drawing on the knowledge of Aboriginal elders, previously not included within this discussion, and decades of anthropological scholarship, Sutton and Walshe provide extensive evidence to support their argument that classical Aboriginal society was a hunter-gatherer society and as sophisticated as the traditional European farming methods. Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? asks Australians to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal society and culture."

Three further articles of interest are

Hidden in plain sight: the archaeological landscape of Mithaka Country, south-west Queensland
Michael C Westaway et al 
Antiquity 2021 available here .

"Ethnohistoric accounts indicate that the people of Australia's Channel Country engaged in activities rarely recorded elsewhere on the continent, including food storage, aquaculture and possible cultivation, yet there has been little archaeological fieldwork to verify these accounts. Here, the authors report on a collaborative research project initiated by the Mithaka people addressing this lack of archaeological investigation. The results show that Mithaka Country has a substantial and diverse archaeological record, including numerous large stone quarries, multiple ritual structures and substantial dwellings. Our archaeological research revealed unknown aspects, such as the scale of Mithaka quarrying, which could stimulate re-evaluation of Aboriginal socio-economic systems in parts of ancient Australia."

Using satellite imagery to evaluate precontact Aboriginal foraging habitats in the Australian Western Desert
W. Boone Law, Peter Hiscock, Bertram Ostendorf & Megan Lewis
Scientific Reports volume 11, 2021 available here .

"Modern satellite imaging offers radical new insights of the challenges and opportunities confronting traditional Aboriginal ecology and land use in Australia’s Western Desert. We model the likely dynamics of historic and precontact desert land use using Earth observation data to identify the distribution of suitable foraging habitats. Suitability was modelled for an ideal environmental scenario, based on satellite observations of maximal water abundance, vegetation greenness, and terrain ruggedness. Our model shows that the highest-ranked foraging habitats do not align with land systems or bioregions that have been used in previous reconstructions of Australian prehistory. We identify impoverished desert areas where unsuitable foraging conditions have likely persisted since early in the last glacial cycle, and in which occupation would always have been rare. These findings lead us to reconsider past patterns of land use and the predicted archaeological signature of earlier desert peoples."

When did Homo sapiens first reach Southeast Asia and Sahul?

James F. O’Connell, Jim Allen, Martin A. J. Williams, Alan N. Williams, Chris S. M. Turney, Nigel A. Spooner, Johan Kamminga, Graham Brown, and Alan Cooper

PNAS August 21, 2018 115 (34) 8482-8490 available here .

"Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens, AMH) began spreading across Eurasia from Africa and adjacent Southwest Asia about 50,000–55,000 years ago (ca. 50–55 ka). Some have argued that human genetic, fossil, and archaeological data indicate one or more prior dispersals, possibly as early as 120 ka. A recently reported age estimate of 65 ka for Madjedbebe, an archaeological site in northern Sahul (Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea), if correct, offers what might be the strongest support yet presented for a pre–55-ka African AMH exodus. We review evidence for AMH arrival on an arc spanning South China through Sahul and then evaluate data from Madjedbebe. We find that an age estimate of >50 ka for this site is unlikely to be valid. While AMH may have moved far beyond Africa well before 50–55 ka, data from the region of interest offered in support of this idea are not compelling."

"A World That Was" by Ronald M & Catherine H Berndt

The following book is available as an ebook to download free from Melbourne University Press.

A World That Was - The Yaraldi of the Murray River and the Lakes, South Australia

Ronald M Berndt & Catherine H Berndt

Melbourne University Press  ebook 2018 (Original published 1993)

Appendix 5 contains

Genealogical tables with keys

Tables 7–14: from the perspective of Karloan

Tables 15–20: from the perspective of Pinkie Mack

The MUP website states

"This extraordinary book, written from material gathered over half a century ago, will almost certainly be the last fine-grained account of traditional Aboriginal life in settled south-eastern Australia. It recreates the world of the Yaraldi group of the Kukabrak or Narrinyeri people of the Lower Murray and Lakes region of South Australia.

In 1939 Albert Karloan, a Yaraldi man, urged a young ethnologist, Ronald Berndt, to set up camp at Murray Bridge and to record the story of his people. Karloan and Pinkie Mack, a Yaraldi woman, possessed through personal experience, not merely through hearsay, an all but complete knowledge of traditional life. They were virtually the last custodians of that knowledge and they felt the burden of their unique situation. This book represents their concerted efforts to pass on the story to future generations.

For Ronald and Catherine Berndt, this was their first fieldwork together in an illustrious joint career of almost fifty years. During long periods, principally until 1943, they laboured with pencil and paper to put it all down-a far cry from the recording techniques of today's oral historians. Their fieldnotes were worked into a rough draft of what would become, but not until recently, the finished manuscript.

The book's range is encyclopaedic and engrossing-sometimes dramatic. It encompasses relations between and among individuals and clan groups, land tenure, kinship, the subsistence economy, trade, ceremony, councils, fighting and warfare, rites of passage from conception to death, myths, and beliefs and practices concerning healing and the supernatural. Not least, it is a record of the dramatic changes following European colonization.

A World That Was is a unique contribution to Australia's cultural history. There is simply no comparable body of work, not is there ever likely to be."

Extract from Patrol Report by W MacDougall in 1961

Extract From National Archives of Australia, Reference A6456 R136/008
Report on Patrol 25th September to 17th November by W MacDougall

Giles
Thirty natives were camped approximately half a mile from the Station. These were waiting for a Patrol Officer as they had dingo scalps to trade. They also wanted information re a young lubra, Molly, who had been removed from the Station to Musgrave Parm by Frank Quinn under instruction from the OIC of the camp as advised by wireless from Woomera. (Story Appendix A).

APPENDIX A

History
Molly is an ex Warburton Ranges Mission School girl. She was not satisfied as the second wife of David at the Mission. This dissatisfaction produced behaviour that caused considerable trouble to the community. Because of this her parents arranged for her to be the first wife of Tiger, who was to keep her well away from the Mission until she settled down.

Trouble at Giles
Molly was lazy in her duties. For the sake of discipline in general and because of the lack of firewood in particular, Tiger speared her in the buttock. Molly left the camp in a hurry, presumably to gather more firewood. As she did not return, Tiger and some others followed her tracks which led to the Giles camp where she had taken refuge.
Molly told the OIC that she was in fear for her life and the attitudes of the natives surrounding the camp seemed to support her fears.

Action taken at that time
OIC Giles asked for advice by wireless. For obvious reasons we could not refuse protection. In the absence of the Commissioner of Native Welfare, WA, Mr Anderson, second in charge, approved and authorised the removal of Molly to Musgrave Park. Mr Anderson stated that he would explain the situation to the District Officer Kalgoolie who would arrange for the trouble to be investigated and settled. No Western Australian Officer visited Giles or spoke to any of the natives concerned, and it is therefore presumed they cannot know of this particular upset.

Situation at Musgrave Park
The presence of a young unattached female with no official interest apparent, inevitably caused trouble at Musgrave Park. This was overcome by alloting Molly to another man, Tjipikuta.
On my arrival Molly expressed fear of Tiger and reasonable satisfaction with the new arrangement.

Situation at Giles
I conveyed the news to Tiger at Giles. He was naturally upset and wanted to go to Musgrave Park to recover his wife. This was frowned upon by the District Welfare Officer, Kalgoolie, so on a dingo trading run I took two delegates from Giles to Musgrave Park. At an around-a-tree conference comprised of all those concerned, it was decided that Tjipikuta had an even better claim to Molly than Tiger, and that in view of all the circumstances, this arrangement was the best. Tiger does not agree to this and is perplexed at white man interference which has deprived him of a wife. He accepts the fact that the Giles personnel acted in good faith, but cannot understand why they will not return the woman.
All this could have been avoided if an investigation had been made within a reasonable time of Molly's transfer to Musgrave Park.
Tiger is not likely to take any further action, but he is left with the problem of securing another wife.

Full report here .

Yuwaalaraay/Euahlayi People Native Yitle Meeting

Yuwaalaraay/Euahlayi People (QUD32/2017) Native Yitle Authorisation Meetings

The Claim area is roughly south of St George and centred on Dirranbandi and Hebel.

The Yuwaalaraay / Euahlayi People native title claim group is currently described as the descendants of the following ancestors:
1. Billy Bloomfield
2. Ned Combo and Jane Sands
3. Sarah Forester
4. Clara [Foster/Murray/Ward]
5. Kitty Hibbett
6. Peter Hippi alt. Hippi Peters
7. Ellen Leonard
8. Susannah McCauley
9. Eliza McCrae
10. Albert Murray father of Dolly McPherson
11. Biddigae (Biddy) Murray [Hall]
12. Lucy ‘Sookie’ Murray
13. Mary Murray [Dancey]
14. Mary Murray [Orchard]
15. Thomas Murray and Kitty Bootha parents of Katie Murray [Butler] and Jenny Murray [Rose]
16. Biddy Martha mother of Harry Rose
17. John ‘Jack’ Simpson
18. Ada Russell/Murdock/Murray/Bloomfield
19. Fanny White [Murray]
20. Jimmy Inch and Kitty

The purpose of Authorisation Meeting #1 is to:
1. CONSIDER anthropological and legal advice about proposed amendments to the native title claim group description for the Native Title Claim; and
2. Subject to #1 above, AUTHORISE amendment of the Native Title Claim by replacing all of the wording at Schedule A to the native title application Form 1 (the description of the native title claim group) with the following wording:

The Yuwaalaraay/Euahlayi People are the descendants of the following ancestors:

1. Billy Bloomfield
2. Ned Combo and Jane Sands
3. Jennie of Bangate
4. Clara Murray/Billie/Foster and Bangate Charlie (Charlie Wilson)
5. Kitty Hibbett
6. Peter Hippi (Hippi Peters) and Lady Hippi
7. Ellen Leonard
8. Susannah McCauley
9. Eliza McCrae
10. Albert Murray father of Dolly McPherson
11. Biddigae (Biddy) Murray [Hall]
12. Lucy ‘Sookie’ Murray
13. Mary Murray [Dancey]
14. Mary Murray [Orchard]
15. Thomas Murray and Kitty Bootha, parents of Katie Murray [Butler] and Jenny Murray [Rose]
16. Biddy Martha mother of Harry Rose
17. John ‘Jack’ Simpson
18. Ada Russell/Murdock/Murray/Bloomfield
19. Fanny White
20. Fanny Cubby
21. Jenny Murray (Horne)
22. Albert Sharpley
23. Lucy Brandy
24. Kitty Thunderbolt, mother of Arthur and Jimmy Dixon and Peter Hill
25. Alice Brandy, the mother of Arthur Dodd
26. Eliza Buguthar Brandy
27. George Bullaman

Appeared in the Koori Mail dated May 19, 2021.

Some odds and Ends

Refer also to the following Federal Court of Australia determination -

Knox on behalf of the Yuwaalaraay/Euahlayi People v State of Queensland [2021] FCA 1440 here .

John Bishop of Currawillinghi, Bachelor, aged 46 yrs, born Melton Mowbray, parents William Bishop and Mary Healey married Susannah McCauley of Currawillinghi, Spinster, aged 28 yrs, born Woolerina Stn, Qld, parents John McCauley (white) and Biddy on 20. 5.1907 New Angledool, NSW

Kate Bloomfield of Angledool, parents Billy and Ada Bloomfield of Angledool , married Jack Sands 2 August 1931 (registered New Angledool 6389/1931).

Annie Hibbett was removed from Hebel to Taroom in 1914.

Alfred Bullaman Alfred, father George Bullaman, residence Angledool

See also Memory and History at Angledool New South Wales by Marisa Menin (Sub-thesis as partial requirement for the degree of Master of Letters at the Australian National University March 1996. Extracts here .

See also Brewarrina Shire - Community-based Aboriginal Heritage Study, Part 2, Laila Haglund 2012

A patrol report of South eastern Queensland lists for Hebel an Albert Sharpley aged 63 yrs, Widower

Werai Lands IULA

The claim area is roughly west of Deniliquin and north of Wakool, New South Wales.

The Werai Traditional Owners are currently proposed to comprise:
(a) each and every person who:
(i) identifies as a Wemba Wemba / Wamba Wamba person or a Barapa Barapa/Perepa Perepa person; and
(ii) is accepted as a Wemba Wemba / Wamba Wamba person or a Barapa Barapa/Perepa Perepa person by Wemba Wemba / Wamba Wamba people or Barapa Barapa / Perepa Perepa people in accordance with their traditional laws and customs; and
(iii) is a descendant of one or more of the following apical ancestors:
(a) Yanga Louisa (born 1828, Yanga)
(b) John BRIGHT (born at Tubbo)
(c) George William CHARLES (born 1851, Goulburn River)
(d) John Andrew CHARLES (born at Bacchus Marsh)
(e) Richard Thomas CLAYTON (born 1863)
(f) Albert COLGER (born 1846, Cobram)
(g) William DAY (born 1854, Deniliquin)
(h) Henry EDWARDS (born at Moulamein)
(i) Edward FIREBRACE (born 1855, New South Wales)
(j) Johanna GARDINER (born 1851, Kerang)
(k) Isabella GREEN (born 1869, Stanhope)
(l) Geramy HARRY (born 1854, Balranald)
(m) John INGRAM (born 1871, Swan Hill)
(n) Oswald INGRAM (born 1863, Mellool)
(o) Sarah INGRAM (born 1851, Niemur)
(p) William INGRAM (born 1868, Barham)
(q) King Thomas IVANHOE (born 1825, Balranald)
(r) Jeremiah KIRBY (born 1842, Toorong)
(s) Kitty LEWIS (born 1829)
(t) Alexander MCCOY (born at Warbreccan)
(u) Ada MCGRADIE (born 1867, Deniliquin)
(v) Jane MURPHY
(w) William MURRAY (born at Conargo)
(x) Annie TAYLOR (born at Toganmain)
(y) David TAYLOR (born 1859)
(z) Robert TAYLOR (born 1850 Barham)
(aa) Clara WALTERS (born at Oxley)
(bb) Sabina WISE (born 1859, Balranald)
and
(b) each and every other person who:
(i) identifies as a Wemba Wemba / Wamba Wamba person or a Barapa Barapa/Perepa Perepa person; and
(ii) is accepted as a Wemba Wemba / Wamba Wamba person or a Barapa Barapa/Perepa Perepa person by Wemba Wemba / Wamba Wamba people or Barapa Barapa / Perepa Perepa people in accordance with their traditional laws and customs.

Appeared in the Koori Mail dated May 5, 2021

The Wakka Wakka People #3 and the Wakka Wakka People #4 native title Meeting

The Wakka Wakka People are the Aboriginal people who have a connection to the application area in accordance with their traditional laws acknowledged and traditional customs observed and are descendants of one or more of the following ancestors:

1. Jenny and David Carlo (parents of Princess Carlo)
2. Minnie Bly (mother of Thomas Simpson), Ethel and Bill Button
3. Mother of Maggie Hart (Grandmother of Crabbie Chapman and Henry Hart)
4. Mother of Willie Boy Pickering
5. King Billy and Maria of Boondooma (parents of Tommy Dodd of Taabinga)
6. Maggie West
7. Kitty of Boonara
8. MiMi
9. Kitty (mother of Jack Bulong)
10. John Bond
11. Kitty (mother of Jenny Lind), Jenny Lind and Mick Buck
12. Boubijan Cobbo
13. Stockman Bligh and Aggie Bligh
14. Tommy (aka Boondoon) and Maggie (parents of Willie Bone), Billy McKenzie (father of Chlorine McKenzie), Chlorine McKenzie
15. Kate/Katie/Kitty Law
16. Emily of Degilbo, mother of Annie
17. Taabinga Harry
18. Nellie, mother of Elsie Fitzgerald / Edwards

The purpose of Authorisation Meeting #1 is to AUTHORISE amendments to each of the Wakka Wakka People #3 and Wakka Wakka People #4 native title claims (‘the Native Title Claims') replacing all of the wording at Schedules A to the native title application Forms 1 (the description of the native title claim group) for each native title claim with the following wording:

The native title claim group is made up of families whose members identify as Wakka Wakka, in accordance with traditional laws acknowledged and traditional customs observed by them. Membership is based on the principle of cognatic descent (i.e. descent traced through either mother or father).

This application is brought on behalf Aboriginal people whose members identify as Wakka Wakka People, who are descended from the following ancestors:
1. Jenny and David Carlo (parents of Princess Carlo)
2. Minnie Bly (mother of Thomas Simpson), Ethel and Bill Button
3. Mother of Maggie Hart (Grandmother of Crabbie Chapman and Henry Hart)
4. Mother of Willie Boy Pickering
5. King Billy and Maria of Boondooma (parents of Tommy Dodd of Taabinga)
6. Maggie West
7. Kitty of Boonara
8. MiMi
9. Kitty (mother of Jack Bulong)
10. John Bond
11. Kitty (mother of Jenny Lind), Jenny Lind and Mick Buck
12. Boubijan Cobbo
14. Tommy (aka Boondoon) and Maggie (parents of Willie Bone), Billy McKenzie (father of Chlorine McKenzie), Chlorine McKenzie
15. Kate/Katie/Kitty Law
16. Emily of Degilbo, mother of Annie
17. Taabinga Harry

Appeared in the Koori Mail dated May 5, 2021

Barkandji and Malyangapa People Native Title Holders Meetings

Barkandji and Malyangapa People Native Title Holders Meetings Proposed Indigenous Land Use Agreements
1. Buronga Sandwash ILUA
2. White Cliffs dugouts and other terminated licences ILUA
3. Buronga Sandwash ILUA

In accordance with the Federal Court of Australia’s determination of native title in Barkandji Traditional Owners #8 determination (Part A), native title in the area covered by the ILUA is held by the Barkandji and Malyangapa People who are all the descendants of the following apical ancestors:

1) Manfred Mary/Mary Johnson/ Mary Brodie
2) Manfred Tommy
3) Louisa Brown
4) Cuthero Jack Brown
5) Susan/Annie Webster
6) Bill Webster
7) Harry Whyman
8) Kate Whyman
9) Louisa McLean
10) Alec McLean
11) Nganya
12) Sarah Cabbage
13) Harry Mitchell
14) Daniel McGregor
15) Lucy Benson
16) Jack “Doctor” Benson
17) Crancey
18) Jack Tyler
19) Taylor Matjulum Gibson
20) Tottie Gibson
21) Kutyi
22) Cate Newton/Maggie Tyler
23) Albert Bates
24) Fanny Bates
25) Yancannia Kitty
26) Judy Quayle
27) Nancy Watts
28) Topsie Crowe
29) Alec Bridge
30) Olive Barton
31) Margaret Payne
32) Kitty Knight
33) Jacky Knight
34) Matilda Murray
35) Paddy Black
36) Hero Black
37) Tall Boy Keegan
38) Kitty Keegan
39) Fanny Buugali Williams

and persons adopted into the families of those persons who identify as, and are accepted as, members of the Barkandji and Malyangapa People in accordance with Barkandji and Malyangapa traditional laws and customs (and the biological descendants of any such adopted persons).
Barkandji and Malyangapa People Native Title Holders Meetings

Appeared in the Koori Mail dated April 21, 2021

Some Notes

Aboriginal Cultural Heritage of the Menindee Lakes Area
Part 1 Aboriginal Ties to the Land
(A Report to the Menindee Lakes Ecologically Sustainable Development Project Steering Committee)
Sarah Martin

Humpy, House and Tin Shed
Aboriginal Settlement History on the Darling River
Paul Memmott
Published I B Fell Research Centre, University of Sydney, 1991

Menindee Mission Station 1933 – 1949 and Carowra Tank Aboriginal School
Compiled and Edited by Beverley and Don Elphick Canberra January 2000