- Title
- The Tara-Waragal and the Governors levee in Melbourne, 1863-A reinterpretation of Woiwurrung local group organisation
- Creator
- Clark, Ian
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/63150
- Identifier
- vital:6429
- Identifier
- http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84904689762∂nerID=40&md5=35d8529f94820752b6084f634386d838
- Identifier
- ISSN:0729-4352
- Abstract
- This paper concerns the question of why there are so few named groups in the Woiwurrung language area compared with other language groups to its west and north-west. It does this by analysing the 1863 Governors levee in which representatives from three Aboriginal groups-the Boonwurrung, Woiwurrung and Tara-Waragal-presented gifts to royalty. In seeking to understand who this third group-the Tara-Waragal-was, Stephens (2003) has suggested that they were a Woiwurrung patriline. Wesson (2001) has suggested that the name was a pejorative label applied to a Gippsland group by the Kulin. This study finds that both interpretations are wrong. First, it finds that the name applies to a Brataualung clan, the Yowung, whose country centred on the Tarra and Warrigal creeks-hence the name. Second, it finds that the attempt by Stephens to identify the Tara-Waragal with a possible Woiwurrung patriline identified in a series of sketches by William Thomas found in the RB Smyth Papers was also a failure. Nevertheless, the implication that the sketch maps may reveal up to 53 patrilines is a possibility worth exploring, as it may address the issue of the apparent under-representation of Woiwurrung named groups with which I began. Analysis reveals the possibility of an additional 27 Woiwurrung patrilines. Although the exact number of additional patrilines will never be known, at least we have addressed the issue that within the ethno-historical record it is possible to find additional named groups in Woiwurrung. Thus there was in all likelihood greater internal division in the Woiwurrung than has been reconstructed by Barwick (1984) and Clark (1990).; C1
- Relation
- Australian Aboriginal Studies Vol. , no. 1 (December 2014 2014), p. 33-54
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Rights
- Culturally sensitive
- Subject
- 1699 Other Studies In Human Society; 2101 Archaeology; 2103 Historical Studies; Aboriginal Australians; Wurundjeri (Australian people)
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