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| Gundungurra | |
|---|---|
| Group | Gundungurra |
| Regions | Blue Mountains; Southern Tablelands; New South Wales |
| Languages | Gundungurra language; Australian Aboriginal languages |
| Related | Dharug; Wiradjuri; Wiradjuri; Gunditjmara |
Gundungurra The Gundungurra are an Indigenous Australian people of southeastern New South Wales whose traditional lands encompass parts of the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, and the Goulburn-Wollondilly catchments; their society has been studied alongside neighbouring groups such as the Dharug, Wiradjuri, and Yuin peoples, and has featured in legal and cultural developments involving the High Court of Australia, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, and the Native Title Act 1993. Their language, kinship, and country were recorded by ethnographers and colonial administrators including R. H. Mathews, Norman Tindale, and W. E. Roth, while later revival and legal claims have involved organisations such as the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and academic institutions like the Australian National University and the University of Sydney.
The ethnonym used in historical records appears in variants recorded by explorers and anthropologists including George Caley, Thomas Mitchell (explorer), and William Bligh, and linguistic work by R. H. Mathews, D. B. Davidson, and Luigi Pugliese has documented the Gundungurra language as part of the broader family of Pama–Nyungan languages and Australian Aboriginal languages; contemporary language revitalisation projects have involved scholars at the University of Newcastle, community groups connected to the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, and programs modelled on efforts at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
Traditional Gundungurra territory covers river systems and plateaus framed by landmarks such as the Wollondilly River, Wollongong, Coxs River, the Blue Mountains National Park, and the Shoalhaven River, and overlaps ecological zones managed by agencies like the National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales), with colonial cadastral references appearing in maps by surveyors associated with the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales and explorers such as Allan Cunningham and John Oxley.
European contact with Gundungurra country began during expeditions led by figures including George Evans (explorer), William Cox (builder), and Governor Lachlan Macquarie and intensified with the expansion of pastoralism linked to settlers like John Macarthur and institutions such as the Australian Agricultural Company; conflicts and dispossession are documented alongside cases heard in colonial courts connected to the Supreme Court of New South Wales and later legal processes under the Mabo v Queensland (No 2) precedent informing native title claims.
Gundungurra social organisation, ceremonial life, and material culture were described in accounts by R. H. Mathews, Norman Tindale, and collectors associated with the Australian Museum and the British Museum, and feature kinship systems comparable to those of the Wiradjuri, Dharug, and Koori communities in the Sydney Basin; rites recorded by missionaries linked to the London Missionary Society and observers from the Colonial Office have been reinterpreted by modern researchers at the University of New South Wales and the University of Wollongong.
Traditional Gundungurra economies combined fishing and hunting along waterways such as the Wollondilly River and Shoalhaven River with foraging of plant foods in environments managed with fire regimes noted by naturalists such as Joseph Banks and surveyors tied to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney; post-contact land use shifted to pastoralism and timber extraction involving companies like the New South Wales Land and Property Information and infrastructure projects such as the Warragamba Dam and rail works associated with the Great Western Railway, New South Wales.
Gundungurra cosmology includes creation narratives, songlines, and landscape lore that relate to features like the Blue Mountains, Mount Werong, and river courses recorded in ethnographic sources by W. E. Roth and reinterpreted in cultural heritage programs run by the Australian Heritage Commission and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage; their Dreaming traditions have been discussed in comparative studies with the Arunta, Noongar, and Yorta Yorta and featured in exhibitions at the National Museum of Australia and the Australian Museum.
Contemporary Gundungurra affairs involve native title claims, cultural heritage management, and community organisations such as local branches of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, land management partnerships with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, and collaborations with universities including the University of Sydney and the Australian National University; activists and representatives have engaged with bodies such as the Australian Human Rights Commission, participated in reconciliation processes associated with the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and contributed to state and federal inquiries hosted by the Parliament of New South Wales and the Federal Parliament of Australia.