36-493: The Wiradjuri people ( Wiradjuri northern dialect pronunciation [wiraːjd̪uːraj] ; Wiradjuri southern dialect pronunciation [wiraːjɟuːraj] ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales , united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life. In
72-652: A bit like Waggon Waggon , but it’s not quite the same. If you say “ Wagan Wagan ,” you’re saying 'many crows'. And Wagga Wagga means dance celebrations… But the fact is, it’s my language, our language, and it’s got nothing to do with crows whatsoever.". The term Ngamadidj ('ghost', or 'white people'), used in the Kuurn Kopan Noot language in Victoria , is also recorded as being used in Wellington, New South Wales by local Wiradjuri people about
108-665: A bit, it was more of an undercurrent. It gave us the right to be citizens, in our country that was ours in the first place. With Dr John Rudder: Grant was named a Member of the Order of Australia on 8 June 2009 "for service to Indigenous education and the preservation and promotion of the Wiradjuri language and culture, as a teacher and author, and to youth". He was granted an honorary Doctorate of Letters by Charles Sturt University in December 2013 in recognition of his work with
144-464: A broken car in the Aboriginal reserve near Griffith. The couple have several children and many grandchildren. They include the noted journalist, Stan Grant and his daughter, the radio presenter Lowanna Grant. The couple live near Narrandera , at the southern end of Wiradjuri country. Grant Jnr. recalls the family frequently living in modest huts on the outskirts of towns in country NSW,
180-472: A central open vowel /aː/, means 'dances and celebrations', and has also been translated as 'reeling like a drunken man'. The Wiradjuri word wagan means 'crow', which can be pluralised by reduplication . Until 2019, it was claimed by the Wagga Wagga council and others that Wagga Wagga translates to “the place of many crows”. However, as Uncle Stan Grant Snr has stated, " Wagga Wagga does sound
216-554: A child around native speakers of his grandfather's generation, notably his grandfather on his mother's side, Wilfred Johnson. Johnson could speak seven languages. He was arrested in the late 1940s after a policeman overheard him calling to his son in Wiradjuri – it was forbidden to use Aboriginal languages in public – and he was detained overnight in a cell. From that day on, his grandfather refrained from speaking his native language in public. However, he continued to teach young Stan and his brother Cecil. His father on his father's side
252-502: A missionary there. Love Complex statements The following English words come from Wiradjuri: Stan Grant (Wiradjuri elder) Stanley Vernard Grant Sr AM (born 1940) is an elder of the Wiradjuri tribe of Indigenous Australians from what is now the south-west inland region of the state of New South Wales , Australia . The grandson of an elder who was gaoled for speaking his own language, Grant Sr now teaches
288-486: Is centred in Wiradjuri region. Jessica's best friend (Mary Simpson) was from Wiradjuri. Noel Beddoe's novel The Yalda Crossing also explores Wiradjuri history from an early settler perspective, bringing to life a little-known massacre that occurred in the 1830s. Andy Kissane's poem, "The Station Owner's Daughter, Narrandera" tells a story about the aftermath of that same massacre, and was the inspiration for Alex Ryan's short film, Ngurrumbang . The variety of spellings for
324-521: Is under way, with the language being taught in schools, TAFE college, and at Charles Sturt University . The Wiradjuri language has been taught in primary schools, secondary schools and at TAFE since before 2012 in the towns of Parkes and Forbes . It is taught at Condobolin . Northern Wiradjuri schools such as Peak Hill, Dubbo , Narromine, Wellington, Gilgandra, Trangie, and Geurie by AECG language and culture educators. All lessons include both Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians . As of 2017
360-490: The Grave of Yuranigh . They are generally to be found near rivers where the softer earth allowed easier burial. Alfred William Howitt remarked that these trees incised with taphoglyphs served both as transit points to allow mythological cultural heroes to ascend to, and descend from, the firmament as well as a means for the deceased to return to the sky. The Wiradjuri diet included yabbies and fish such as Murray cod from
396-551: The Wiradjuri language to students. Grant was born in Cowra. His siblings include educator Flo Grant, Elaine Grant, Ivan Grant, and Pastor Cecil Grant. For many years, Grant was an itinerant worker. Some times, he sold fruit and vegetables. At another time, he worked as a sawmiller , where he lost the tips of two fingers in industrial accidents. Grant is one of the few people still living to have heard native speakers of his tribe's Wiradjuri language , having been brought up as
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#1732772097525432-456: The "nations" concept. However, Tindale refers to Wiradjuri in his own work (p. 200): "Wiradjuri 'Wiradjuri (Wi'raduri)". Wiradjuri is a Pama–Nyungan family and classified as a member of the small Wiradhuric branch of Australian languages of Central New South Wales. The Wiradjuri language is effectively extinct, but attempts are underway to revive it, with a reconstructed grammar, based on earlier ethnographic materials and wordlists and
468-580: The 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee , but there were fewer clashes. The short story Death in the Dawntime , originally published in The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives (Mike Ashley, editor; 1995), is a murder mystery that takes place entirely among the Wiradjuri people before the arrival of Europeans in Australia. In Bryce Courtenay 's novel Jessica , the plot
504-492: The 1890s the idea spread and soon there was a rash of such terms...Some of these have entered, unfortunately, into popular literature, despite their dubious origins." He lists Wiradjuri (NSW) as one of these artificial names, along with Bangarang ( Pangerang ) (Vic.); Booandik (Vic. & SA); Barkunjee ( Barkindji ) (NSW), Kurnai (Vic.), Thurrawal ( Dharawal ) (NSW), and Malegoondeet (?) (Vic.). He also mentions R. H. Mathews , A. W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of
540-507: The 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin , Peak Hill , Narrandera and Griffith . There are significant populations at Wagga Wagga and Leeton and smaller groups at West Wyalong , Parkes , Dubbo , Forbes , Cootamundra , Darlington Point , Cowra and Young . The Wiradjuri autonym is derived from wiray , meaning "no" or "not", with the comitative suffix -dhuray or -dyuray meaning "having". That
576-663: The Wiradjuri said wiray , as opposed to some other word for "no", was seen as a distinctive feature of their speech, and several other tribes in New South Wales, to the west of the Great Dividing Range , are similarly named after their own words for "no". A similar distinction was made between Romance languages in medieval France , with the langues d'oc and the langues d'oïl distinguished by their word for "yes". In his book Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (1974), Norman Tindale wrote that Wiradjuri
612-508: The Wiradjuri's southern boundary and the change from woodland to open grassland marks their eastern boundary. The Wiradjuri were organised into bands. Norman Tindale quotes Alfred William Howitt as mentioning several of these local groups of the tribe: The Wiradjuri, together with the Gamilaraay (who however used them in bora ceremonies ), were particularly known for their use of carved trees which functioned as taphoglyphs , marking
648-400: The burial site of a notable medicine-man, ceremonial leader, warrior or orator of a tribe. On the death of a distinguished Wiradjuri, initiated men would strip the bark off a tree to allow them to incise symbols on the side of the trunk which faced the burial mound . The craftsmanship on remaining examples of this funeral artwork displays notable artistic power. Four still stand near Molong at
684-517: The dictionary contains an introduction to accurate pronunciation, a basic grammar of the language and a sample range of sentence types." A revised edition, holding over 8,000 words, was published in 2010 and launched in Wagga Wagga, with the launch described by the member for Wagga Wagga to the New South Wales Parliament . A mobile app and web-based version based on the book is also available. A Grammar of Wiradjuri language
720-479: The family frequently moving so Grant senior could find work. In May 2017, the son interviewed his father to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum to alter the Constitution of Australia to recognise Aboriginal people. The father discussed how he experienced overt racism as a young man: Racism was in your face. I was called nigger, boong, coon, abbo, blackie, you name it, I copped it all
756-660: The foothills of the Blue Mountains east of Lithgow and Oberon , and east of Cowra , Young and Tumut and south to the upper Murray at Albury and east to about Tumbarumba . The southern border ran to Howlong . Its western reaches went along Billabong Creek to beyond Mossgiel . They extended southwest to the vicinity of Hay and Narrandera . Condobolin southwards to Booligal , Carrathool , Wagga Wagga , Cootamundra , Parkes , Trundle ; Gundagai , Boorowa , and Rylstone , Wellington , and Carcoar all lay within Wiradjuri territory. The Murray River forms
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#1732772097525792-555: The harshness of his own people's behaviour, since the Wiradjuri were in his view, fond of white people, as they would call them. Clashes between the British settlers and the Wiradjuri however multiplied as the influx of colonist increased, and became known as the Bathurst Wars . The occupation of their lands and their cultivation began to cause famine among the Wiradjuri, who had a different notion of what constituted property. In
828-593: The indigenous communities. The vice-chancellor of CSU, Andrew Vann is quoted as saying "[Grant] has made an outstanding contribution to Charles Sturt University's regions, especially to Indigenous communities ... As an Elder, author and teacher, he has made an outstanding intellectual contribution to our communities. His deep involvement in the introduction of the University's new Graduate Certificate in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage program in 2014
864-522: The language was also being taught in Young , having a positive impact on the number of pupils self-identifying as Aboriginal. Charles Sturt University also offers a two-year course in Wiradjuri language, heritage, and culture, focusing on language reclamation. This course, which commenced in 2014, was developed by Wiradjuri Elder, Dr Stan Grant Senior , as part of their Wiradjuri Language and Cultural Heritage Recovery Project. The process of reclaiming
900-523: The language was greatly assisted by the publication in 2005 of A First Wiradjuri Dictionary by elder Stan Grant Senior and academic John Rudder . Rudder described the dictionary: "The Wiradjuri Dictionary has three main sections in just over 400 B5 pages. The first two sections, English to Wiradjuri, and Wiradjuri to English, have about 5,000 entries each. The third sections lists Names of Things grouped in categories such as animals, birds, plants, climate, body parts, colours. In addition to those main sections
936-524: The later terms had entered the literature, although not based on fieldwork and lacking Aboriginal support, as artificial, collective names for his "Great Tribes" of New South Wales. He writes that there was such a "literary need for major groupings that [Fraser] set out to provide them for New South Wales, coining entirely artificial terms for his 'Great tribes'. These were not based on field research and lacked aboriginal support. His names such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari can be ignored as artifacts...During
972-481: The memories of Wiradjuri families, which is now used to teach the language in schools. This reclamation work was originally propelled by elder Stan Grant and John Rudder who had previously studied Australian Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land . The Wiradjuri are the largest Aboriginal group in New South Wales. They once occupied a vast area in central New South Wales, on the plains running north and south to
1008-510: The name Wiradjuri is extensive, with over 60 ways of transcribing the word registered. Wiradjuri language Wiradjuri ( / w ə ˈ r æ dʒ ʊ r i / ; many other spellings, see Wiradjuri ) is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It is the traditional language of the Wiradjuri people, an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales , Australia. Wiraiari and Jeithi may have been dialects. A revival
1044-404: The rivers. In dry seasons, they ate kangaroos, emus and food gathered from the land, including fruit, nuts, yam daisies ( Microseris lanceolata ), wattle seeds, and orchid tubers. The Wiradjuri travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on Bogong moths . The Wiradjuri were also known for their handsome possum-skin cloaks stitched together from several possum furs. Governor Macquarie
1080-409: The time. You couldn't own a block of land, you couldn't own a house, you had to rent one. You couldn't be out late at night, you had to [be] gone by sundown from the street. There were many, many, things we couldn't do. Yet, he later noted differences in how people treated him: In 69-70 there I noticed there were some changes being made. The racism that was in our face, wasn't there, it was behind us
1116-685: The west of the Blue Mountains . The area was known as "the land of the three rivers", the Wambuul (Macquarie) , the Kalare later known as the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee , or Murrumbidjeri . Norman Tindale estimated the territorial range of the Wiradjuri tribal lands at 127,000 km (49,000 sq mi). Their eastern borders ran from north to south from above Mudgee , down to
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1152-466: Was Bill Grant, who had lived on Bulgandramine Mission. He has been crucial to the reconstruction of the Wiradjuri language along with John Rudder , with whom he travels among the Wiradjuri people, teaching their language. From a small base of anthropological records, they have rebuilt the spoken and sung language among both urban and rural tribal members. In 2005 they published "A New Wiradjuri Dictionary”, running to some 600 pages. In 2006 this work
1188-478: Was one of several terms coined later, after the 1890s had seen a "rash of such terms", following the publication of a work by ethnologist John Fraser . In 1892, Fraser had published a revised and expanded edition of Lancelot Threlkeld 's 1834 work on the Awabakal language, An Australian Grammar , in which he created his own names for groupings, such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari. Tindale says that some of
1224-434: Was presented with one of these cloaks by a Wiradjuri man when he visited Bathurst in 1815. Wiradjuri territory was first penetrated by British colonists in 1813. In 1822 George Suttor took up an extensive lot of land, later known as Brucedale Station, after Wiradjuri guides showed him an area with ample water sources. Suttor learnt their language, and befriended Windradyne, nicknamed "Saturday" , and attributed conflict to
1260-460: Was published in 2014. In most Pama-Nyungan languages, sounds represented by ‘k’ or ‘g’ are interchangeable. As are sounds ‘b’ and ‘p’. As well as ‘t’ and ‘d’. The phonemes /ə/ and /aː/ tend to be considered as belonging to the same pair (refer to the orthography table below). The Aboriginal inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people and the term wagga wagga , with
1296-606: Was recognised with the Deadly Award of Outstanding Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education. The Wiradjuri language, culture and heritage course at Charles Sturt University was developed by Grant and, as of 2024 , he still attends the graduation ceremonies of students. His father was Cecil, who served in the 9th Division in Tobruk. Grant married Betty Cameron, whose family came from Gunnedah Hill, near Coonabarabran . After marrying, they lived in
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