Waranga Dreaming
Although it is well established that Aboriginal people in the Waranga area were much more than just hunter-gatherers, there is plenty of evidence of seasonal migration around Ngurai-illum Wurrung country. Before times of travel, the women had to decide what items they would need to always carry with them. There
Waranga Dreaming
Another local resource that has been mentioned in relation to the making of possum skin cloaks are the shells of freshwater mussels. Apparently, the shells were used to scrape excess animal fat from the inside of the possum skins before they were dried. They were also used to incise patterns
Waranga Dreaming
In recent stories about corroborees and possum-skin cloaks, mention was made of the use of ochre. Ochre is a natural clay earth pigment containing iron oxide that the local Aboriginal people used to produce paint. The paint was then used for all sorts of artistic decoration and for cultural purposes.
Waranga Dreaming
As noted in the previous story, perhaps the most prized possessions of local Aboriginal people were their possum skin cloaks. Over time, a person’s possum skin cloak would grow in size, and as well as being a practical item, was an important cultural object. The decoration on the leather
Waranga Dreaming
Squatter Edward Curr’s description of a corroboree on his run in the 1840s, near present-day Tongala, makes two references to the use of possum skin cloaks. In one, he talks about the women rolling up their cloaks, leather-side out, and bashing on them to make a bass percussion accompaniment
Waranga Dreaming
The corroboree witnessed by squatter Edward Curr in the early 1840s, that was mentioned in the previous story, occurred at a meeting between clans of the Ngurai-illum Wurrung people and the Bangerang people. One of the main reasons for the gathering “was the delivery of the betrothed girls to their
Waranga Dreaming
Aboriginal spirituality could be expressed in many ways, including musically and through ceremony. Corroborees were one very obvious way of doing this. There are tantalising snippets of information about corroborees being held in the area that is now the south end of High Street, Rushworth, close to Moora Road. The
Waranga Dreaming
In one of our earlier stories, Harry Parris, an old Nagambie resident writing in the 1950s had surmised that the Ngurai-illum Wurrung people wintered at Reedy Lake. He proposed that with the onset of spring, they would be on the move, heading through the ancient red gum forest that existed
Waranga Dreaming
The incidents described in recent stories in this series were not isolated: they happened all around Australia. Although they are part of Australian history, they were not something that was ever taught in schools, until perhaps recently. No serious study of incidents involving the violent deaths of Aboriginal people in
Waranga Dreaming
In 1839, more violent incidents occurred along the Campaspe River, this time in the country of the Ngurai-illum Wurrung people. The squatter Charles Hutton, a former officer in the British army in India, had a run on Wild Duck Creek, south of present-day Heathcote. In dry conditions, he was looking
Waranga Dreaming
In June 1838, a group of Aboriginal people killed two shepherds and took some sheep from a station to the south, moving them north to a bend on the river, where they secured them with a brush fence. A group of around eight European men on horses followed the clearly
Waranga Dreaming
We tend to have a romantic vision of hard-working European colonists coming in to the “unpopulated” arable parts of Australia to establish productive rural properties. At the time there was genuine belief in the concept of “terra nullius” or “nobody’s land”. That is, the land was deemed to be