Original People, Traditional Lands

Two Aboriginal Clans

Calga extends across a large area and it is not clear exactly where mobs’ boundaries were. It is locally understood that the original people of this area were of two mobs, the Darkinjung (pronounced “Darkin-yoong”) and the Guringai (or Wanangine) people.

There is controversy about the name of the Wanangine/Guringai mob, as there is another mob who refers to themselves as Guringai.

The debate about mobs’ original names is complicated because Europeans, on arriving in Australia, expected each mob must have a name, in the way that European nations do. However, mobs’ did not necessarily refer to themselves by a name. This may be the explanation for there being more than one mob today called “Guringai”.

One can imagine a scenario where a missionary asked local mob what nation they were from. Not getting a satisfactory answer and assuming this was due to the language barrier, he (and it would have been a “he”) would have kept asking the same question in different ways. The mob, trying to answer him and, possibly exasperated that he kept asking them the same question even though they had told him they didn’t have a name for their nation, might have said “we are just men and women”.  The Aboriginal words for “men-and-women” are pronounced Guring-Gai.

However, we just don’t know!

What we do know is that representatives of local mob have told us that they are happy to be referred to as “Wanangine”.

Wanangine People

The culture of the Wanangine people is very much alive today. The traditional Lands of the Wanangine extend from Lane Cove in the south, to Lake Macquarie in the north.

The Wanangine nation today is represented by the Guringai Tribal Link Aboriginal Corporation, established in 2003. The purpose of Guringai Tribal Link is to reunite the traditional clans of the Wanangine people and to teach contemporary Wanangine culture.

Bungaree was the Wanangine’s last traditional elder. Bungaree was also the first indigenous Australian to sail around the Australian continent, first with Mathew Flinders and then with Philip Parker King.

Tracey Howie, who has been running Guringai Tribal Link since 2004, is a direct descendant of Bungaree.

Darkin-yoong People

The Darkin-yoong people are an inland group whose territory extended from the Hawkesbury River in the south, northwards about 60km to Wollombi and the Hunter River.

Darkin-yoong Food

Despite being inland people, the Darkin-yoong ate a lot of seafood. Archaeological excavations of ancient Darkin-yoong midden sites show that snapper, bream, leather jacket, rock cod and groper were all popular. In summer when these fish were plentiful, the Darkin-yoong people would travel down to the Hawkesbury River and to the sea where women used lines and men used spears to catch the fish. In winter, the Darkin-yoong people relied more on the land for food. Food animals included potoroo, emu, kangaroo, quoll, echidna, flying fox, wallaby and wallaroo. Wombats and koalas were not eaten much, if at all. Plants and berries were also an important part of their diet, including burrawang palm seeds, yams and the roots of some ferns.

Darkin-yoong Weapons and Tools

The Darkin-yoong people used spears, spear throwers (woomera), clubs (waddy), wooden shields, boomerangs, stone hatchets and fishing spears (mootims. Women carried items in woven bags and wooden vessels (coolamon). The string or net bags were made from a knotted and braided fibrous cord from tree bark and grasses and could be used for carrying food and fishing gear. These bags were often slung from the forehead and hung down the back. Canoes were made from a sheet of bark, skewered at each end and plugged with xanthoroea gum.

Darkin-yoong Dwellings

Darkin-yoong dwellings would be clustered together, usually in groups of eight or nine. These were temporary shelters. One way to construct them was from flattened sheets of bark or gathered branches and foliage, supported on timber frames bound by fibrous rope made from tree bark. The Darkin-yoong also used rock shelters, usually facing north-east. In this part of the world, north-east facing dwellings would best capture warmth and light from the sun, and offer protection from prevailing winds.

Darkin-yoong Dress

Traditional clothing was frequently made from possum skin and hair. Traditional garments included a body cloth made from a long cord of possum hair wound many times around the waist from which three or four strips of possum skin hung down to around mid-thigh, possum fur blankets, and possum skin cloaks.

Aboriginal Artifact Sites

Art plays a very important role in passing on teaching stories in tribal Lore. The role of art is not explained by the western concept of art for aesthetic pleasure. Aboriginal art was and is central to making sense of the world, and teaching responsibilities. The Hawkesbury engraving sites, including those found at Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary, are among the richest and most varied in the world. The extensive sandstone platforms in the area provided ideal surfaces for rock engravings (the archaeologists call these “petroglyphs”). There are more than 4,000 engravings, stencils and paintings recorded in this area. It is ignorant to see these only as archaeological evidence of ancient civilisations. Aboriginal culture is just as relevant to contemporary society as it has always been, and these sites are teaching and holy places for Aboriginal people today.

Neighbouring Clans

Territory and Trade

Relationships between communities was normal and complex with people marrying into other communities. Trade was also common and necessary e.g. communities with traditional lands along the coast might exchange resources with inland people, such as tools made from coastal plants for clothing made from inland animal fur. There were rules for how people would approach and move through other people’s Place, but this movement was structured and respectful. Rules for interaction were handed down e.g. in Songlines prescribing how and when and why people should interact, and what protocols they must observe when reaching another people’s Place.

Wanangine and Darkin-yoong People

The Darkin-yoong and Wanangine people’s traditional lands were interleaved, and they came together to access resources. This facilitated a close, cooperative relationship between the two clans and reciprocal sharing of land and resources e.g. the Wanangine people would move inland to hunt kangaroos and emus during winter, and the Darkin-yoong people would move down to the coast to harvest seafood in summer.

Thurrawal People

The Thurrawal and Wanangine people’s traditional lands met on the Sydney peninsula.

Dharug People

The Dharug people’s country extended from south of the Hawkesbury River, inland to the Blue Mountains. The Hawkesbury was a clear territorial boundary so it is generally accepted that Dharug (south of the river) and Darkin-yoong (north of the rover) Country did not overlap. However, the Dharug people would have had close contact with the Wanangine people at the southern extent of the Wanangine people’s traditional lands.

Awabakul People

The Awabakul people’s traditional lands connected with the Wanangine and Darkin-yoong traditional lands in the Newcastle area around Lake Macquarie.