About Bunjil the
Eagle
When Europeans first settled the Port Phillip region it was already
occupied by five Aboriginal language groups. These groups spoke a
related language and were part of the KULIN (Koolin) nation of peoples.
The people are:
Each of these groups consisted of up to six or more land-owning units
called clans that spoke a related language and were connected
through cultural and mutual interests, totems, trading initiatives
and marriage ties.
Traditionally, the Kulin people lived as hunters and gatherers for
many generations. Seasonal changes in the weather and availability
of foods would determine where campsites were located.
Adpated from The
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage of Melbourne's Western Region (Pamphlet)
Victorian Archaeological Survey (VAS), Department of Conservation
and Environment.
Note that the language boundaries are not definitive
and that the spelling of the language groups differs from the above-named
terms. In Aboriginal histories (which until more recent decades were
oral histories) the different spelling for language groups is not
uncommon, though certainly the speech sounds are quite similar.
Further Accounts/Explanations of the Kulin Nation
Mr Bryon Powel
(click here)
Bryon Powel is a former Cultural Heritage Officer for the Kulin Nation
Cultural Heritage Organisation. In May 2000 Brian was a keynote speaker
at a Yarra Deanery Reconciliation Event, held at the Veneto Club Bulleen.
The account herein (extracts from his address) provides an explanation
of the Kulin Nation and of ‘clans' and ‘tribes'.
Gary Presland
(click here)
Gary Presland is a respected historian whose works focus on Indigenous
people of south eastern Australia. His 1994 work, Aboriginal Melbourne
was superseded in 1995 by the reprinted text The Land of the Kulin
(both books were published by Penguin). The text
herein is drawn from Aboriginal Melbourne.
