Dyirbal people

The Dyirbal , also called Jirrbal, are an Indigenous Australian people living in Queensland. The lived on the upper Murray river of the Atherton Tableland.

Language

Dyirbal belongs to the Dyirbalic branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family. It is one of several dialects, for Giramay, Mamu, Dyiru, Gulay, and Ngajan.^[1][2]

History

The first contact with whites goes back to 1848, at which time it has been estimated that each dialect group in the generic Djirbal tribal societies had around 500 members. Dixon estimates the total numbers at 5,000, which, within 5 decades of white settlement, indiscriminate shootings and disease, had the impact of leading to their decimation to something like 10% of their original strength by the end of the 19th century.^[2][3][4] They, with the related Girramaygans, eventually gathered together south of Tully in the Upper Murray, tolerated by settlers, one of whom is reported to have said in the 1920s that: 'There are no bad Aborigines left here: they've all been shot'.^[1]

Ecology

They lived in the tropical rainforest much of which, apart from the coastal areas, was then cleared in order to facilitate banana plantations.^[5] A myth still current appears to explain the difference between the highland flora and that of the coastal zone: The tall upcountry forest members, trees like bull oak, water gum and black walnut had the idea of advancing eastwards to set down roots along the coast, but their endeavour was obstructed by the mangroves, which fashioned boomerangs from their roots and fought the arborial invaders off so that the lowlands are clear of such species.^[5]

Encounter with Captain Cook

Dyirbal collective memory, retaining an incident conserved from the Girramaygan tribe, for 200 years a clear memory of the day Captain Cook, sailing along the coastal region of Cassowary, set foot on the shore of their territory at Cardwell. The anecdote was collected by the specialist in Australian Aboriginal languages, Robert M. W. Dixon, from his informant Chloe Grant in 1963-4. Chloe Grant was born of an Irish father and a Girramaygan mother in 1903, and passed away in 1974.^[6] According to her account, Cook, whom the natives took to be a spirit because of his white skin, beached his boat (warrjan, literally a log vessel or raft). The encounter consisted of four distinct moments: at first, Cook and members of his crew took out pipes, lit them, and offered tobacco to the tribe. The sight left them perplexed as they mulled the meaning of the burning object and smoke in the Europeans' mouths. Then Cook boiled a billy of tea and offered them a drink, which they rebuffed as just dirty water. At this point, Cook laid out a Johnny-cake on the coals of the fire he had lit, flipped it over and back till it was cooked, broke off pieces and offered to share eit with his hosts. The food thus prepared resembled their native walnut cakes (wila), but smelt stale and was likewise rejected. At this point, Cook them some boiled meat, beef, and, tasting it, they found it edible.

Finally Cook readied his boat for departure, and the tribe was disconcerted: for them, the encounter was one with their ancestors from the other-world, who might offer them counsel. They pleaded with him to stay over: 'Father, father, come here, come back to us (Nguma, nguma, gawu bani, banaga), to no avail.^[7]

Notes and references

Notes

1. Dixon 2015, p. 315.
2. Wohlgemuth 2001.
3. Dixon 1972, p. 34.
4. Dixon 1991, p. 186.
5. Dixon 2011, p. 3.
6. Dixon 2015, p. 317.
7. Dixon 2011, pp. 1-3.

References

• Dixon, R. M. W. (1972). The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-08510-6.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1991). "A changing language situation: The decline of Dyirbal, 1963-1989". 20 (2). Language in Society: 183–200. ISBN 978-0-521-08510-6.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2011). Searching for Aboriginal Languages: Memoirs of a Field Worker. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02504-1.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2015). Edible Gender, Mother-in-Law Style, and Other Grammatical Wonders: Studies in Dyirbal, Yidiñ, and Warrgamay. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-191-00742-2.
• Harrison, Rodney; Williamson, Christine (2004). "'Too Many Captain Cooks?': An archaeology of Aboriginal Australia after 1788". In Harrison, Rodney; Williamson, Christine. After Captain Cook: The Archaeology of the Recent Indigenous Past in Australia. Rowman Altamira. pp. 1–13. ISBN 978-0-759-10657-4.
• Wohlgemuth, Jan (2001). "Dyirbal in assimilation — social surroundings and grammatical change of present-day Dyirbal Or: What did actually become of the language DIXON described in 1968?". www.linguist.de.