Jagera people

Yaggera is classified as belonging to the Durubalic subgroup of the Pama–Nyungan languages, but is also treated as the general name for the languages of the Brisbane area of which Chepara-Yugarapul people have historically been considered a dialect.[2] The Australian English word 'yakka' (loosely meaning 'work', as in 'hard yakka') came from the Jagera language (yaga, 'strenuous work').[3]

The Yaggera language was identified in Petrie on page 319 of his "Reminiscences" recorded by his daughter Constance, by the traditional language identifier, the word for "no". Their association with central Brisbane is established by the word for Brisbane, being recorded by Petrie as "Mianjin".[4] Mianjin is the spike of land from North Quay to Breakfast Creek, and was also known, as was the tribe there, as Miguntyun.[5]

Ludwig Leichhardt's Diaries 1842-1843 recorded Miguntyun as "Megandsin" as the name for the land holding area from Brisbane CBD to Breakfast Creek, and the people who spoke the Yuggara Yugarabul language.[6]

This group is one of the traditional custodians of the land over which much of Brisbane is built.[7]

According to Watson, the Jagera-related peoples in the Chepara tribe inhabited the territories from Moreton Bay to Toowoomba to the west, nearly to Nanango in the north west, including Brisbane and Ipswich.[8] It also encompasses Jimna and its surrounding forests, where their traditional lands adjoined those of the Wakka Wakka and the Gubbi Gubbi (also Kabi Kabi or Gabi Gabi). Subgroups of the Chepara have identified with distinct areas including those concentrated in the Fassifern and Lockyer Creek areas. The Yugambeh and the Bundjalung people bordered them on the south.[9]

An Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) was signed over the site of the historic 1843 Battle of One Tree Hill, now known as Table Top Mountain, when the warrior Multuggerah and a group of men ambushed and won a battle with settlers in the area. The ILUA was signed between Toowoomba City Council and a body representing the "Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul people" as the traditional owners of the area, in 2008.[10][11]

On 25 July 2017, the full bench of the Federal Court decided on appeals of the Turrbal People and the Yugara People, rejecting both appeals and confirming the 2015 decision that native title does not exist in the greater Brisbane area.[12][13][14][15]

Map of traditional lands of Aboriginal Australians around Brisbane.

• Meebatboogan, Mount Greville, Moogerah Peaks National Park.
• Cooyinnirra, Mount Mitchell, Main Range National Park.
• Booroongapah, Flinders Peak, Flinders Peak Group.
• Ginginbaar, Mount Blaine, Flinders Peak Group.

• Multuggerah, 19th-century warrior
• Uncle Desmond Sandy[16]
• Aunty Ruth James[16]
• Aunty Pearl Sandy[16]
• Uncle, Hon. Neville Bonner, former Australian senator, was a Jagera tribal elder.[17]
• Auntie Jeannie Bell, Australian linguist.[18]
• Auntie Faye Carr, 2017 National NAIDOC Awards Winner Female Elder of the Year[19][20][21]
• Latia Schefe, 2017 National NAIDOC Awards Winner Youth of the Year[19][22][21]
• Susan, originally Bunjoey, daughter of Moonpago.[23][24]