Wangal

The Wangal people (a.k.a. Wanegal or Won-gal,[1]) were a clan of the Eora Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of the current Municipality of Strathfield and surrounding areas of Sydney, New South Wales.[2]

Wangal tribesman, warrior, and diplomat, Bennelong, first captured in November 1789 at the behest of New South Wales Governor Arthur Phillip

History

Archaeological evidence of human occupation alongside the Parramatta River has been dated back 20,000 years,[3] and is likely to date back much further (people have been dated as being present elsewhere in Australia more than 60,000 years ago - see Australian Aboriginal Prehistoric Sites).

Sydney's geomorphology 20,000 years ago was very different from what it is today. In the middle of the last ice age, the Sydney coast was approximately 15 km to the east and what is now Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) was freshwater creeks and rivers. Wangal predecessors would have been living in the now-submerged coastal area.[3]

As sea levels rose to their present levels, peoples living on the coast would have been forced inland.[3] By 1788, the Wangal people were well established there as a fishing people.[4]

The Wangal people were among the first to encounter British settlers in 1788. While the British governor Arthur Phillip sought to establish good relationships with the local people and even befriended Bennelong, a prominent Wangal person, the differences between the groups led to tensions with both sides killing and injuring members of the other.[5]

In April 1789, just over a year after the establishment of the British settlement, smallpox broke out. There is speculation as to whether the disease was released deliberately or not but in any case the result was catastrophic.[5]

Country
Wangal people's country, Wanne, extends along the south side of Sydney Harbour, from Darling Harbour to Rose Hill

The name these people gave to their country was documented by NSW Governor Arthur Phillip in 1790 as Wann and by his successor John Hunter as Wanne.[1] Their country has been described as extending:[1]

...along the south side of the harbour from Long Cove (Darling Harbour) to Rose Hill, which the local inhabitants called Parramatta.

Language

The Wangal people were part of the Eora (a.k.a. Dharawal, Darug, Dharuk) language speaking group, who contributed to contemporary Australian English words like dingo, woomera, wallaby, wombat, and waratah.[6]

The Wangal people and their Eora neighbours, the Cadigal people, were heavily impacted by early British settlement, many dying from smallpox or being pushed from their lands by the early settlers, and ceasing to be acknowledged and known as a viable, functioning social group within twenty years or so of 1788.[7]

The Eora / Dharawal / Darug language has since been reconstructed from the many notes made of it by the original colonists, although there has been no known oral language tradition continuing over the last one hundred years.[6]

See also

Notes

    Citations
    1. Australian Museum 2002.
    2. Strathfield Council.
    3. Marrickville: Ice Age.
    4. Marrickville: Bush Tucker.
    5. Marrickville: Smallpox.
    6. Thieberger & McGregor 1994.
    7. Turbet 1989.

    Sources
    • "Aboriginal History". Strathfield Council. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2008.
    • "Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney". Australian Museum. 2002. Archived from the original on 27 September 2005. Retrieved 21 March 2008.
    • "Cadigal Wangal: Bush Tucker". Marrickville Council. Archived from the original on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2007.
    • "Cadigal Wangal: Smallpox Epidemic". Marrickville Council. Archived from the original on 2 September 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2007.
    • "Cadigal Wangal: The Ice Age". Marrickville Council. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2007.
    • Thieberger, N.; McGregor, W. (1994). "Sydney language". Macquarie Aboriginal words: Maquarie Aboriginal words: a dictionary of words from Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Sydney: Macquarie Library. ISBN 978-0949757791.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Turbet, Peter (1989). The Aborigines of the Sydney District Before 1788. Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press. ISBN 978-0864172228.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

    Further reading
    • Beckett, Jeremy; Donaldson, Tamsin with Steadman; Meredith, Steve (2003). Yapapunakirri: Let's Track Back: The Aboriginal World Around Mount Grenfell. Sydney: Office of the Registrar. ISBN 978-0958192019. OCLC 223420052.
    • Guider, Michael (1997). Aboriginal History of Burwood Municipality. Lithgow: Michael Guider.
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