WOMINJEKA TAUNGURUNG BIIK

Welcome to Country

Location: Mansfield Entrance

Images: Taungurung logo, Flag, image of yam daisy and bogong moth

Content:

We welcome you to Taungurung Country and invite you to celebrate the history and culture of the Taungurung Nation – the first people of the rivers and mountains.

We, the Taungurung People, as the Traditional Owners of this Country, have a continuing connection to the land, waters, and all living things herein. Our Ancestors had an intimate knowledge of the environment and migrated through the landscape determined by seasonal variations in weather and availability of food, Country management needs, as well as for cultural and ceremonial purposes.

The Taungurung clan called Yawang-yilam-bulok (Stone dwelling people) inhabited the area along the Goulburn River as far as Alexandra, through to the Howqua, Delatite and Jamieson rivers and the mountains like Mt Stirling and Mt Buller that shed their waters into those rivers. On the mountains there were small marsupials, alpine plants such as yam daisies (mirnong) and the plentiful Bogong moths were important food sources.

The late Aunty Judy Monk-Slattery advised that “Ceremonies would take place when Bogong moths came in, there would be a lot of negotiations and corroboree and business taking place between the clans during those times of plentiful food.  As summer ended, fire was used in a calculated way, ‘to regenerate tucker’. It was also a tool used to ensure that when they came through in the next season, there was plentiful food. In the early years of white settlement, the Delatite was called the Devil’s River, a name given by the early settlers, because they’d hear the Yawang-yillam-baluk having a corroboree and they’d think it was the Devil down there.”

Today, our People are recovering a sense of shared identity, common purpose and cultural vitality. We have embarked upon an intentional journey to reclaim our culture, assert our history, revitalise our language and embrace our rightful involvement as custodians of the Taungurung lands.

Connect with us to learn more: www.taungurung.com.au