Dharug

This article is about the Aboriginal Australian people. For the language, see Dharug language. For the town whose name is derived from this name, see Dharruk, New South Wales.

Dharug people
aka Darug, Dharruk, Dharrook, Darrook, Dharung, Broken Bay tribe
Sydney Basin bioregion
Hierarchy
Language family	Pama–Nyungan
Language branch:	Yuin–Kuric
Language group:	Dharug
Group dialects:	Inland Dharug & Coastal Dharug
Area (approx. 6,000 sq. km)
Bioregion:	Cumberland Plain, Sydney basin
Location:	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates:	33°35′S 150°35′E
Mountains:	Blue Mountains
Rivers:	Cooks, Georges, Hawkesbury, Lane Cove, Nepean, Parramatta
Notable individuals
Pemulwuy
Anthony Fernando

The Dharug or Darug people, are an Aboriginal Australian people, who share strong ties of kinship and, in pre-colonial times, lived as skilled hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout all of modern-day Sydney. The descendants of the Dharug people continue to revitalise their traditional link to the areas they have had a continuing and ongoing connection to in Sydney. Their lands stand as probably the only area in Australia where the traditional custodians have been excluded from the ongoing management of the land and cultural connections of their place.

The Dharug were the indigenous Australians who first met the full force of the European invasion and as such were ruthlessly attacked and vilified by many, but not all, of the British colonists. They were not entirely eradicated.

Most of the Dharug were either wiped out by the introduction of exotic diseases, such as smallpox, murdered in massacres or forced into integrated marriage with early colonists, where males transported primarily as convicts vastly outnumbered the females transported to Australia. That is primarily why descendants of the Dharug in Australia are fair skinned people who do not adhere to to racist narrative of the dark skinned people being the only genuine aboriginal people in the Sydney region. The greater likelihood is that any dark skinned people claiming to be connected with the Sydney region, are from traditional country well outside of the Sydney area. (See “Eora”).

The Dharug are bounded by the Awabakal to the north of Broken Bay, the Darkinjung to the northwest, the Wiradjuri to the west on the western fringe of the Blue Mountains, the Gandangara to the southwest in the Southern Highlands, and the Tharawal to the southeast in the Illawarra area.

Dharug language

Main article: Dharug language

The Dharug language, now in a period of revitalisation, is generally considered one of two dialects, inland and coastal, constituting a single language. As with many native languages in Australia, the language was forbidden to be spoken but continuous guarded by a few speakers. Many Dharug children were often taught a few words to describe body parts and items of food. Children would hear the word “bingie” to describe their stomach around mealtime.

Various records of the language were recorded by Europeans but these records are often confusing or misheard, giving rise to wrong thinking or clear mistakes in interpretation. The word “yura” - meaning people in Dharug has been misrecorded as eora. This term has been taken up by dark skinned people who have moved to the Sydney region to represent themselves as the only true aboriginal people in the Sydney area, in keeping with a racist narrative consistent with the system of land council administration developed by the New South Wales Parliament.

The word myall, a pejorative word in Australian dialect denoting any Aboriginal person who kept up a traditional way of life, originally came from the Dharug language term mayal, which denoted any person hailing from another tribe.

Country

Norman Tindale reckoned Dharug lands as encompassing 2,300 square miles (6,000 km²), taking in the mouth of the Hawkesbury River, and running inland as far as Mount Victoria. It took in the areas around Campbelltown, Liverpool, Camden, Penrith and Windsor.

Social organisation

Traditionally, there was a cultural divide between the inland Dharug and the coastal Dharug, katungal or "sea people". The latter built canoes, and their diet was primarily seafood, including fish and shellfish from Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay and their associated rivers. The inland Dharug were paiendra or tool people. They hunted kangaroos, emus and other land animals, and used stone axes more extensively.

Clans

The Dharug nation was divided up into a number of woodland clans who each tended to live in a certain geographic area. This area would also house descendant clans. Each clan typically included 50 to 100 people. According to James Kohen, the clans numbered 15, but more accurate records highlight 29 clans:

• (1) Bediagal
• (2) Bidjigal
• (3) Boolbainora
• (4) Buruberongal
• (5) Burramattagal
• (6) Cabrogal
• (7) Cannemegal
• (8) Cattai
• (9) Gommerigal
• (10) Kurrajong
• (11) Mulgoa
• (12) Murringong
• (13) Tugagal
• (14) Wandeandegal
• (15) Warrawarry
• (16) Kurrajong
• (17) Carigal
• (18) Cannalgal
• (19) Borogegal
• (20) Kayimai
• (21) Terramerragal
• (22) Cammeraigal
• (23) Gorualgal
• (24) Birrabirragal
• (25) Cadigal (Gadigal)
• (26) Wallumattagal
• (27) Wangal
• (28) Muruoradial
• (29) Kameygal

History of contact

By the late 1790s, the Hawkesbury River area was claimed by more than 400 British settlers. The farms made by the settlers were barriers to the river and to the food supply of the Dharug people, who were rightly upset by this invasion. The Dharug who crossed the farms to pick up corn were killed by the settlers, so they organized raids to burn the crops. The conflict scaled and in 1795 the government provided troops to protect the farms. The bodies of any Dharug killed were to be put in iron gibbets and hung from trees as a warning. In 1801, Governor King ordered troops to patrol farms on the Georges River and shoot any Dharug on sight. The guerrilla was so effective that in 1816 Governor Macquarie forbade Aboriginals to carry any weapons within two kilometres of a house or a town or to congregate in groups bigger than six. He also authorised settlers to establish vigilante groups and the creation of three new military outposts.

A group led by Pemulwuy made a daring raid on Parramatta, where he was severely wounded and fled. His band was accused of killing four settlers and falsely accused of raping women. The government issued orders for his capture, dead or alive. He was killed by two settlers in 1802, and his head was severed, pickled and dispatched by King to Sir Joseph Banks. To date Pemulwuy's head has not been returned and he has not had a proper burial. It is 'lost' in the British Museum in London. Pemulwuy's son, Tedbury, raided farms until 1810. Another famous raider was Mosquito. He led a group for two decades, until he was captured and hanged in Van Diemen's land in 1823.

Smallpox, introduced in 1789 by the British, wiped out up to 90% of the population in some areas. They lived in the natural caves and overhangs in the sandstone of the Hawksbury region, although some did choose to make huts out of bark, sticks and branches.

Recent controversy

A strong centre of cultural attachment for the Dharug people has been the "Blacks Town" (at the modern suburb of Colebee) in the Blacktown local government area. However, in September 2012 the City of Blacktown controlled at the time by a right wing block, decided to cease recognising the Dharug people as the traditional owners of the area. The council also passed a motion, opposed by some councillors, to begin a process to consider changing the name "Blacktown". An online petition was launched calling for the recognition of the Dharug people in 2012.

The council’s actions were predicated on a desire to rewrite the narrative of the area as the site of Australia’s first concentration camp. The camp, named by Dharug protectors as “Blacks Town” was established as a monitored protected zone by concerned colonists and intended for the remaining Dahrug to live in relative safety. This was a response to the administering authority failing to do anything about the situation where nighttime raids by heavily armed settlers and military on sleeping Dharug families were conducted with impugnity. The raids were intended to exterminate those Dharug who had not succumbed to disease and dispossession of their traditional food sources or to steal women and children to meet their needs.

In 2020, the Hills Shire Council, whose local government area covers Dharug land, caused controversy by rejecting requests to include an Acknowledgement of Country at its meetings. The Hills Shire Council is the only Sydney local council that does not include an Acknowledgement of Country at its meetings.

Notable Dharug people

• Jamal Idris
• Anthony Fernando, early twentieth century activist
• Daniel Moowattin, third Australian Aboriginal person to visit England
• Marion Leane Smith, only Australian Aboriginal woman known to have served in the First World War
• Yarramundi, Boorooberongal Dharug clansman, whose daughter Maria Lock and son Colebee have a significant role in early assimilation history
• Maria Lock, Boorooberongal Dharug landowner in colonial times and the first woman to have a registered marriage with an invading colonist
• Quincy Dodd, Australian rugby league player

Alternative names

• Broken Bay tribe
• Dharruk, Dharrook, Dhar'rook, Darrook, Dharug, Darug

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 193

See also

• Wangal

Sources

• Broome, Richard (2019). Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1760528218.
• Diaz, Jess (1 November 2012). "A Liberal controlled City Council of Blacktown". Kalatas Australia.
• Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
• Flynn, Michael (August 1997). "Holroyd history and the Silent Boundary Project" (PDF). Holroyd City Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
• Hughes, Joan (1989). Australian words and their origins. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-53087-2.
• Mathews, R. H. (1897). "Burbung of the Darkinung tribes" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 10: 1–12.
• Mathews, R. H. (January 1898). "Initiation ceremonies of Australian tribes: Appendix Nguttan initiation ceremony". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 37 (157): 54–73. JSTOR 983694.
• Mathews, R. H. (1901). "Dharruk language and vocabulary". Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 35: 155–160 – via BHL.
• Mathews, R. H.; Everitt, Mary Martha (1900). "Organisation, language and initiation ceremonies of the aborigines of the south-east coast of New South Wales". Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 34: 262–281. doi:10.5962/p.359348 – via BHL.
• Mossfield, Tony (2000). "Yooroang Gorang –Strong Place". In Collins, Jock; Poynting, Scott (eds.). The Other Sydney: Communities, Identities and Inequalities in Western Sydney. Common Ground. pp. 151–180. ISBN 978-1-863-35017-4.
• Petersen, Eskild; Chen, Lin Hwei; Schlagenhauf-Lawlor, Patricia (2017). Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-08574-4.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
• Troy, Jakelin (1992). "The Sydney Language Notebooks and responses to language contact in early colonial NSW" (PDF). Australian Journal of Linguistics. 12 (1): 145–170. doi:10.1080/07268609208599474.
• Tuckerman, J. (1887). "The Hawkesbury River and Broken Bay" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 358–359 – via Internet Archive.
• Wilson, Bill; O'Brien, Justin (2003). ""To infuse an universal terror": a reappraisal of the Coniston killings" (PDF). Aboriginal History. 17: 59–78.
• Xiao, Alison (24 June 2020). "Hills Shire Council Acknowledgement of Country motion defeated again". ABC News. Retrieved 24 June 2020.

External links

• Bibliography of Dharug people and language resources Archived 28 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• Dharug clan names – website Our Black and White family. Lists different clan names from above, and says "Our language group is EORA". (Lists Wategora, among others.)