Kuungkari

The Kuungkari are an indigenous Australian people of Queensland. They are to be distinguished from the Kunggari.[1]

Name

According to an early Migrant, J. Heagney, the word kuungkari (koongerri) meant "dry."[2]

Country

The traditional tribal lands of the Kunggari occupied 14,000 square miles (36,000 km2) with extensive stretches of open grasslands. They lived around the eastern bank of the Thomson[2] and also on Cooper (Barcoo) rivers. Their western extensions ran to Jundah. The northern boundary lay at Westland and in the vicinity of Longreach. Towards the east, they took in Avington, Blackall, and Terrick Terrick. Their southern fronter ran from the western flank of the Grey Range through to Cheviot Range, Powell Creek, and Welford.[3]

Social organization

The Kuungkari were divided into at least five hordes.

  • Torraburri
  • Yankibura
  • Mokaburra[3]

Initiation

They were one of the tribes that did not adopt the rite of circumcision into their initiatory practices.[3]

History of contact

White settlement in this area began around 1874-1878. It was estimated that at the time of first contact, the population of this area, including not only the Kuungkari, but two other tribes (the Bidia), was around 1,200. By 1883, women outnumbered the men, and an observer explained the reason:

"The women at present (1883) considerably outnumber the men, many of the latter having been shot down by the Whites when they first established themselves in the district... Since the advent of the Whites, few children are reared—the rifle, syphilis, and debauchery having, as usual, commenced the work of extermination."[4]

Alternative names
  • Koonkerri
  • Kunggari
  • Kungeri, Koongerri
  • Yangeeberra
  • Tarawalla. (eastern dialect name).[3]

Notes

    Citations
    1. L38 Kungkari at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
    2. Heagney 1886, p. 374.
    3. Tindale 1974, p. 179.
    4. Heagney 1886, pp. 375–376.

    Sources
    • Ahern, John (1887). "The Barcoo River, 40 miles West of Blackall". 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 (PDF). Volume 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 72–75.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Cameron, A. L. P. (1904). "On two Queensland tribes". Science of Man. Sydney. 7 (2): 27–29.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Dudley, Joseph I.; Williams, T. S. (1887). "Blackall-Barcoo River". 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 (PDF). Volume 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 76–77.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Heagney, J. (1886). "The Junction of the Thomson and Barcoo rivers, also the Whitula Creek.". 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 (PDF). Volume 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 374–379.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Howitt, Alfred William (1904). The native tribes of south-east Australia (PDF). Macmillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Hyde, T. H. (1887). "Blackall-Barcoo River". 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 (PDF). Volume 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 78–81.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Kelly, C. Tennant (1935). "Tribes on Cherbourg Settlement, Queensland". Oceania. 5 (4): 461–473. JSTOR 40327813.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Mathews, R. H. (1898). "Divisions of Queensland aborigines". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia. 37: 327–336.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
    • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Kunggari (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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