Cadigal


The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of indigenous Australians whose traditional lands are located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Cadigal originally inhabited the area that they called "Cadi" that lies south of Port Jackson covering today's Sydney central business district and stretches from South Head to with part of the southern boundary lying on the Cooks River.
The Cadigal were coastal people who were dependent on the harbour for providing most of their food. They were one of seven clans living in coastal Sydney who spoke a common language and have become known as the Eora people. "Eora" simply means "people" or "of this place" in their language. The Cadigal language was likely a dialect of the Dharug language.

European history

Soon after his arrival at Port Jackson, Governor Arthur Phillip estimated the indigenous population of the Sydney district at around 1,500 people, although other estimates range from as low as 200 to as high as 4,000. The Cadigal clan was estimated to have 50-80 people.
The occupation of the Sydney area by the British and the subsequent introduction of European diseases including smallpox decimated the Eora people and their neighbours. The disastrous 1789 smallpox epidemic was estimated to have killed about 53% of Sydney's indigenous population, and it was claimed that only three Cadigal people were left alive sometime in 1791, although archaeological evidence suggests that some Cadigal people may have escaped to the Concord area and settled there.
Part of the Cadigal territory is in the Inner West local government area of Sydney. In 1994 the Marrickville Aboriginal Consultative Committee was established and the Cadigal Wangal peoples website.
Gadigal elder Allen Madden estimates that several hundred Eora people, including at least a hundred Gadigal people in his own family, live in Sydney today.

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