Yugambeh people


The Yugambeh are a group of Aboriginal Australian clans whose ancestors all spoke one or more dialects of the Yugambeh language. They are also alternatively known as the Chepara or the Mibin Their traditional lands are located in what is now south-east Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, situated in the Logan City, Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, and Tweed City regions of Australia. Archaeological evidence indicates Aboriginal people have occupied the area for tens of thousands of years. By the time European colonisation began, the Yugambeh had a complex network of groups, and kinship.
The Yugambeh Mibin are composed of nine clans; the Bullongin, Kombumerri, Cudgenburra, Moorungburra, Tulgigin, Gugingin, Migunberri, Mununjali, and Wanggeriburra centered along the Logan, Albert, Coomera, Nerang, and Tweed rivers. Their territory was subdivided among the clans with each occupying a designated portion, each group having certain rights and responsibilities in relation to their areas.
Europeans arrived within their proximity in the 1820s with the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony, whose 50 mile exclusion zone included their lands. Their arrival displaced Yugambeh groups from traditional food sources as settlers acquired land for agricultural purposes, and conflict leading to multiple deaths of Yugambeh and Europeans soon followed throughout the 1850/60s By the close of the 19th century, they were being forced onto missions and reserves with many fighting hard to stay on the lands of their mothers and fathers. Other Yugambeh people found refuge in the mountains or gained employment among the Europeans. The last of the missions/reserves in the area closed in 1948 and 1951, though people continued to occupy them. Throughout the 70s-90s, the Yugambeh founded organisations and businesses in culture/language, housing and community care, wildlife and land preservation, and tourism.
It is estimated there were between 1,500 and 2,000 Aboriginal people in the watersheds of the Logan, Albert, Coomera and Nerang before the 1850s. The 2016 Australian census records 12,315 Aboriginal people in the Logan, Gold Coast, Beaudesert, and Tweed local government areas. A portion of these are non-Yugambeh Aboriginal peoples who have moved into the area for work, or as a result of forced removals.

Name and etymology

Their ethnonym derives from the Yugambeh word for "no", namely yugam/yugam, reflecting a widespread practice in Aboriginal languages to identify a tribe by the word they used for a negative, this is typical of the area, as Kabi, Wakka, Jandai, Guwar all mean "no" as well. Yugambeh refers to people descended from speakers of a range of dialects spoken in the Albert and Logan River basins of South Queensland, stretching over the area from the Gold Coast west to Beaudesert, while also including the coastal area just over the border into New South Wales along the coast down to the Tweed Valley. Tindale listed a number of alternative names and spellings for the Jukambe including: Yugambir, Yugumbir, Yoocumbah, Yoocum, Jukam, Yukum, Yögum, Yuggum, Jugambeir, Chepara, Tjapera, Tjipara, Chipara. The Yugambeh use the word Miban/Mibanj /Mibin meaning wedge-tailed eagle to denote an indigenous person of the group, and is the preferred endonym for the people; Gurgun Mibinyah being used to describe their dialects; Yugambeh, Nganduwal, and Ngarangwal.

Bundjalung misnomer

Yugambeh descendants state that the name Bundjalung is a misnomer. The Aboriginal dialects spoken from Beenleigh/Beaudesert south to the Clarence River are said by linguists to be a single language or linguistic group. In traditional culture, there was no general name for this "language", this being noted as early as 1892. Smythe, writing in the 1940s called the entire linguistic group "Bandjalang" for convenience, noting the confusion around the existence of a single name:
Among the people themselves there is a good deal of confusion. Some say the tribal name should be "Beigal", others that there never was any collective name, while others again state that "Bandjalang", besides being the specific name of one of the local groups, was also in use as a covering term for alI. For convenience I am doing the same.
Each speech community originally had their own distinctive names for their dialects, and adopted the term "Bundjalung" in the period after European arrival with Crowley noting:
Originally, Bandjalang was only the name of the dialect spoken on the South Arm of the Richmond River, but with the development of a sense of tribal and Iinguistic unity as the European invasion caused local groups to amalgamate,- this term eventually supplanted most local dialect names.
The Aboriginal people who lived in the area that became Queensland never used the name Bundjalung, and northern groups have maintained their dialect names. The Kombumerri Corporation for Aboriginal Culture, run by Yugambeh descendants, prefers to use Yugambeh. The northern dialects represent a distinct homogenous linguistic group, one of their distinctive features being a high percentage of Yagara language words; Anthony Jefferies, having noted the Yugambeh, as well as Gidhabal, seem to have more linguistic and cultural affinity with the Durubulic language speakers to their north than with their southern Bundjalung neighbours, and observed key differences between them:
The language varieties spoken on the Gold Coast across to the Logan River could more appropriately be termed the Mibin dialects, according to Jefferies, the difference of Mibiny and Baygal for the word for "Man/people" is due to socio-political developments and not simply dialect splits, with Bannister commenting:
'They differed from Bandjalang proper and Gidabal by their use of some basic words the most obvious being mibin, "man" and djalgan, "woman"; in contrast to Bandjalang and Gidabal where baigal, "man" and dubai, "woman". On the basis of the grammatical studies which have been made it appears that the Mibin dialects did differ in some degree from other Bandjalang groups both lexically and morphologically.'

Other misnomers

There are terms used for more than one group, like "Minyangbal", – those who say minyang "what", which is used to refer to the Yugambeh, Galibal, and Wiyabal people, while also being the self-name for the Minyungbal people at Byron Bay and on the Brunswick River. Discussion about the correct names for dialects is difficult because there are who groups stopped using names altogether. This was compounded by the fact that what one group may call itself may be different from what another group calls it, which may again be different from what a third group uses. Sharpe remarked:
For example, one group which said gala for "this" might call another group Galibal, because the others pronounced the word gali. But another group which said nyang for "what" might call the "Galibal" group Minyangbal, because the "Galibal" also said minyang for "what". The Gidhabal people at Woodenbong called the Beaudesert and Logan people the Yugambeh or Minyangbal, because the Gidhabal people said yagam for "no" and nyang for "what", while the Yugambeh people said yugam for "no" and minyang for "what".

Language

The Yugambeh language is a dialect cluster of the wider Bandjalangic branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family. Yugambeh was included in the Australian Standard Classification of Languages as Yugambeh in 2016. Results from the 2016 Australian Census indicate there are 18 speakers of Yugambeh.

Dialects

The Mibiny dialects are said by Jefferies to be the Yugam, Ngarangwal/Ngarahkwal, Nganduwal, and Minyungbal of Byron, which Tindale regarded as a distinct. Geynyan is also included by Dr. Margaret Sharpe. The Yugambeh Museum say their language is spoken in the Logan, Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, and Tweed areas. According to Crowley's linguistic analysis of the area, he identified one dialect spoken in the Logan and Albert areas, which he called Yugumbee. Another dialect was spoken along the Tweed River, and included the Tweed Heads, Point Danger, Cudgen, and Murwiilumbah areas, he called this dialect Nganduwal. The Gold Coast strip, variously described as having a Ngarangwal/Nagraangbal/Ngara?wal dialect by previous researchers, may have contained up to four dialects according to his analysis. Archibald Meston, the Chief Protector of Aborigines, writing in 1923, identifies a single "dialect" spoken in the area from the Nerang to the Logan, which he identified as Yoocum/Yoocumbah, speaking of the Moreton Bay region of south-east Queensland, he stated:
There were seven dialects spoken by the Moreton Bay tribes – The Yoocum of Nerang, extending to the Logan; the Cateebil, from the Logan to the Brisbane; the Waccah, from the Brisbane to the Caboolture; the Cabee, north of the Caboolture; the Nhulla of Bribie; the Coobennpil of Stradbroke; and the Gnoogee of Moreton Island.

The Yugambeh live within the Logan, Albert, Coomera, Nerang, and Tweed River basins. Norman Tindale estimated their territorial reach as extending over roughly, along the Logan River from Rathdowney to its mouth, and running south as far as the vicinity of Southport. Their western frontier lay around Boonah and the slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Tindale places his Kalibal in the upper Nerang and western Tweed valley. There are problems with Tindale's mapping, since he generally located the Kalibal where Margaret Sharpe puts the Yugambeh people. Fison and Howitt writing in the late 19th century describe their country as "to the south of Brisbane, somewhat inland, but also along the coast" to as far as Point Danger, and "about the head of the Albert, Logan and Tweed rivers". The Yuggera are to their west and north, the Quandamooka to their north-east, the Githabul to their south-west, and the Bundjalung to their south.

Society

Linguistically, the Yugambeh speak language varieties of the wider Yugambeh-Bundjalung language group, their language forming a discrete dialect group. Culturally researchers, like Anthony Jefferies, have noted the Mibiny have more affinity with their northern Yagara-speaking neighbours.

Social divisions

visited the Yugambeh in 1906 and picked up the following information concerning their social divisions, which were fourfold. Mathews noted specific animals, plants and stars as associated with the divisions. This system of social divisions was shared with the neighboring Gidabal, and Yagara people. To the south, the Bundjalung section names were different, being Wirroong, Marroong, Woomboong, and Kurpoong respectively.
MotherFatherSonDaughter
BarangganDeroinBandjurBandjuran
BandjuranBandaBarangBaranggan
DeroinganBarangBandaBandagan
BandaganBandjurDeroinDeroingan

Kinship

Among the Yugambeh-Bundjalung languages there were two kinship systems a Wahlubal/Inland system and a Mibiny system, with Anthony Jefferies noting:
There are two fundamental kinship structures...: an Aluridja type system, found in Bandjalang dialect groups with the exception of the Mibiny groups, and the Senior Cousin/Junior Cousin kinship system found in Yagara, Mibiny and Ngugi groups.
The Yugambeh kinship system is classificatory, i.e. all members of the same social division are classificatory siblings, and not marriageable. Their genealogical terms are extended beyond all blood relatives to include the members of that relatives social division. I.e. a woman of the same division of your mother is her sister, and therefore one's mother as well. The Mibiny kinship system is similar to the Iroquois kinship system, your mother's sisters are called Waijang "mother", and your father's brother's are called Biyang "father", they in turn will call you muyum/muyumgan "son/daughter".
A distinction is made between cross-cousins called Yirabung and parallel cousins called Gujarang, parallel cousins are not considered marriageable. In the Yugambeh system, a mother's brother is called Gawang and a father's sister is called Ngaruny, they call their nephews/nieces, burrijang/burrijanggan, and nyugun/nyugunmahn respectively. The Ngaruny-Nyugun/Nyugunmahn relationship is of special importance as it is used to identified suitable marriageable partners, a ngaruny will find one of her sisters and make a match for her nyugun/nyugunmahn, this is distinct from the southern Wahlubal system used by the Bundjalung with Jefferies noting:
Similarly, whereas the Waalubal system has a single undifferentiated term /nyugu:n/ "nephew/niece", the Ngugi system again has distinct terms (/ngadjiriban/ "brother's son"; /ngiyinyan/ "brother's daughter" as do Mibiny systems which have the same term but differentiated for gender.

Clans

In common with their northerly neighbours, i.e. the Yagara, Quandamooka, Kabi-Kabi, and Wakka-Wakka, the Yugambeh are divided into a number of subgroups, nine named clan estate groups in total. The language research F.J. Watson described the situation as such:
The tribes were subdivided into locality groups, each group occupying a portion of the tribal territory… Each group had a distinctive name, which, in many cases, was derived from some outstanding feature of the group's territory, either of its geography, geology, flora, or fauna.
Each locality group has their own allocated area of country; family groups did not often travel into the country of other Yugambeh family groups without reason. Clans would frequently visit and stay on each other's estates during times of ceremony, dispute resolution, resource exchange, debt settlement and scarcity of resources, but followed strict protocols governing announcing their presence and their use of other's lands. Each group also has ceremonial responsibilities in their respective countries, like those that ensure that food and medicinal plants grow and that there is a plentiful supply of fish, shellfish, crabs, and other animal food in general. The clan group boundaries tend to follow noticeable geological formations such as river basin systems and mountain ranges.
There were a number of permanent camps owned by each clan, which were frequented in a set yearly planned pattern. For everyday living the clan usually broke into smaller family-based groups. They would aggregate at certain times of the year for annual celebrations, which were also a time for inter-clan trade. Co-operation of smaller groups or extended families for large-scale activities occurred when appropriate, such as kangaroo drives. The Yugambeh clans annually gathered on the coast for the mullet feast. The Anthropologist Alfred William Howitt offers a brief traditional history of how the Chepara / Yugambeh, came to be subdivided into clans:
The Chepara was, so tradition says, originally the whole tribe, but in consequence of internal feuds it became broken up into the clans mentioned. This however seems, notwithstanding the positive assertions of the Chepara informants, to require some corroboration, which cannot now be given. The oldest of the native informants, a man of about fifty years of age in the year 1880, spoke with certainty of this tradition, and said that after a time the clans became again friendly, and had during the whole of his lifetime considered the Chepara the principal clan.
Bullum, a Yugambeh man from the Wanggeriburra clan helped draw a map of his clans territory in 1913, which also show the names and general locations of 8 neighbouring clans. Recent sources mention a total of 9 clans across the Yugambeh area. The exact number of clans was not noted in the earlier literature, Howitt, noting at least 7 clans in 1904 stated:
There were some minor offshoots, which are not remembered by the blacks who were my informant's authorities.
The names of the clans were derived from local associations, as, for instance, Chepara means the coast, Mungulkabultu the neighbourhood of the mountains; the other names are from trees, shrubs, etc.

NameLocationAlternative names
Gugingin
Northerners.		The lower Logan River, lower Albert River.Logan tribe, Guwangin, Warrilcum
Wanggeriburra
Whiptail wallaby people.		Middle Albert River basin and Coomera River headwaters.Tamborine tribe
Bullongin
River people		Coomera River basinBalunjali
Dalgaybara
Dry-Forest People		The Northern Lower-Tweed River basin.
Tul-gi-gin, Tulgiburri
Kombumerri
Mudgrove-worm People.		The Nerang River basin.Chabbooburri, Birinburra
Mununjali
Hard/baked black ground People.		Beaudesert.Manaldjali.
Murangbara
Water-Vine People		The Upper-Tweed River basin.
Bray puts them on the north side of the northern arm of the Tweed.		Moorung-Mooburra
Kudjangbara
Red-Ochre People		The Southern Lower-Tweed River Basin.
For Bray they occupied the area ten miles in from coast between the Tweed and Brunswick Rivers.		Cudgenburra, Coodjinburra. Goodjinburra
Migunberri
Mountain Spike People		Christmas Creek.Migani, Balgaburri

"Confederacy"

According to Anthony Jefferies, the Mibiny are part of a larger extra-linguistic group he referred to as a "confederacy" or "messmate"; he called the Chepara this confederacy which combined the Yagara-speaking groups north of the Logan River with the Mibiny dialect groups south of the river. Jefferies, quoting Sutton, defines this larger grouping with the following:
These appear to have been sets of hundreds or even a few thousands of people who intermarried often, who spoke many if not all of each others' languages, and whose countries tended to cover linked sub-parts of a drainage system, where drainage was clearly differentiated. These are the groupings where one usually finds commonality of prescriptive marriage rules, a clear basis for collaboration in ceremonies, the maximum range from which allies might normally come in times of conflict, and many surface similarities among languages for example.
Besides sharing their section system, both groups share ritual scarring patterns, with a dividing line running through the Yugambeh-Bundjalung language speakers with those to the north of the line have patterns that match groups further north, while those to the south have patterns which align with groups further south. The Mibiny and Yagara also share their kinship system.

History

Pre-European arrival (pre-1824)

Archaeological evidence indicates that Aboriginal people have lived in the Gold Coast region for tens of thousands of years. When early European settlers first arrived in the region they found a complex network of Aboriginal family groups speaking a number of dialects of the Yugambeh language. There were nine clan groups:the Gugingin, Bullongin, Kombumerri, Tul-gi-gin, Moorang-Mooburra, Cudgenburra, Wanggerriburra, Mununjali and Migunberri. These clan groups were exogamous, and men found wives from a clan other than their own. Yugambeh people camped on the banks of rivers and along the coast where plentiful resources provided a stable living. It was noted by early visitors that the local people used a variety of technology in their daily lives, including canoes.
Each Yugambeh clan had their own allocated area of country, and domain over that area, it was typically where they hunted and lived. Visitations between clans was frequent for a variety of reasons. Each group also had ceremonial responsibilities in their respective countries, connected to the upkeep of resources, and the maintenance and visitation of djurebil – sacred personal or increase sites. Waterholes were an important economic resource, and would later be the subject of much conflict between Yugambeh people and the European arrivals. Each family group had a number of permanent camps established and moved from camp to camp in response to seasonal changes, their movements were not unplanned wandering but was a planned and logical response to environmental conditions. The Gugingin of the Logan area were noted as expert net makers, using fine cone-shaped nets to trap fish and larger nets 15 metres wide to trap kangaroos. When moving between camps, groups would leave their excess equipment and other belongings behind in a small shelter made like a tripod covered with bark; it was a point of honour that belongings left in this way were never stolen.
The coastal clans of the area were hunters, gatherers and fishers. The Quandamooka of Stradbroke Island had dolphins aid them in the hunting and fishing processes. On sighting a shoal of mullet, they would hit the water with their spears to alert their dolphins, to whom they gave individual names, and the dolphins would then chase the shoal towards the shore, trapping them in the shallows and allowing the men to net and spear the fish. Some traditions state that this practice was shared by the Yugambeh Kombumerri clan. The dolphin is known to have played an important role in a legend of the Nerang River Yugambeh, according to which the culture hero Gowonda was transformed into one on his death.

Early European exploration and colonisation (1824–1860)

A penal colony was established by European settlers in 1824, just north of the Yugambeh clans, which was encircled by a 50-mile exclusion zone.
The Brisbane area was open to free settlement in 1842. Reverend Henry Stobart wrote of the Yugambeh in 1853, remarking on the abundance of resources in the area, and noted in particular thriving stands of walking stick palms, endemic to the Numinbah Valley and in Yugambeh called midyim, a resource already being harvested for sale in England. By this time the Yugambeh were already cautious of government officials, with women and children hiding from strangers until it was determined they were not government representatives. Henry Stobart commented:
The Aborigines in this part rarely see white men, except very bad specimens of them – sawyers chiefly, engaged in cutting timber – from whom they have learnt little else of our language excepting oaths, and by whom, they are, I fear, in too many cases treated very inhumanely
The Yugambeh suffered from violent attacks undertaken by the Australian native police under their colonial leaders. According to the informant John Allen, over 60 years old at the time, and referring to his earliest memories sometime in the 1850s, a group of his tribe were surprised by troopers at Mount Wetheren and fired upon.
The blacks—men, women, and children—were in a dell at the base of a cliff. Suddenly a body of troopers appeared on the top of the cliff and without warning opened fire on the defenceless party below. Bullumm remembers the horror of the time, of being seized by a gin and carried to cover, of cowering under the cliff and hearing the shots ringing overhead, of the rush through the scrub to get away from the sound of the death-dealing guns. In this affair only two were killed, an old man and a gin. Those sheltered under the cliff could hear the talk of the black troopers, who really did not want to kill, but who tried to impress upon the white officer in charge the big number they had slaughtered.

In 1855 an incident caused by a local tribesman sparked off a running spree of killings as troopers sought to kill the culprit. Allen recounted the story thus:
'About 1855. A German woman and her boy were killed at Sandy Creek, Jimboomba,
near where is now the McLean Bridge, by a blackfellow known as "Nelson." The murderer was coming back from Brisbane on horseback and met the woman and boy on the road walking to Brisbane. The man was caught soon after committing the crime, but escaped from custody. He was a Coomera black, but sometimes lived with the Albert and Nerang tribes. The black troopers knew this, and were constantly on his tracks but never caught him. They had no scruples in shooting any blacks in the hope that the victim might be the escaped murderer. From 30 to 40 blacks were killed by troopers in this way, but "Nelson" died a natural death in spite of it all, some years after in Beenleigh.'

In 1857, he recalled, again under the direction of Frederick Wheeler, a further massacre took place on the banks of the Nerang River :
A party of " Alberts," among whom was old blind Nyajum, was there camped on a visit to their friends and neighbours of the Nerang and Tweed. There had been a charge of cattle-killing brought against the local tribes, and someone had to pay. The police heard of this camp, and, under command of Officer Wheeler, cut it off on the land side with a body of troopers. The alarm was given. The male aboriginals plunged into the creek, swam to the other side, and hid in the scrub. The black troopers again were bad marksmen—probably with intent—as the only casualties were one man shot in the leg and one boy drowned. The old blind man had been hidden under a pile of skins in a hut, but was found by the troopers and dragged out by the heels. The gins told the troopers he was blind from birth. The troopers begged the officer not to order the poor fellow to be killed. The gins crowded round Wheeler imploring mercy for the wretched victim; some hung on to the troopers to prevent them firing. But prayers were useless; Wheeler was adamant. The gins were dragged off or knocked off with carbines, and the blind man was then shot by order of the white officer.'

In another incident, which took place in 1860, six Yugambeh youths were kidnapped from camps in the area of the Nerang River area and forcibly transported to Rockhampton where they were to be inducted into, and trained to carry out punitive missions, by Frederick Wheeler, an officer with a notorious record for brutality. On witnessing the murder of one of the trainees, the small group planned their escape and, one night, snuck away to embark on an epic walk of some 550 kilometres back home. Fearing betrayal, they shied clear even of other Aboriginal groups of their route which followed the coast on their left. After three months trekking, one youth climbed a tree and cried out Wollumbin! Wollumbin!, much in the manner of the Greeks in Xenophon's Anabasis. They had made it back home. One of the youths, Keendahn, who was ten years old at the time, was so traumatised by the experience that he would hide in the bush for decades later, whenever word of police in the vicinity reached their camps.
William E. Hanlon's family of English immigrants settled there around 1863. He states that the Yugambeh were friendly from the outstart:
There were many blacks in the district, but on no occasion did they give us any trouble. On the contrary, we were always glad to see them, for they brought us fish, kangaroo tails, crabs, or honey, to barter for our flour, sugar, tea, or "tumbacca."
Hanlon wrote of the areas rich resources. In a single morning he and 4 friends shot down 200 bronzewing pigeons and large stands of much sought after red cedar, pine and beech were harvested by incoming woodcutters, while stands of the now highly prized tulip wood were burnt off as "useless". Returning to the area in the early 1930s after a half century absence, he wrote:
I found the rivers denuded of all their old and glorious scrubs, and their whilom denizens were neither to be seen nor heard. The streams themselves seemed to be sullen and sluggish, and polluted, and wore an air of being ashamed of their now-a-days nudity. Utility and ugliness were the dominant notes everywhere. In many places the physical features of the places were changed or entirely obliterated; watercourse and chain of ponds of my day were, nearly all, filled in with the accumulated debris of the past half century or so.

Mission era (1860–1960)

Non-indigenous arrival brought a negative impact on the local people, like alcohol and disease; conflict and displacement of Yugambeh groups from traditional food sources as settlers acquired land for agricultural purposes. The struggles of the original inhabitants was recognised by government authorities, but too often efforts failed to achieve much. Pastor Johann Gottfried Haussmann founded the first mission in the newly separate colony of Queensland in 1866 at Beenleigh, this mission Bethesda was said by Haussmann to be a "heathen mission" to the local Aboriginals in the wider Albert-Logan area:
My main tasks shall be, provided the Lord permit me to live, to do Mission work amongst the poor heathen. This was the reason I actually came to Australia.
In 1866, a large corroboree of 200 was held nearby which Haussmann attended, meeting a few men whom he had instructed at Zion Hill Mission. Since November, the Yugambeh of the Logan and Albert rivers had started gathering at Bethesda Pastor Haussmann is said to have used this increase of visitors as an opportunity to negotiate a contract with the "chief" to pay him five shillings weekly, presumably work was expected in return, but he used the time also to "speak to them about the well being of their souls", gathering them every day under a tree in order to recite hymns and prayer and reading from the New Testaments, which Haussmann would then explain to them.
Haussmann's reports record a number of identities at Bethesda, from October to December 1867 a man named Jack was taught by Haussmann regularly, and had learnt to read and write, a King Rohma, and a Kingkame who brought his family to attend devotions each day, he also acted as a mediator to Haussmann's industrial mission at Nerang.
In 1869, the German Lutheran Church, again led by Haussmann, secured land for a mission on the western bank of the Nerang River at Advancetown, here they established the "Nerang Creek Aboriginal Industrial Mission". Similar to what Haussmann had begun at Bethesda, the mission's purpose was to Christianise and provide support to the Yugambeh people. Starting at initial, the Nerang mission grew to a reserve of, it was not successful however, with only some minor works occurring before the reserve was cancelled in 1879.
Due to an inability to make their mortgage repayments on their sugar business, Haussmann's Bethesda Mission saw its demise. The discouraging progress of indigenous conversion at Bethesda hindered the Mission-work and there was a lack of financial support from the government and the wider Christian network. Falling sugar prices, rust infestations at Bethesda, the incompetency of the mission's machinery and increased competition from neighbours all combined to push the Haussmann's operation into an irreparable financial situation and Bethesda Mission closed in 1881.
Deebing Creek Aboriginal Mission and Industrial School was established in 1887, it operated at South Deebing Road until 1915 when it was moved to Carmichael Road, and became known as Purga. Deebing creek saw the mixing of numerous tribes, the Chief Protector of the Aborigines – Archibald Meston, removed Aboriginal people from the Brisbane, Fassifern and Logan areas to Deebing Creek, a place where, he stated:
Blacks from many widely scattered tribes, some a thousand miles apart... all living amicably and contentedly together
As settlers encroached Yugambeh lands were alienated from their traditional users and by the turn of the century they were being forced to go to these reserves. Many Yugambeh remained in their traditional country and found employment with farmers, oyster producers and fishermen, timber cutters and mills constructed for the production of resources like sugar and arrowroot. Yugambeh and other groups protested removal, Meston rejected this, explaining away their passionate devotion to their homelands stating:
These Boonah blacks profess to be much attached to the locality as their fathers and mothers were born there. Exactly the same reason is given by the old blacks at Beaudesert, Beenleigh and Southport, but this is not to be accepted as an argument against collecting them together for their own benefit in some central reserve.

The Aborigines Protection Act of 1897 saw the removal of many of the remaining Yugambeh people from their land to Aboriginal missions and reserves throughout Queensland, but Yugambeh people did resis pressure to move, like Bilin Bilin who was able to stay on his country until old age forced him to relocate to the mission at Deebing Creek. Deebing creek had a school and a number of huts and continued to operate until 1948.
With many uncertainties and difficulties, some Yugambeh people found refuge in the mountains of the hinterland, while others were employed on farms, in the timber industry or as domestic servants. On the coast, others were able to be involved in the fishing, oyster and tourism industries.
At the advent of both world wars, Yugambeh people attempted to enlist but, like other Aboriginal Australians, had their efforts to join the armed forces resisted due to official policy that saw them as unsuitable because of their "racial origin". In a few cases however they were successful, with 10 Yugambeh people serving in World War I, then subsequently 47 in World War II, they have fought in every major conflict from World War I to the 1991 Gulf War. After service, their contributions were rarely recognised by historians or brought to the attention of the public, and they were not paid the same as other returned soldiers.
A number of Yugambeh people sort refuge on Ukerabagh Island in the mouth of the Tweed River, which provided any isolated environment to maintain their culture, and by the early 1920s a small community had grown. Australia's first indigenous member of the Australian parliament Neville Bonner was born on Ukerabagh in 1922. In 1927, the NSW Aborigines Protection Board declared the island an Aboriginal Reserve, which allowed to be serviced with government rations. Not all Aboriginal people moved to Ukerabagh by choice, some were sent there by local police to keep them away from white settlements. The island was also home to Torres Strait Islanders who had come to work on the Tweed. Its status as an Aboriginal Reserve was revoked in 1951, but families continued to live there.

Recent history (since 1960)

Through 1968 to 1983, Yugambeh people were studied by linguists, those interviewed were living in the Beaudesert and surrounding areas, Woodenbong, and the Tweed. Anthropologists mapping Aboriginal groups in Queensland also found a number of Yugambeh living at Cherbourg Mission in the 70s. In 1974, members of the Mununjali clan started the Beaudesert Aborigines and Islander Cooperative society. In the late 70s families who resided on Ukerabagh Island protested against proposed development, and in 1980 the area was gazetted as the Ukerebagh Island Nature Reserve.
In the early 1980s a number of Yugambeh, sitting around a dining room table, discussed an idea that lead them to found the Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation for Culture which grew into one of Australia's most successful Aboriginal-owned language organisations, and is a major contributor to the indigenous cultural landscape of south east Queensland. The Yugambeh, represented by the Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation for Culture with the support and assistance from the Gold Coast City Council, erected a War Memorial on the site of the Jebribillum Bora Park Burleigh Heads at Burleigh Heads in 1991, now known as Jebribillum Bora Park. The memorial consists of a stone taken from nearby Mt Tamborine, a sacred site to the Yugambeh clans. Sources provide three transcriptions for the inscription, which means "Many Eagles Protecting Our Country":
The corporation established the Yugambeh Museum, Language and Heritage Research Centre at the corner of Martens Street and Plantation Road in Beenleigh. It was opened in 1995 by Senator Neville Bonner, Australia's first Aboriginal Federal Parliamentarian. The museum is the main resource for objects and information relating to the ongoing story of the Yugambeh people, their spiritual and cultural history, and their language. The museum organises education programs, exhibitions and events, including traditional ceremonies. The Museum houses over 20 distinct exhibits composed of over 300 panels. The Yugambeh Museum also maintains records and research on Yugambeh descendants who served in the armed forces.
The Gold Coast Aboriginal and Islander Housing Co-operative was founded in 1981, the result of a successful local movement of Aboriginal people on the Gold Coast lobbying for affordable housing to help those in need, this society went on to come Kalwun Development Corporation in 1994. With authorisation from the Yugambeh people, Kalwun operates the Jellurgal Aboriginal Cultural Centre which offers bus and walking tours of the Gold Coast, and is fully owned and operated by the local Aboriginal community. The same year of Kalwun's founding, the Beaudesert Aborigines and Islander society started Mununjali housing, the society continued to exist, however is solely run by Mununjali under a Memorandum of Understanding.
Mununjali Housing and Development Company Ltd is the umbrella for:
In 1998 the Ngarangwal, operating Ngarang-Wal Land Council made a successful application to the Indigenous Land Corporation which purchased a of land at the bottom of Tamborine their behalf, this land was declared the Guanaba Indigenous Protected Area in November 2000. The Guanaba Indigenous Protected Area, part of Kombumerri traditional land, is located at the base of Mount Tamborine, west of the suburb of Guanaba and covers 100 hectares of dense rainforest, vine thickets, eucalypt woodlands, picturesque creeks and indigenous wildlife species. Early colonial timber harvesting and cattle grazing devastated much of the wild- and plant life of the general area, which the Yugambeh relied on for their sustenance, but plants and animals, such as the Brush-tailed rock-wallaby, the three-toed snake-tooth skink and the spotted-tail quoll in Guanaba escaped much of this early damage given the steepness of the escarpment, which made accessing its timber reserves very difficult. Feral dogs and cane toads are a major threat to the area, which remains a key habitat for the endangered Fleay's frog, and is said to be one of the last places where breeding colonies of the endangered Long-nosed potoroo still exist. The Yugambeh train young people of their community in traditional ways at Guanaba, and work with conservation experts to ensure the conservation of the area's landscape integrity. Members of the Tweed Aboriginal community run the Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre, which is a popular meeting place for Goori people and other Aboriginal peoples. Built next to a Bora Ring, which can be seen from the walking tracks. The museum exhibits informative videos, Aboriginal art, and traditional dance and song on the outdoor performance area. Aboriginal tour guides offer tours through the museum and site, telling you about its relics, plants and animals, explaining how Aboriginal life was in the area before colonisation.
From early 2015, three years before the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Yugambeh people were involved with the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation's community consultation establishing a Yugambeh Elders Advisory Group consisting of nine local aunts and uncles. A Reconciliation Action Plan was developed for the Commonwealth Games 2018, and endorsed by YEAG, this was the first International Sporting Event and Commonwealth Games to have a RAP. The Games Mascot was named Borobi, a word from the local Yugambeh language, meaning Koala; it was the first Australian sporting mascot to have an indigenous name, which one Yugambeh descendant described as:
... a huge credit to our Elders and their work to revive language in everyday use, and it sends a powerful message to the rest of the world that the Commonwealth Games 2018 is serious about including Aboriginal story and culture.

Yugambeh elders Patricia O'Connor and Ted Williams, travelled to London to launch the Queen's Baton Relay- marking the first time Traditional Owners had attended the ceremony. After a 288-day journey, the Queen's Baton was passed from New Zealand to Australia in the Māori Court of the Auckland Museum, wherein a traditional farewell ceremony to farewell and handover the baton the Ngāti Whātua elders of Auckland passed the Queen's Baton to representatives of the Yugambeh people. Yugambeh performers were present to respond to the Maori farewell ceremony. Yugambeh culture was incorporated into the Queens Baton with the use of native macadamia wood, known in Yugambeh language as gumburra. A story given by Patricia O'Connor served as the inspiration for the Baton, as Macadamia nuts were often planted by groups travelling through country, to mark the way and provide sustenance to future generations – upon hearing the story, the baton's designers decided to use macadamia wood as a symbol of traditional sustainable practice.
When I was a little girl, probably seven or eight years old, I was cracking Queensland nuts. My grandmother said "when I was a little girl I planted those nuts as I walked with my father along the Nerang river" and she said "you call them Queensland nuts, I call them Goomburra". She planted them when she walked with her dad, and as an adult she saw them bearing fruit.

Economy

The native economy can be described as well-planned, with a deliberate effort to make maximum use of resources. This was achieved by a regular annual cycle in step with seasonal changes, and boosted with well-thought-out inter-clan trade. Tools and implements were produced from local material where possible.

Cuisine

The traditional Yugambeh diet consisted of flora and fauna native to their region, almost anything that could be eaten was, though certain species were avoided for totemic reasons. The native Gulmorhan – fern-root was a staple and major source of starch, and its preparation required careful pounding so as not to break the internal rhizomes which could pierce the throat. Other plant roots were also eaten, like Bulrush, Native Rosella, Club rush, Cotton Tree. Pink Swamp Lily and Fringed Lily tubers were taken to eat as well.
The native fruits of the Blue Quandong, Crab Apple, Blueberry Lily, Native Cherry, Tuckeroo, Lilli Pilli, Scrub Cherry, Native Tamarind, Wombat Berry and various Ficus species were consumed, in addition to the berries of the Barbwire Vine, Passionfruit, Raspberry, Roseleaf Bramble and Pink-Flowered Raspberry. The seeds of certain wattles species were ground into flour and mixed with water into a paste, and Banksia flowers were swirled in water to make a honey flavoured drink. The leaves of the David's Heart were used as serving plates for food.
Conical fishing nets were used for catching fish, and larger nets, some 15m wide, were used for catching kangaroos. The most basic way of cooking involved ground heated by a fire which was extinguished and cleared. Food would be placed on the heated earth until cooked, this was a common way of cooking shellfish like oysters or mud whelks. A fire was kept burning while larger portions of food like meat were cooked. Alternatively, the food was sealed inside an earth oven in a pit while it cooked. This is a suitable way to cook birds, especially emus.
Groups would gather on the coast to fish during the annual autumn/winter run of sea mullet. Similarly, the Yugambeh clans would travel to the biennial bunya nut feasts held at the Bunya Mountains. Other species consumed were freshwater mullet, the long-necked turtle and the short-necked turtle, and eel. The eggs of the Brush Turkey were highly sort. Most waterbird species were eaten; ducks were hunted using boomerangs to frighten them into carefully positioned nets. The teredo worm '' was attained by the deliberate felling of Swamp Oaks into estuaries which attracted the worm.

Medicine

Dozens of species of plants were used for medicinal purposes, and local people continue to use them to this day. Animals byproducts were also used like the fat from the Lace Monitor which was rubbed into the body, while inorganic substances like clay was used a vermifuge. The inner bark of Acacia melanoxylon was used for skin disorders, as was the bark of Acacia falcata, while the bark from Moreton Bay Ash was infused to treat dysentery. Gum procured from the Bloodwood was used to treat ringworm, while Spotted Gum resin was used for toothaches. Insect bites were treated with the sap of Bungwall or Bracken ; prepared bungwall may have been an antihelminthic. Milky Mangrove sap was used to treat heat ulcers.
A poultice was made from the a rhizome paste of the Cunjevoi which was used for burns, and a lather was made from rubbing the leaves of the Soap Tree which was used to disinfect skin. The leaves of multiple plants were used in a variety of medicinal ways, an infusion of Water Chestnut leaves was used a healing agent, an infusion of Native Raspberry leaves was a stomach ache treatment, and chewing the leaves of the Grey Mangrove relieved the pain of marine stingers. Some plants were also burned for medicinal purposes like Lemon Scented Barbwire Grass whose smoke provided an anaesthetic effect. Goats-foot leaves were burnt to relieve headaches and charred Bracket Fungi was used in healing.

Technology

Plant material, animal parts and various inorganic compounds were the raw materials of much Yugambeh technology. The inner bark of many tree trunks was used for rope production, and fine strings were made from grasses. The Cotton Tree was used to produce rope for all kinds of purposes, while the inner bark of the Kurrajong was used for fishing line. Kangaroo sinew was used to fasten implements or sowing possum skins and echidna spines were used to pierce the skins. These manufactured ropes were used for net production – nets with large meshes were made from strong ropes and used for dugong and wallaby hunts, while finer rope was used in fish nets. Mat Rush was used to weave dillybags. These bags were used for a variety of purposes and were made in a number of sizes, some being quite large.
The sap of the Hoop Pine was used as a cement, and Xanthorrhoea species were valued as well a source of glue. Shelters were made from a light frame covered in sheets of bark tied down with rope; Native Ginger leaves were used in hut making and Paperbark bark was used to thatch the roofs. Weapons like the spear were made from various Acacia species and hardened in fire, while boomerangs and nullahs were made from the Lancewood tree. The women's implements digging sticks are made from the hardest woods, often Ironbark; their points, like those of spears, were hardened by fire. Shields, worked from large lumps of wood, were made from the Spotted Gum and Grey Mangrove.
Where it was impractical to use a spear or net to fish, various species of plants were used as fish poisons, these included peeled stalks of Smartweed, crushed leaves of Soap Tree, Tie bush, Snake Vine, White Cedar, Cunjevoi, and Quinine Bush ; the inner bark of the Foam Tree, a noted fish poison, has high concentrations of saponins. These paralysed the lungs of the fish, making them float to the top of the water, and easier to catch.

Culture

Oral culture

The seasonal pattern of plants and animals varied, appearing at particular times of the year, and were used as indicators of the season. The migratory patterns of birds was well known, and their seasonal migrations were used to determine if certain resources were available/unavailable. For the Wanggeriburra, the lorikeet indicated the forthcoming mullet season along the coast, while the Pied Currawong indicated Black Bream were available. The flowering of particular plant species was also used to indicate resource availability; Hop Bush indicated the best time for oysters, Silk Oak indicated turtles and eels, while Tea Tree indicated the mullet were available. Species, like Macadamia, had dual uses, such as being planted along travel routes as a food source as well as functioning as markers for travellers.
Local groups used oral poems to encode this information. An example of one was recorded by J.A. Gresty, which goes:
Kambullumm wongara
Woojerie bingging
Woodooroo wongara
Woojerie kunneeng

Gresty explained this poem as encoding seasonal information relating to the Silky Oak and Tea Tree and the correlation of their flowering to the turtle and mullet seasons respectively. Knowledge of cultural practices, inter-relations, beliefs, and laws was held in stories. These stories, known as Bujeram, stretch across clan groups, creating what are known as songlines and in some cases explain the creation of prominent features of the landscape or other natural phenomena.
In Yugambeh tradition, part of a larger story which is conserved among the neighbouring Minyungbal, the people descend from one of three brothers, Yarberri or Jabreen who travelled to the north and established the sacred site of Jebbribillum, the point at which he emerged from the waters onto the land. The legend of the Three Brothers is used to explain the kinship bonds that extend through the Yugambeh-Bundjalung language groups, one Yugambeh descendant writing:
These bonds between Bundjalung and Yugambeh people are revealed through genealogy, and are evident in our common language dialects. Our legends unite us.
Yugambeh people are the descendants of the brother Yarberri who travelled to the north. In Yugambeh legend he is known as Jabreen. Jabreen created his homeland by forming the mountains, the river systems and the flora and fauna. The people grew out of this environment.
Jabreen created the site known as Jebbribillum when he came out of the water onto the land. As he picked up his fighting waddy, the land and water formed into the shape of a rocky outcrop. This was the site where people gathered to learn and to share resources created by Jabreen. The ceremony held at this site became known as the Bora and symbolised the initiation of life. Through the ceremony, people learned to care for the land and their role was to preserve its integrity.
Another traditional story tells of battle which resulted in the creation of many landforms and rivers across the region. This batttle, between the creatures of the sky, land, and sea, took place at the mouth of the Logan river; W.E. Hanlon recorded a version of this story in his reminiscences, which he titled "The Genesis of Pimpama Island":
The Migunberri Yugambeh have a story of two men, Balugan and Nimbin, and their hunting dingoes, Burrajan, a male, and Ninerung, a female, whose adventures in chasing a kangaroo from Mt Widgee to the Ilbogan lagoon, mention the location of many djurebil or sacred personal or increase sites, and form the background for explaining the geological features of mountain formations along the McPherson Range. The kangaroo finally leapt into the lagoon where he changed into a warrajum or rainbow serpent, thereafter capable of metamorphosing into many shapes. As they made their way to camp on Mt.Widgee, "wild" blacks from the Beaudesert area netted them, and set about cooking the two. Smoke from their fire alerted their owners, Balugan and Nimbin, who had been searching for their dogs, and they came across the two half-roasted. They revenged themselves against the other blacks, and wrapped their dingoes in bark for burial back at Mt. Widgee, but, as they carried the corpses away, parts of the animals' bodies dropped off, marking such djurebil places as Mumumbar. The two hunting dogs were then buried at the top of the Widgee Falls, above the creek of that name, where they were petrified here at the djurebil of Gundelboonber, with one facing east, the other west. Legend had it that they came back to life at night and would roam throughout the Tweed Valley.
The Ilbogan lagoon is thought in local Aboriginal lore to be connected by a passage to another lagoon, Bungropin, by the Mununjali, and the aquatic warrajum was believed to be capable of travelling underground between the two sites. In 1850, the Moreton Bay Courier reported that a guest at a house close to Bungropin said she had sighted there a creature, whose description she provided the paper.

Marriage

The Mibin believe that Yabirri taught them their laws of marriage. Being exogamous, prospective husbands amongst the Yugambeh clans visited and stayed in the territories of their future wives for 1–2 years as, allowing their possible future in-laws to judge their suitability in character and economic provision. This rite was known was Ngarabiny.
A man marries a woman who belongs to the same section and generation as his mother's brother's daughter, and who is, according to the terminology, a relative of the same kind. But she must come from another part of the country, and must not be closely related to him. The normal procedure was described to me as follows. A woman who is "father's sister" to a boy, possibly his own father's sister, would look out for a wife for him. Finding a woman who was her "sister", but not closely related to herself or her nephew, she would induce the latter to promise her daughter in marriage to the boy.

A father's sister is known as a Ngaruny, and she reciprocally calls one Nyugun/Nyugunmahn. A rotation existed within the marriage culture, with men finding wives from one direction, while women found their husbands from the opposite.
The aborigines of the Tweed, Nerang, Coomera, and Albert Rivers were all on very friendly terms and were united by inter-family relation-ships, so that the so-called marriage by capture was between these tribes often a mere formality. Older men from one tribe would pay a visit to another and convey the information that they had a number of attractive young women of marriageable age. "What about some of your young fellows coming over and fighting us for them some night?" they would say. "Why, we were just thinking we might do that one night", would be the reply; "it might be about two nights after full moon." Back would go the visitors and tell their own men that it was just possible the tribe from over the river might be over to capture some of the young women, and about two nights after full moon would seem a likely time. "When they come over, fight them, but don't fight them so hard that they will be too badly knocked about to carry off a few brides."

Music

Yugambeh music tradition made use of a number of instruments such as the possum skin drum, the gum leaf, and the clapsticks. The woman's drumming was noted by many of the early European arrivals and a long with the gum leaf were considered distinctive instruments of the area. A corroboree held at Mudgeeraba was said to feature over 600 drumming women, while in the early 20th century gum leaf bands were formed; the first record of such appearing in the Beaudesert Times in 1937.
... last Saturday the natives of Beaudesert and district held a dance at the Technical Hall to assist the funds of the Ambulance Brigade... A bus load of coloured folk from the Tweed district added to the numbers... the Gumleaf Band also rendered an item...

Yugambeh musicians also incorporated western instruments into their songs, such as the accordion and guitar. Candace Kruger, a Yugambeh yarabilgingan, has been active in creating and teaching a youth choir whose main objectives are to sing and learn the Yugambeh Language. The choir has performed at a number of national and international events held on Yugambeh country.

Death

Yugambeh informants elude to one of more souls, one that lingers at the grave, another that upon death "climbs up to Balugan" in the land of the dead, a third associated with a person's sacred site- djurebil, and possibly the moggai, which may have been a distinct spiritual entity haunting the grave and the place of death. Human remains were considered sacred, and burial sites were kept clear of out of respect. Great attention was paid to avoid disturbing previous burials, however if this was to occur, it was imperative to treat the remains with the appropriate respect and ceremony.
Burial was a two-staged process, the first of which involved wrapping the body in paper bark and later a blanket tied with a possum-fur string, and temporary interring them within a white ant's nest for a designated time, after which the body was retrieved and a family member, typically the widow of the deceased, would travel with the body during a period of mourning after which they were permanently interred.
On the Tweed River, the body was interred on a hillside in a sitting position, hunched up, probably by the breaking of bones or ligaments. The Migunburri buried their dead in caves and rock clefts. The Beaudesert Mununjali would talk to the corpse while it was being carried slung on a pole to the grave site, trying to elicit by questioning who the sorcerer might have been who caused the death. The body was said to buck violently if the culprit's name was mentioned.

Native title

As of 2019, Yugambeh native title claims on their traditional country have yet to find endorsement by the National Native Title Tribunal. A Kombumerri claim was filed in 1996 over their clan territory, but was not accepted. This was followed by a Kombumerri People #2 claim in 1998, this application was also rejected. A larger Eastern Yugambeh People claim was filed in 2001, it was also rejected.
The Eastern Clans Native Title Claim in the Federal Court was filed on the 5 September 2006 under the application name Gold Coast Native Title Group , and accepted by the Register on 23 September 2013. The application, naming ten Apical Ancestors, referred to territory encompassing lands and waters across the Gold Coast local government area within the state of Queensland. It was dismissed on 13 September 2014 with a Part Determination that Native Title did not exist on lands granted a prior lease.
On the rejection of this claim, The Yugambeh clans filed a Native Title Claim in the Federal Court on 27 June 2017 under the application name Danggan Balun People. Their claim was accepted for registration by the Registrar on 14 September 2017. This claim names nineteen Apical Ancestors and encompasses lands and waters across five local government areas within the state of Queensland. The Yugambeh formally incorporated the Danggan Balun Aboriginal Corporation on the 24 June 2019 to act as their representative body for Native Title matters.

Notable people

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Some words