Birri Gubba

Aboriginal Australian people of eastern Queensland

The Birri Gubba people, formerly known as Biria, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland.

Language

The Birri Gubba people spoke a number of languages in the Biri language group.^[1]

Country

The Biria held sway over some 4,200 square miles (11,000 km²), from the Bowen River north to its junction with the Burdekin. On its eastern flank was the Clarke Range, while its western borders reached the Leichhardt Range. To the south, its territory extended down to Netherdale.^[2]

Alternative names

Alternative names for the Biria people include Biriaba, Birigaba, Breeaba, Perembba, Perenbba,^[3] and Birri Gubba.^[4]^[5]

European contact

In 1846, after their ship Peruvian was wrecked, a group of British crew members made it to shore on Birri Gubba land, and were helped to survive by Birri Gubba people. The castaways stayed with various groups for some time, with one, James Morrill, living among the Aboriginal people for around 17 years.^[5] His memoir, Sketch of a Residence Among the Aboriginals of Northern Queensland for Seventeen Years tells of his efforts to leave his group of Birra Gubba people on their land, and to encourage harmonious living between the two groups.^[6] Today he is seen as an early pioneer of Indigenous land rights in Australia.^[5]

A forthcoming (2022) film, The Wild One starring Matt Oxley, John Jarratt and Marlena Law, is based on the story of Morrill and the people who took him in, directed by Australian filmmaker Nathan Colquhoun.^[5]

Notable Biri people

Cathy Freeman, Olympic-level athlete^[7]
Jackie Huggins, activist and academic^[7]
Boori Pryor, formerly the joint inaugural Australian Children's Laureate and storyteller^[7]
Gracelyn Smallwood AM, midwife, academic, NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2014^[8]^[9]
Samuel Wagan Watson, award-winning poet, narrator, and storyteller^[7]
Sam Watson, activist, writer, lecturer, and storyteller^[7]

Notes

Citations

^ Dixon 2002, p. xxxiii.
^ Tindale 1974, p. 166.
^ Tindale 1974, p. 166
^ "Gubulla Munda". Queensland. 27 October 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Huntsdale, Justin (3 May 2022). "Filmmaker Nathan Colquhoun captures sailor James Morrill's fight for Indigenous rights". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
^ Morrill, James (1863). "Sketch of a Residence Among the Aboriginals of Northern Queensland for Seventeen Years: being a narrative of my life, shipwreck, landing, on the coast, residence among the Aboriginals..." (Original text plus notes). Notes by Daniel Lavery, 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2022 – via James Cook University.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Austlit. "First Nations of the North-East - Who and Where are the Biri / Birri Gubba People?". AustLit. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
^ "National Co-design Group". Indigenous Voice.
^ "Smallwood, Gracelyn (1951-)", Trove, National Library of Australia

Sources

Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
Moore, Clive (1990). "Blackgin's Leap: A Window into Aboriginal-European Relations in the Pioneer Valley, Queensland in the 1860s" (PDF). Aboriginal History. 14 (1): 61–79.
Smyth, Robert Brough (1878). The Aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the natives of other parts of Australia and Tasmania (PDF). Vol. 1. Melbourne: J. Ferres, gov't printer.
Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Biria (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press.