Worimi

This article is for the Indigenous Australian group. For their language see Worimi language. For their lands leased to NSW Parks and Wildlife, see Worimi conservation lands.

Worimi people are Indigenous Australians from the eastern Port Stephens and Great Lakes regions of coastal New South Wales, Australia.[1] Before contact with settlers, their people extended from Port Stephens in the south to Forster/Tuncurry in the north and as far west as Gloucester.[2][3][4] They were said to be taller and stouter than those living around Sydney and were said to be more prone to laughter than tears.[5]

Location

The Worimi indigenous people lived in and around Port Stephens and Great Lakes areas (on the coast of New South Wales approximately 60 kilometres north east of Newcastle city centre) from "the Myall Lakes in the north, to Barrington Tops in the west, and the Hunter River in the south".[3]

In July 2016, the New South Wales government declared 5.9 ha (14.6 acres) of the suburb of Soldiers Point to be an Aboriginal place, recognising that Soldiers Point was a special place for cultural, spiritual and historic reasons to the Worimi people.[6]

Lifestyle

The Worimi were, like most other Australian Indigenous people in Australia, hunter-gatherers. They subsisted on resources found within their tribal land areas. Marine food, especially shell-fish were preferred by those tribes that lived closest to the sea - the Maiangal, Gamipingal and the Grewerigal peoples. Due to the reliability of this resource it was preferred over land animals and vegetables. The latter two were used as supplementary foods and added variety to their diet. Animals that were abundant included kangaroos and goannas, possums, snakes and flying foxes. Vegetables eaten included fern roots, stalks of the Gymea lily, and the bloom of the banksia.[3]

Today the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council[7] is working closely with Worimi descendants to provide opportunities that promote, foster and protect the culture and heritage.

See also

References

  1. ↑ W.J. Enright, "Initiation Ceremonies of Aborigines of Port Stephens", Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, volume 33, 1900, pp.115-125; W.J. Enright, "The language, (Gadjang (also spelt Kattang, Kutthung, Gadhang, Gadang, Gathang), weapons and manufactures of the aborigines of Port Stephens", Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, volume 34, 1900, pp.103-118.
  2. ↑ W.J. Enright, “The Kattang (Kutthung) or Worimi: An Aboriginal Tribe”, Mankind, vol. 1, no. 4 March 1932.
  3. 1 2 3 Sokoloff, Boris (1980), The Worimi : hunter gatherers at Port Stephens, Raymond Terrace and District Historical Society, retrieved 8 November 2013
  4. ↑ John Armstrong, Yacaaba and Tomaree: A History of Port Stephens, Port Stephens (N.S.W.), Port Stephens Council, rev. ed., 1996.
  5. ↑ "Port Stephens History". Port Stephens Council. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
  6. ↑ "Soldiers Point declaration". Port Stephens Examiner. 7 July 2016. p. 15. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  7. ↑ "Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council". Retrieved 11 June 2016.

External links

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