Yidinji people
The Yidinji people, otherwise known as the Yidiñ, are an indigenous Australian tribal group in Far North Queensland. Members of the tribe traditionally spoke the Yidiny language.
Language
The last fluent speakers of Yidiny were Tilly Fuller (d.October, 1974), George Davis (b.1919), Dick Moses (b.1898) and his sister Idea Burnett of White Rock.[1][2]
History
The Yidinji, along with many other tribal people in the tropical rainforest areas from Cairns to Ingham, and the Atherton Tableland were cleared off their land to enable the establishment of cattle stations and sugar cane plantations. Starting around 1910, even those who remained in the area of white settlement were the object of a Queensland government policy of shifting them into the Anglican mission at Yarrabah. As each tribe was weakened by dispersal and fragmentation, the elders formed a counter plan in the 1920s to organize themselves into a more viable political unit, in the shape of a macro-tribe, but the merger fails to take hold, given the notable linguistic differences between groups.[1]
Native title
In 2014, 40 members of the Yidinji tribe, led by Murrumu Walubara Yidindji (formerly Jeremy Geia) renounced legal ties with Australia to form the Sovereign Yidindji Government, claiming sovereignty over the lands from south of Port Douglas to Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands, including territorial waters reaching eastwards 80km in the Pacific. The government thus formed presented itself as similar to that of Vatican City. Australian Professor of Law Megan Davis commented that there were no legal problems in the Australian government entering into a treaty with such groups. The issues were purely political, in her view. She likened the project to that of the scenario in the film Field of Dreams, stating that what you imagine can take on its own reality.[3]
Notes and references
Notes
- 1 2 Dixon 2015, p. 315.
- ↑ Dixon 1977, pp. 27-29.
- ↑ Howden 2015.
References
- Dixon, R. M. W. (1977). A Grammar of Yidin. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21462-9.
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2015). Edible Gender, Mother-in-Law Style, and Other Grammatical Wonders: Studies in Dyirbal, Yidiñ, and Warrgamay. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-191-00742-2.
- Howden, Saffron (2 November 2015). "Murrumu Walubara Yidindji renounces citizenship to reclaim Australia". The Age.