Yuin


The ethnonym Yuin refers to a group of Australian Aboriginal people from the South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, one or more of the Yuin language dialects, including Djiringanj, Thaua, Walbanga, Wandandian and Dhurga language, from Narooma to Nowra.

Name and identity

The name Yuin was selected by early Australian ethnographer, Alfred Howitt, to denote two distinct tribes of News South Wales, namely the Djiringanj and the Thaua. In Howitt's work, the Yuin were divided into northern and southern branches.
The term "Yuin" is commonly used by South Coast Aboriginal people to describe themselves, although in a 2016 New South Wales native title application for land overlapping Yuin country, "South Coast people" is used.
The native title application depends on establishing the South Coast Aboriginal people as a distinct and continuing group that has existed since colonisation. South Coast Aboriginal people have identified 59 apical ancestors that lived during the settlement of the region in 1810-1830; current South Coast Aboriginal people are either descended from these ancestors or integrated into families that descend from these ancestors.
In 2018, the National Native Title Tribunal ruled that the South Coast people represent a "single cohesive kinship population" going back to colonisation, governed by shared rules, with a "single system of religion" centred on the figure Darhumulan, a marine-based economy, sacred sites that continue to be recognised, exogamous marriage rules, and a male initiation ceremony called Bunan.

Country

The country the Yuin ancestors occupied, used, and enjoyed reached across from Cape Howe to the Shoalhaven River and inland to the Great Dividing Range. Their descendants claim rights to be recognized as the traditional owners of the land and water from Merimbula to the southern head of the sea entrance of the Shoalhaven River. The Yuin people consisted of 12 clans at the time of European arrival in the area.
Three of the Yuin groups include:
During the push in the late 1970s and early 1980s to protect Mumbulla Mountain, Wallaga Lake people led by Guboo Ted Thomas described the Yuin tribe as "shar the one walkabout from Mallacoota in the south to the Shoalhaven River in the north".
In 2016, 12 applicants representing South Coast Aboriginals lodged a native title claim in the Federal Court for Yuin country in New South Wales. The claim is made by 52 family groups and was approved by more than 500 Aboriginal people. The claim extends into the ocean and includes traditional fishing rights. In 2018, the registration was accepted.

History

The population before 1788 has been estimated at about 11 000 between Cape Howe and Batemans Bay. The population was reduced to only 600 by the mid nineteenth century due to smallpox epidemics in 1789 and 1830, as well as tribal battles and the spread of venereal disease from whalers.
The Eurobodalla Shire Council signed a Local Agreement with the Yuin people in 1998. In 2001, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Bega, Eden and Merrimans Local Aboriginal Land Councils, the Native Title Holders and the Bega Valley Shire Council.
The Yuin at Twofold Bay near Eden had mutual cooperation with the killer whales of Eden.

Places

The Yuin are considered as the traditional owners of Wallaga Lake land. The former Wallaga Lake National Park is incorporated into Gulaga National Park.
Merriman Island in Wallaga Lake is a sacred place for the Yuin people. On 25 November 1977, it was the first place in New South Wales to be declared an Aboriginal Heritage site by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service. The island was named after King Merriman, leader of the Yuin, who died in 1904. His Aboriginal name was Umbarra. His wife was Queen Narelle.
Mumbulla Mountain, located in the middle of Bega Valley Shire, was named in November 1973, after Jack Mumbulla, who was a senior man of the Yuin people. Mumbulla Mountain is the central place of significance in Biamanga National Park. Certain areas have been recognised as a ceremonial meeting places for Aboriginal men and women.
Mount Dromedary, recently renamed Gulaga Mountain, in the Gulaga National Park, is described by Aboriginal people as the place of ancestral origin for Yuin people. Gulaga itself symbolises the mother and provides a basis for Aboriginal spiritual identity, for Aboriginal women and men.
On 6 May 2006 the freehold titles to Gulaga and Biamanga National Parks were handed back to the Yuin people by the New South Wales Government. Freehold title of Gulaga National Park will be held in trust for the aboriginal owners by Merrimans and Wagonga Local Aboriginal Lands Councils, while that of Biamanga will be held in trust by Merrimans and Bega Local Aboriginal Lands Councils.
Montague Island is known to the Yuin people as Barranguba. Barranguba is regarded as being the son of Gulaga, along with Najanuga; Barranguba being the oldest son and allowed out to sea, whereas Najanuga had to stay close to his mother.

Kinship

The exact arrangement of Yuin kinship before colonisation is not clear, although early ethnographers reported that they did not have a moiety or section system. Instead, Yuin kinship would have involved "extensive networks of relatedness within and between exogamous intermarrying country groups".

Kinship with the natural world

Yuin people had, and in many cases still have, spiritual, mutual relationships with an aspect of the natural world. These spiritual connections are represented by animals, and these connections come with obligations and relationships, not just to the animal but to other humans and to places and things associated with that animal.
Anthropologist Alfred William Howitt briefly described Yuin spiritual connections with animals in 1904, in The native tribes of south-east Australia. Howitt, and other early ethnographers, used the Ojibwe term "totem" to describe these spiritual connections, as they saw commonalities between Aboriginal Australian spiritual connections to animals and those of First Nations and Native Americans. The term is not widely used by Yuin and the term "totemism" is not well-regarded by them, but Yuin authors often use the term "totem" in works for wider audiences.
Yuin believe these spiritual animals to have been made in the Dreamtime by an ancestral creator, although not all spiritual animals have Dreamtime stories associated with them. Dreamtime stories for the creation of the diving birds and the black swan are recorded by Susan Dale Donaldson.
The best known Yuin spiritual animals are the Pacific Black Duck and the Black Swan. The Black Duck was the moojingarl of King Merriman, who is named Umbarra after it, and a duck-shaped island in Wallaga Lake is named Merriman Island. Umbarra was believed to communicate with black ducks, who would warn him of danger.
In 2003, Rose, James and Watson identified six levels of "interacting beings" spoken of by the Yuin, also described as "families within families" by Yuin woman Mary Duroux. The six families described are:
  1. Beings interacting with the Yuin nation
  2. Beings interacting with tribes or named groups ;
  3. Beings interacting with families ;
  4. Beings interacting with skin groups ;
  5. Initiation totems and names ;
  6. Beings interacting with specific individuals.
A Yuin's responsibilities to these beings, and their responsibilities to that Yuin, varied depending on the level of the relationship. For example, while a Yuin is expected to protect animals of their moojingarl, Guboo Ted Thomas described no obligation to protect the black duck as his relationship with it was only on a "nation" level.
Donaldson also briefly mentions "gender totems".
Some animals, including the Black Duck, can have spiritual connections with Yuin at any of these levels. Yuin typically do not eat animals with which they have a spiritual connection, which are considered part of their extended family – restrictions which may extend to related animals.
Yuin elder Randall Mumbler describes the significance of the different levels of connection:
Susan Dale Donaldson has assembled a preliminary list of Yuin spiritual connections, consisting of 20 birds, two marine animals, seven terrestrial mammals and three reptiles.

Beings interacting with the Yuin nation

The Black Duck is the symbol for the Yuin people, and may be particularly significant for Yuin who may not have a moojingarl or do not know their family's spiritual connection due to dispossession and assimilation. Yuin have a spiritual connection with Mount Gulaga, believed to be the origin of the Yuin. From Gulaga, Merriman Island is visibly duck-shaped.

Beings interacting with tribes or named groups

Genealogist and researcher Dave Tout, a relative of King Merriman, has identified at least four groups and their spiritual connection:
In 1904, the ethnologist Howitt described Yuin "totems" as patrilineal, and gave budjan, mura and jimbir as Yuin terms for these "totems". Errors in Howitt's account that have been identified by contemporary Yuin include his use of budjan for "totem" and that inheritance was only patrilineal, as there is also matrilineal inheritance of family connections.
Marriage should be exogamous between family groups, as determined by the spiritual connections of those families. However, these family connections are no longer a "a strong element" of contemporary Yuin kinship. To the extent that they are known, family spiritual connections are inherited, and there are still some Yuin families associated with certain animals. Many family connections are with birds – in which case they may be called "family birds".

Skin groups

Multiple Yuin have described a system of "skin groups" that would "govern social behaviours and interaction, determining those with whom individuals can talk, marry, trade, as well as identifying their natural enemies". However, most Yuin these days are "not familiar with this level of the system".

Initiation totems and names

Howitt described a "medicine man" bestowing a "second totem" on a Yuin man at his initiation. Contemporary Yuin describe the process as a "discussion" between elder and initiand about which animal is personally significant, rather than a bestowal, and variously describe the spiritual connection as a "secret" or "ceremonial" one, or as a "personal" one.
Donaldson says that ceremonial connections are earned by Yuin who "attain a certain ritual status". Many ceremonial relationships are with fish. Ceremonial connections are associated to the "specialised powers" that "clever people" have, such as Umbarra's power to turn into a whirlwind.
Yuin women may receive up to four new names during their spiritual training. The first two level names are open but the third and fourth are secret. However, unlike other kinship relationships described here, the names are not those of animals; examples include plant names, sacred place names, spirit women names and the word for "female warrior".

Beings interacting with specific individuals ("moojingarl")

The Yuin word for a personal spiritual connection with an animal, moojingarl, literally means "my friend" and involves reciprocity with that animal and a place or places where it is commonly found. Yuin typically do not marry people with connections to the same personal or family beings.
A moojingarl is believed to "appear" unexpectedly, with its behaviour variously indicating approval, that all is well or that danger approaches. A person's "spirit" is expected to return to their moojingarl, so the appearance of a dolphin may remind viewers of a relative whose moojingarl was the dolphin. A moojingarl is believed to reveal itself to a Yuin person, rather than be chosen for them.
King Merriman described to Howitt that his black duck budjan resided in his breast, and that if it were killed, Merriman would die as well. Merriman describes an attack by a person of the lace-lizard "totem", who sent a lace-lizard to crawl down Merriman's throat; it almost managed to eat the budjan in his breast.
Yuin elder Harrison says that your "personal totem" is "whatever comes near you when you are born".

Spiritual beliefs

Messenger birds

Some Yuin believe in "messenger birds" or "mail birds", who are believed to communicate with their calls. Mopokes calling from a particular direction indicate that people are approaching from a particular direction or that a death occurred in the direction from which they are coming. Willie wagtails deliver bad news, like the death of a loved one, and swans flying north indicate approaching storms. Yuin woman Eileen Morgan identifies four messenger birds, but also two mammals.
When angered, "wind birds" are believed to make the west wind blow by whistling.

''Dulagal''

Some Yuin believe in dulagal or "hairy man", a powerful being that lives on Mount Gulaga or in the bush between Bermagui and Mumbulla, but travels down to the coast. Guboo Ted Thomas describes him as having red eyes, no neck and a long forehead, and walking "from side to side". Yuin children were warned not to stray from the campsite for fear of dulagal, and he was said to be able to draw people to him or put them to sleep, and to imitate bird sounds. People could escape dulagal by burning green bush leaves. Yuin woman Eileen Morgan associates dulagal with the yowie, although that particular term was not used by the Yuin.

Alternative names

The Yuin are also known as: Djuin, Yuwin, Djiringanj, Dyirringan, Juwin.

Notable Yuin