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Koori (also spelt koorie, goori or goorie) is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians from a region that approximately corresponds to southern New South Wales and Victoria. The word derives from the Indigenous language Awabakal. For some people and groups, it has been described as a reclaiming of Indigenous language and culture, as opposed to relying on European titles such as "Aboriginal". The term is also used with reference to institutions involving Koori communities and individuals, such as the Koori Court, Koori Radio and Koori Knockout.
The Koori region is home to the largest proportion of Australia's Indigenous population (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), with 40.7% of Indigenous Australians living in either New South Wales or Victoria. Within the region however, Koori-identifying people make up only 2.9% and 0.8% of the overall populations of New South Wales and Victoria respectively. Most of this Koori population speak English in the home, although a small number do report continued usage of traditional Indigenous languages.
Koori culture is characterised by a commitment to the Dreaming, an overall worldview that believes in and values interconnectedness between the land and community. Koori art and literature continue to be produced in contemporary Australia, often with reference to traditional Indigenous artistic techniques.
The first recorded meeting between Koori people and Europeans occurred in 1770. Kooris have since experienced a sharp population decline, influenced by the colonisation of Australia by Europeans. The legacy of colonisation is still strongly felt, and has had ongoing ramifications for Koori life and wellbeing.
More unique to the Koori population is the prevalence of artistic "Shellcraft", using shells found in the coastal environment to decorate ornamental pieces. Documents from the 1880s detail Koori women selling shell craft baskets and decorative shoes to settler women at markets in La Perouse and Circular Quay, a practice that appears unique to the Sydney area.
Shell craft has continued to be of importance to the modern Koori population, with a 2008 exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney incorporating Indigenous shell craft. In 2005, Koori shell artist Esme Timbery won the Parliament of New South Wales Indigenous Art Prize for her shell-adorned model of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The economic prevalence of Koori shell craft, too, has increased in contemporary Indigenous art history. While in 2005, shell craft shoes retailed for approximately AUD$20, a pair sold for AUD$140 at a Sydney gallery in 2009.
Also unique to the Koori region were possum-skin cloaks, traditionally gifted to Koori newborns. The cloaks were embellished with the markings of the newborn's clan and family, and were added to as the child grew, to represent a kind of Koori "autobiography". Although the craft of possum-skin cloaks has declined, it is being revived by contemporary Koori artists such as Kelly Koumalatsos.
There are some attempts to revive Koori languages. In New South Wales, the number of Koori families speaking an Indigenous language at home is on the rise. Census data indicates that the number of New South Wales Indigenous language speakers increased by 123% between 2006 and 2016. The New South Wales Government's Aboriginal Languages Act was enacted in 2017 in an attempt to preserve Indigenous languages.
In addition to traditional languages, Kooris may also speak "Koori English", the dialect of English spoken by Kooris within their communities. The dialect developed from the pidgin English used by Kooris to communicate with settlers at the time of colonisation. It employs nonverbal language cues such as silences, gestures and lip pursing. Some grammatical elements of Koori English may persist from traditional Indigenous languages, such as distinct ways of marking plural nouns.
Historically, "birthing trees" were essential to Koori birthing rituals. These were trees used as the sites of births, where mothers, families and communities could congregate to deliver the baby and welcome it to country. Sometimes, the placenta would be buried under the birthing tree to symbolise the newborn's connection to country. A Koori birthing tree in Western Victoria has received status as a significant tree on the Australian Register of the National Trust in recognition of its importance to the Koori population.
In New South Wales, small tools used for processing plants and hunting have been discovered to be approximately 10,000 years old. Fishhooks appear to have been widely used across the Koori coastline as early as 1000 years ago. These fishhooks appear to originate from outside of Australia, possibly from the Torres Strait or Polynesia, indicating a system of regional trade.
Koori material culture was observed, such as the use of watercraft, weaponry and tools, but there was little European documentation of Koori religious and cultural life during this voyage. The Indigenous groups of Botany Bay did not accept Cook's trade offerings and resisted farther encroachment of the explorers onto Koori territory.
Over the century following colonisation, there occurred a steep decline in the Aboriginal population. Approximations of overall Indigenous population decline range from 80 to 96%, with estimates of around 80% in the Koori region in the first 20 years of contact. Generally accepted estimates approximate that 2000 non-Aboriginals (mostly Europeans) and 20,000 Aboriginals were killed in armed conflict between the two groups. This included the Waterloo Creek massacre on New South Wales Koori territory in 1837, during which an estimated 200–300 Kooris were killed. In the 1830s and 40s, the Western District of Victoria was recorded as one of the two worst regions for violence. Sexual violence also occurred, particularly towards Koori women and children, sometimes resulting in death or infertility.
Many Kooris also died from of European diseases to which they had no tolerance. In 1791, all but two of the Koori inhabitants of inner Sydney died of smallpox or chickenpox. Another smallpox epidemic affected the New South Wales and Victoria regions in 1830. Deaths also occurred due to sexually transmitted infections, transported to Australia by the settlers. In Port Phillip, Victoria, two-thirds of the Koori population died of sexually transmitted infections.
In 1937, New South Wales Koori activist William Ferguson founded the Aborigines Progressive Association in Sydney to protest the oppression of the Aborigines Protection Board. Approximately 1000 Indigenous Australians attended the organisation's first rally in Sydney on 26 January 1938.
From the 1970s, the policies of segregation and assimilation began to shift. New South Wales adopted the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle in 1987, mandating that an Indigenous family be chosen for the rehoming of Koori children wherever possible. In 1997, the premiers of both New South Wales and Victoria apologised for the historic mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, including an apology for the Stolen Generation, and affirmed their commitment to reconciliation.
In New South Wales, 7.6% of the Indigenous population are profoundly or severely Disability, compared to 5.6% of non-Indigenous individuals, and this gap is widening. Additionally, New South Wales Kooris with a disability tend to be younger: 36% of the Indigenous disabled population in New South Wales is under 25, compared to 12.7% of the non-Indigenous.
New South Wales Kooris are less likely to be in the labour force, with an underemployment rate of 43% compared to 35.9% of non-Koori residents. The professional services industry has the highest divergence, with non-Koori employees three times as likely to work in this sector.
These statistics are mirrored in youth detention. In New South Wales, Koori children aged 10–17 were sixteen times more likely to be in detention on an average day in 2018 and 2019. In Victoria, they were 10 times as likely.
New South Wales has several Youth Koori Courts, the first of which was established in Parramatta in 2015.
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