The Yidiny (also spelt Yidindj, Yidinji or Yidiñ), are an Aboriginal Australian people in Far North Queensland. Their language is the Yidiny language.
Language
The last fluent speakers of
Yidiny language were Tilly Fuller (d. October 1974), George Davis (b.1919), Dick Moses (b.1898) and his sister Ida Burnett of
Albino Rock. A substantial part of the language has been analysed and recorded by Robert M. W. Dixon.
Country
The Yidiny lands were in lowland rainforest areas, stretching from Barron River near
Cairns down to the south, where their borders met those of the
Ngajanji and the
Mamu people. To their north were the coastal
Djabugay people. In
Norman Tindale's calculation, the Yidiny tribal lands were estimated to cover some . These included the areas of Deeral north to Barron River north of Cairns. Their inland extension ran as far as
Mount Hypipamee. Their eastern boundary was on the crest of the Prior Range.
Today, there are four traditional owner groups representing the peoples of the Cairns region. One of these groups represents the Yidinji clans, and comprises Gimuy Walubara Yidinji, Dulabed Malanbarra and Yidinji, Mandingalbay Yidinji and Wadjanbarra Tableland Yidinji.
History of contact
Colonisation
The Yidiny, along with most other tribal peoples in the tropical rainforest regions (from
Cairns to Ingham) and the Atherton Tableland, were killed or otherwise forced off their homelands to further the establishment of white settlements,
and
sugarcane plantations. In 1938, a Mr. Jack Kane recalled his own participation in one of these massacres, describing a week-long campaign in 1884 during which Queensland police and native troopers encircled a Yidiny camp—at what became known as Skull Pocket—several miles north of
Yungaburra; at dawn, a shot was fired from across the camp to force the inhabitants to flee, and, as they scattered into the surrounding terrain, they were ambushed and shot down. The native police reportedly stabbed or smashed the heads of the children. One group of the Yidiny broke off from the rest of the tribe in the early period of settlement, and, after shifting to the area of the present-day Redlynch, asserted a distinctive identity by calling themselves the
Djumbandji. This group took over a part of
Buluwai territory.
Starting around 1910, those who remained—even within the areas of white settlements—were the focus of a Queensland Government campaign of assimilation by the Anglicanism at Yarrabah (on the Cape Grafton). By the 1920s, as each tribe was weakened by dispersal and fragmentation, the different elders formed a plan to organise themselves into a more viable political unit, in the form of a macro-tribe; the merger failed to take hold, due to the distinct linguistic differences between groups.
Sovereignty
In 2014, 40 members of the Yidiny people, 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.
Social organisation
The Yidiny were composed of several
, with
Norman Tindale (1974) reporting five:
Newer sources list eight:
-
Walubarra Yidi (the traditional custodians of the area around and including the city of Cairns; Gimuy is the traditional name of the area)
-
Wadjanbarra Yidi
-
Bundabarra Yidi
-
Gulgibarra Yidi
-
Wujnur/Bindabarra Yidi
-
Mandigalpi Yidi
-
Badjabarra Yidi
-
Mallanbarra Yidi
Alternative names
-
Bolambi (from the personal name of one of the tribe's former leaders)
-
Charroogin
-
Djumbandji
-
Idi (abbreviated autonym)
-
Idin
-
Idinji
-
Itti
-
Jumbandjie
-
Maiara
-
Maimbi
-
Mulgrave River dialect (Archibald Meston)
-
Myarah
-
Yellingie
-
Yettingie
-
Yidin
-
Yidindji, Yidindyi
Notes
Citations
Sources
