Wurundjeri Week
Published on 27 July 2023
Wurundjeri Week (7 - 13 August) is a time to recognise, remember and celebrate the Traditional Owners of the land we live on: the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.
Hume City Council recognises the rich Aboriginal heritage within the municipality and acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, which includes the Gunung-Willam-Balluk clan, as the Traditional Custodians of this land. Council embraces Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander living cultures as a vital part of Australia’s identity and recognises, celebrates and pays respect to the existing family members of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and to Elders past, present and future.
Visit the website of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation – here you can learn the story of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, including their Ancestors and Past, Recent Past and the Present and Significant Places.
There are a range of resources available to learn more about Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung history and culture.
- For a historical overview of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, watch Episode 3 of the First Australians documentary series provides a great historical overview.
- On an historic day in the Victorian Parliament in 2017, Wurundjeri Elders addressed the Legislative Assembly in English and Woi-wurrung language to explain their connection with the Yarra River and the importance of protecting the river for generations to come. You can watch the address.
- First Languages Australia has produced a video with Mandy Nicholson speaking Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung to celebrate Indigenous languages, the people who speak them, to keep them alive and to help others to learn more. Watch Mandy Nicholson – Woiwurrung.
- You can also watch Our Mother Tongue Woiwurrung – a video by ABC Indigenous with Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy speaking about the power of language and teaching the mother language of the Wurundjeri people.
- If you want to learn more about Scar Trees, watch this short video about Yingabeal: The Wurundjeri Scarred Tree at Heide Museum of Modern Art.
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The Sunbury Rings Cultural Landscape is a culturally significant landscape near Jackson’s Creek, Mount Holden and Salesian College in Sunbury. The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung own the freehold to the Sunbury Rings Cultural Landscape and the Wurundjeri’s Narrap land management team conduct their own conservation works including cultural burns to reduce weeds, and rabbit proof fencing to protect the rings. Hume Council has supported the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung’s Narrap team with land management work to protect ecology. There are five known Earth rings in Victoria. Three of these are located in Sunbury. The rings, also known as Bora rings, are believed to be over 1,000 years old and used for ceremonies, although cultural knowledge has been lost due to colonisation and it is unclear exactly what type of ceremonies were held at this particular site. For more information see Wurundjeri Properties – significant places.
- Hume Libraries has two picture books by Senior Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy, illustrated by Trawlwoolway Artist Lisa Kennedy
Wilam: a Birrarung Story (the story of the Yarra River)
Welcome to Country by Aunty Joy Murphy