Lithgow has an indigenous history that goes back over 40,000 years.

As has been the case with many indigenous nations, European colonization meant a massive loss of local knowledge of nature, language & culture, and the Wiradjuri Nation, the predominant indigenous culture of the Lithgow Region, has not been immune.

The Mingaan Aboriginal Corporation, was formed in 2008 and is dedicated to promoting, protecting & preserving the local Wiradjuri culture.

Of the traditional ceremonies still being conducted in the Region, the Smoking ceremony & the Welcome to Country ceremony are probably the most important.

Specific details about the Welcome to Country ceremony at this year's Ironfest will be posted here in the very near future.

photo by Glenda Phipps

About the Wiradjuri Nation & a Brief History

The Wiradjuri Nation is one of the largest Aboriginal nations in Australia.

It extends from the east, near present day Lithgow, to the west near Hay, north to Nyngan and south to Albury.

The Wiradjuri name means people of the three rivers, the rivers being the Macquarie, the Lachlan & the Murrumbidgee.

Pre European settlement, the Wiradjuri people were a hunter-gatherer society, made up of small clans or family groups whose movements followed seasonal food gathering and ritual patterns.

The Wiradjuri diet included yabbies and fish such as Murray cod from the rivers. In dry seasons, they ate kangaroos, emus and food gathered from the land, including fruit, nuts, yam daisies, wattle seeds, and orchid tubers. Some Wiradjuri tribes also travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on Bogong moths.

The Wiradjuri were known for their handsome possum-skin cloaks stitched together from several possum furs.

Governor Macquarie was presented with one of these cloaks by a Wiradjuri man when he visited Bathurst in 1815.

Although the Wiradjuri people were initially friendly toward the first Europeans to come into their lands, they did not passively accept the theft & destruction of their sacred sites & habitats.

Windradyne, a young local warrior lead a guerrilla campaign of resistance in what became known as the Bathurst Wars (click here for more information).

Today, major Wiradjuri populations can be found in the New South Wales towns of Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith and throughout larger regional areas such as Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Lithgow, down to Wagga Wagga in the south.

Sites of interest for the Wiradjuri Nation

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiradjuri

Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation:

http://www.wiradjuricondocorp.com/

Wiradjuri News

Wiradjuri Native Land Claim: Molong

(Click here for biased & skewed ABC news story)

(and here).

How iron is effecting the Yindjibarndi indigenous community:

Interesting Indigenous News

click here to read BBC coverage of this event.

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click here for story

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