The Yuwibara, also written Yuibera and Juipera and also known as Yuwi, after their language, are an Aboriginal Australian people, originating from the area around present-day Mackay, on the east coast of Queensland, Australia.^[1][2]

Traditional lands of various Australian Aboriginal tribes around Gladstone.

Country

According to Norman Tindale's classification, the Yuibera lands, starting from Mackay, were calculated to encompass roughly 1,100 square miles (2,800 km²), ran from St. Helens south to Cape Palmerston and inland reached as far as the Connors Range.^[3] The Gia were to their north; the Biri in the area northwest of them; Wiri lay on their western flank, and beyond them the Barna. To their south were the Barada and, along the coast, the Koinjmal.^[4] The Yuibera were restricted to the coastal end of the Pioneer Valley, and were one of four peoples within 84 kilometres (52 mi) of Mackay.^[5]

History

Language

The Yuwi language, probably a dialect of Biri or one of its dialects, Wiri, if it was distinct at all, was recorded as having no speakers left,^[11] but since the 2010s work has been done to revive knowledge of the language from what remains in the early records.^[12][13]

Culture

The spiritual connection of the Yuwibara people with Cape Hillsborough continues to the present, and men's ceremonies are still performed along the mangrove boardwalk. Mount Jukes, too, was home to a men's ceremonial site, which is still visited each year by Yuwibara elders, who speak of a large spirit walking around the camping grounds.^[6][1]

Food

While Yuwibara women specialised in hunting freshwater turtles in the wetlands and swamps, the men would hunt sea turtles and dugong in the sea grass of the shore of Cape Hillsborough. The fat of dugong was even mixed with wax to form glue for spears. Moreover, fish, mud crabs, snakes, wallabies and brush turkeys formed an important part of their diet. Many different fruits were also eaten, including those from the Randia fitzalanii (native gardenia) and Mimusops elengi (Tanjong tree).^[1]

Utilisation of other natural products

• The bark of the Melaleuca viridiflora (broad-leafed tea tree) was used to build huts while the leaves were bruised in water which was then ingested for medicinal purposes.
• The wood of the Acacia aulacocarpa (hickory wattle) was used to make digging sticks and spears while its seeds were used to make flour.
• The Xanthorrhoea semiplana (grass tree) was used to make spear shafts and to start fires while its flowers were used to sweeten drinks.
• The wood of the Corymbia dallachiana (ghost gum) burns well in wet conditions and was thus often used as firewood while its sap was used for medicinal purposes.
• While the fruit of the Exocarpos latifolius (native cherry) was eaten, the wood and bark was burnt to repel mosquitoes.
• The wood of the Flindersia schottiana (silver ash) was used to manufacture tools.
• While the fruit of the Elaeocarpus grandis (blue quandong) was eaten, its seeds were also used for decoration and its buttress roots were used to make shields and paddles.
• The bark of the Alstonia scholaris (milky pine) was ground to a powder which was then used as a glue to attach feathers to skin for ceremonies.
• The fruit of the Morinda citrifolia (cheese fruit) was used for medicinal purposes while its roots were used for weaving or as string and its leaves were used to wrap up food for cooking.
• The fruit of the Terminalia sericocarpa (damson) was eaten while other parts of the plant were used as fish poison.
• While the fruit of the Ficus racemosa (cluster fig) was edible, the sap was used to relieve diarrhoea.
• The stems of the Flagellaria indica (supple jack) were split and used for sewing and fibre while other parts were used for medicinal purposes.^[14]

Burial customs

The Yuwibara and other Mackay area tribes are said by early ethnographers to have called a man's spirit meeglo, and to have used the term to describe the first whites they encountered, believing them to be embodiments of their forefathers.^[15] An informant of Robert Brough Smyth and resident in Mackay, George Bridgman, noted with regard to area's tribal burial customs that:

he heard a funeral oration delivered over the grave of a man who had been a great warrior which lasted more than an hour. The corpse was borne on the shoulders of two men, who stood at the edge of the grave. During the discourse he observed that the orator spoke to the deceased as if he were still living and could hear his words. Burial in the district in which Mr. Bridgman lives is only a formal ceremony, and not an absolute disposal of the remains. After lying in the ground for three months or more, the body is disinterred, the bones are cleaned, and packed in a roll of pliable bark, the outside of which is painted and ornamented with strings of beads and the like. This, which is called Ngobera, is kept in the camp with the living. If a stranger who has known the deceased comes to the camp, the Ngobera is brought out towards evening, and he and some of the near relations of the dead person sit down by it, and wail and cut themselves for half an hour. Then it is handed to the stranger, who takes it with him and sleeps by the side of it, returning it in the morning to its proper custodian. Women and children who die, Mr. Bridgman says, are usually burnt.^[16]

Alternative names

• Yuipera
• Juwibara^[3]

Natural resource management

A Traditional Owner Reference Group consisting of representatives of the Yuwibara, Koinmerburra, Barada Barna, Wiri, Ngaro, and those Gia and Juru people whose lands are within Reef Catchments Mackay Whitsunday Isaac region, helps to support natural resource management and look after the cultural heritage sites in the area.^[18]

Some words

Notes

Sources