Any imagery that does not reflect COVID-safe best practice has been taken pre-coronavirus restrictions. Museums Victoria acknowledges the Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri) and Boonwurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations where we work, and First Peoples language groups and communities across Victoria and Australia. The heads of each clan would represent the clan at council meetings of clan-heads – these meetings having a similar function to local and regional government assemblies of today. One example is the cultivation and management of the Yam Daisy (Microseris lanceolata) whose highly nutritious tubers were gathered by the Koorie women using digging sticks. Wurundjeri is now the common term for descendants of all the Woiwurrung clans. Whilst Robinson had experience working with Aborigines in Van Diemen’s Land, none of the assistants had any such experience, all arriving from England by ship in 1839, along with their wives and a total of twenty-two children. The Eastern Kulin nation of Koories, the First Nations people of the Port Phillip area of Victoria have lived here for well over 40,000 years. APPENDIX: KULIN NATIONS FACT SHEET KULIN NATIONS The Kulin nations are the five language groups that traditionally lived in the Port Phillip region. through shared moieties – the Bunjil (wedge tailed eagle) and Waa (crow). Possum fur was made into a length of yarn then rolled into a ball and used in a Koorie game called Marn grook, a game that has some similarities with what we now call AFL football. It was hoped that the Protectorate would achieve conciliation between Europeans and Koories in the Port Phillip settlement. All of these significant people along with many others were crucial in organizing a number of active campaigns to promote Koorie rights and support their causes into the 1950s and 60s and their legacy prevails until the present day. The 1881 march was a 60-kilometre walk from Coranderrk to Parliament. Four clans of the Woi wurrung shared a common language and together claimed the Yarra River catchment area as their homeland. The Eastern Kulin nation consists of five major clans – the Boon wurrung, Woi wurrung, Taung wurrung, Ngurai-illum wurrung and Wutha wurrung. Resin and gum were used as a type of glue and medicines were derived from various plant gums, sap, fruit, leaves, bark and roots. Actions included two protest marches in 1874 and 1881 and in each case the land was saved as a consequence. Later in 1859, land comprising 1821 hectares located near the junction of the Little and Acheron Rivers (near Taggerty) was chosen and initially settled by eighty Kulin people. Check out current activities in Wurundjeri Walk at the following site: Manna Gum scar tree at Wingrove Park Eltham (Eltham District Historical Society), Mia Mia – Yarra Tribe (State Library of Victoria), Queen Eliza of the Yarra Yarra Tribe wearing an animal skin cloak (State Library of Victoria), Winter Quarters Maloga Mission Station ca 1883 (State Library of Victoria), The Sheep Dip Maloga Mission Station ca 1883 (State Library of Victoria), Doug Nicholls-Indigenous Victorian Aussie Rules footballer 1931, Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls, Governor of South Australia and Ben Mason (ex Mt Margaret Mission)-(State Library of WA), Mrs Margaret Tucker, (Princess Lilardia), with a photograph of her birthplace Maloga (Cumeroogunga) in the Aborigines Welfare Board office, Sydney (State Library of NSW), The Inaugural Meeting of the Blackburn South Recreation Trail (later to become Wurundjeri Walk) Committee of Management (1988), Sai Baba Community Group Plantings (1999 & 2000), Bungalook Community Indigenous Plant Nursery (2001), Advisory Committee Members and Council Representatives, An estimated 15,000 Koories lived in the District at the time of white settlement, In 1877 this was reduced to 1,067 Koories, By Federation in 1900 the figure was 650 Koories. The regular incursion into East Kulin lands by Europeans in the first three decades of the nineteenth century coincided with the onset and spread of a number of diseases that had a profound negative impact on local Koories well before their lands were physically appropriated. As the seasons and food sources demanded they travelled through country hunting and gathering food including kangaroo, possum, emu, birds, fish, yabbies, eels, shellfish, seasonal edible plants, seeds and vegetables. In 1988 as part of Australia’s Bicentenary, the City of Nunawading installed a plaque in the civic centre grounds from the Indigenous community. However issues with the Trustees (all local squatters who were not sympathetic to the Kulin cause), poor soil and the cold winter forced one of the leaders of the Woi wurrung, William Barak and his cousin Simon Wonga, to organize a walk off from this station. Please see our frequently asked questions to learn more about how we are supporting your safety. The Protectorate began its work very slowly and was ineffectual in achieving its goal of reconciliation. Wathawurrung covered an area that took in Geelong and Ballarat. John Batman travelled to the Port Phillip District in mid-1835 with a contract to ‘purchase’ a quarter million hectares of lands owned by the local Koorie clans.