TheBuluwai are anindigenous Australian people of the state ofQueensland.
The Buluwai are a rainforest people of theAtherton Tableland, occupying, according toNorman Tindale, some 200 square miles (520 km2) in the area east ofTolga, and extending on north toKuranda,[1] and in a south-westerly direction toTinaroo. TheBarron River formed their coastal limit.[2]
The Buluwai language was recorded byNorman Tindale in 1938 during the 'Harvard and Adelaide Universities Anthropological Expedition, Australia, 1938-1939'.
Oxycanus buluwandji is a moth of the familyHepialidae, often referred to as swift moths or ghost moths. The family is considered primitive with at least 587 moths identified worldwide, including southernGondwana distribution. Adult moths have greyish brown forewings each with a faint pale pattern. The hindwings are red shading to grey along the margins. The head and thorax have fawn patterns, and the abdomen is red. The wingspan is about 12 cms.
Norman Tindale first described the Buluwandji ghost moth in 1964 and named it after the Buluwai people where the moth was found.
TheSeventh-day Adventists established a mission on Buluwai lands in 1930 calling itMona Mona Mission. According to contemporary Buluwai elder Willie Brim, the missionaries imposed a highly regimented 'Christian' way of life. The Mission was closed down in 1962.[3]
Today most descendants identify themselves with theDjabugay people, though some Buluwai maintain a separate identity[4] as a Bama group.[3]