 Ivaritji, a Kaurna elder and the last speaker of theKaurna language (photographed 1928) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| South Australia | |
| Languages | |
| Kaurna language &Australian Aboriginal English |
TheKaurna people (English:/ˈɡɑːrnə/,Kaurna:[ɡ̊auɳa]; alsoCoorna,Kaura,Gaurna and other variations) are a group ofAboriginal people whose traditional lands include theAdelaide Plains ofSouth Australia. They were known as theAdelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurna culture andlanguage were almost completely destroyed within a few decades of theBritish colonisation of South Australia in 1836. However, extensive documentation by early missionaries and other researchers has enabled a modern revival of both language and culture. The phraseKaurna meyunna means "Kaurna people".
The early settlers of South Australia referred to the various indigenous tribes of theAdelaide Plains andFleurieu Peninsula as "Rapid Bay tribe", "the Encounter Bay tribe", "the Adelaide tribe", the Kouwandilla tribe, "the Wirra tribe", "the Noarlunga tribe" (the Ngurlonnga band) and the Willunga tribe (the Willangga band).[1]
The extended family groups of the Adelaide Plains, who spoke dialects of a common language, were named according to locality, such asKawanda Meyunna (North men),Wirra Meyunna (Forest People),Pietta Meyunna (Murray River people),Wito Meyunna (Adelaide clan's former name),Tandanya (South Adelaide people), etc. – but they had no common name for themselves. The nameKaurna was not recorded until 1879, used byAlfred William Howitt in 1904,[2] but not widely used until popularised byNorman B. Tindale in the 1920s.[3] Most likely, it is anexonym introduced from theRamindjeri orNgarrindjeri wordkornar meaning "men" or "people".[3]
Kaurna meyunna, meaning Kaurna people,[4] is often used in greetings andWelcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies.[5][6]
Kaurna'war:a (Kaurna speech)[7] belongs to theThura-Yura branch of thePama–Nyungan languages.[8] The first word lists taken down of the Kaurna language date to 1826.[9] A knowledge of Kaurna language was keenly sought by many of the early settlers.William Williams and James Cronk were the first settlers to gain a working knowledge of the language, and to publish a Kaurna wordlist, which they did in 1840.[10] WhenGeorge Gawler, South Australia's third Governor, arrived in October 1838, he gave a speech to the local Indigenous population through a translator,William Wyatt (later third interimProtector of Aborigines), assisted by Williams and Cronk. Gawler actively encouraged the settlers to learn Kaurna, and advocated using the Kaurna names for geographic landmarks.[11]
In October 1838 two Germanmissionaries,Christian Teichelmann andClamor Schürmann, arrived on the same ship as Gawler in 1838, and immediately set about learning and documenting the language.[12] In December 1839, they opened a school atPiltawodli (in the westPark Lands north of theRiver Torrens) where the children were taught to read and write in Kaurna. Schurmann and Teichelmann (and laterSamuel Klose[13]) translated the Ten Commandments and a number of German hymns into Kaurna, with Schürmann attempting to 'Christianize' and 'civilize' the people.[14] Although they never achieved their goal of translating the entire Bible, their recorded vocabulary of over 2,000 words was the largest wordlist registered by that time, and pivotal in the modern revival of the language.[15]
Kaurna territory extended fromCape Jervis at the bottom of theFleurieu Peninsula toPort Wakefield on the eastern shore ofGulf St Vincent, and as far north asCrystal Brook in theMid North. Tindale claimedclans were found living in the vicinity ofSnowtown,Blyth,Hoyleton,Hamley Bridge,Clarendon,Gawler andMyponga. Thestringy bark forests over the back of theMount Lofty Ranges have been claimed as a traditional boundary between Kaurna andPeramangk people. Tunkalilla Beach (keinari), 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Cape Jervis, is the traditional boundary with theRamindjeri.[citation needed]
This is the most widely cited alignment of Kaurna territorial boundaries. However, according toRonald andCatherine Berndt the neighbouring Ramindjeri tribe asserts a historical territory including the whole southern portion of the Fleurieu Peninsula andKangaroo Island, extending as far north asNoarlunga[16][17] or even theRiver Torrens.[18] This overlaps with a significant portion of the territory claimed by both the Kaurna and the neighbouring Ngarrindjeri to the east. However, linguistic evidence suggests that the Aboriginal people encountered byColonel Light atRapid Bay in 1836 were Kaurna speakers.[19] The Berndts' ethnographic study, which was conducted in the 1930s, identified six Ngarrindjeri clans occupying the coast from Cape Jervis to a few kilometres south of Adelaide. The Berndts posited that the clans may have expanded along trade routes as the Kaurna were dispossessed by colonists.[17]
A main Kaurna presence was inTarndanyangga ("red kangaroo place") near theRiver Torrens and the creeks that flowed into it, an area that became the site of theAdelaide city centre. Kaurna people also resided in the suburb ofBurnside, and an early settler of the village ofBeaumont described the local people thus:
At every creek and gully you would see theirwurlies and their fires at night ... often as many as 500 to 600 would be camped in various places ... some behind the Botanic Gardens on the banks of the river; some toward the Ranges; some on theWaterfall Gully.[20]
Although Governors Hindmarsh (1836–1838) and Gawler (1838–1841) had orders to extend the protection of British law to the people and their property, the colonists' interests came first; their policy of "civilising" and "protecting" the Indigenous people nonetheless assumed a peaceful transfer of land to the settlers. All land was offered up for sale and bought by settlers.[21]
TheLutheran missionaries Christian Teichelmann and Clamor Schurmann studied Kaurna language and culture, and were able to inform the authorities of their exclusive ownership of land inherited through the paternal line. Gawler reserved several areas for the Kaurna people, but the settlers protested and these areas were subsequently sold or leased. Within ten years, all of the Kaurna and Ramindjeri lands were occupied by Europeans. Wild fauna disappeared as European garden practices were introduced and grazing animals destroyed the bulbs, lilies and tubers that the Kaurna had tended for food. Elders no longer had authority; their entire way of life had been undermined.[21]
The Kaurna may have numbered several thousand before European contact, but were down to about 700 by the time of the formal establishment of the colony in 1836.[22] Initially, contacts began with the arrival of sealers and whalers in the 1790s.[22] Sealers established themselves on Kangaroo Island as early as 1806, and raided the mainland for Kaurna women, both for the sexual opportunities and the workforce they could supply in skinning the sealers' prey.[9] Wary of Europeans from their experience with sealers, the Kaurna generally stayed aloof when the first colonists arrived.[23] The timing was important. Summer was a period when the Kaurna traditionally moved from the plains to the foothills, so that the initial settlement of the Adelaide area took place without any conflict.[24]
The population again severely declined upon the arrival of Anglo-European colonial settlers with South Australia Governor CaptainJohn Hindmarsh as Commander-in-chief in December 1836 atHoldfast Bay (nowGlenelg). According to an entry in theSouth Australian Register (30 January 1842), the Kaurna population numbered around 650.[25] They had suffered a serious drop in numbers in the early 1830s (and possibly again in 1889)[2] due to asmallpox epidemic which is thought to have originated in the eastern states and spread along theMurray River as Indigenous groups traded with each other.[26] This devastated their lives in every way.[2] An outbreak of typhoid, due to pollution by Europeans of theRiver Torrens, lead to many deaths and a rapid population decline, though accurate figures were not recorded.[26] Many contracted other diseases against which they lacked immunity, such asmeasles,whooping cough,typhus,dysentery and influenza. The groups lost their identities as they merged with others, and the Kaurna and Ramindjeri people were reduced to very few.[27] In the 1840s, Murray River people invaded, stealing women and children, while the government suppressed the Kaurna attempts at self-defence. Some Kaurna moved north to join other tribes.[28]
The Colonisation Commissioners had promised to protect the Aboriginal people and their property as well as making provision for their subsistence, education and advancement,[2] with the post ofProtector of Aborigines set up with this aim.William Wyatt was followed by the first official appointment in the role,Matthew Moorhouse, who held the post from 1839 to 1856. He reported in 1840 that many Kaurna were friendly and helpful, and that by 1840, about 150 spoke at least some English. Many Kaurna men, such asMullawirraburka ("King John") andKadlitpinna ("Captain Jack") helped the police and new settlers, also sharing their language, culture and beliefs with the missionaries.[29] An early settler inMarryatville,George Brunskill, reported that the "local Blacks" were harmless, did not steal, and returned borrowed items promptly.[30] Much goodwill was shown on both sides, but as the settler numbers grew, their drunkenness, violence, exploitation and failure to practise the reciprocity expected in Aboriginal culture soured the relationships.[31]
After a few incidents involving the executions of Aboriginal men after the murders of settlers, sometimes on flimsy evidence, and a blind eye turned to violence against Indigenous people, the situation escalated. TheMaria massacre of shipwrecked people on theCoorong led to further violent clashes and harsh penalties were imposed to protect the settlers. Missionaries Teichelmann and Schurmann, Protector Moorhouse and Sub-ProtectorEdward John Eyre questioned the use of a foreign legal code against the Indigenous peoples, and Moorhouse complained of police hostility towards Aboriginal people, but GovernorGeorge Grey stood firm, andmartial law was applied even where there had been little previous contact with the settlers.[32]
Moorhouse and Grey gave up trying to settle the local Aboriginal people as farmers, and discouraged settlement atPirltawardli. The 1847Vagrancy Act restricted their free movement.[33] Teichelmann tried to establish an Aboriginal mission settlement atHappy Valley, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Adelaide, but he lacked the means to develop the property or make farming a viable option for the Kaurna.[34] Many Kaurna people worked for the settlers and were well thought of, but the work was seasonal and the rewards inadequate, and their tribal obligations were not understood by their employers. Grey started the use ofrations to maintain the peace and to persuade the people to send their children to school.[35]
According to Moorhouse, "almost whole tribes" had disappeared by 1846,[36] and by the 1850s, there were few remaining Kaurna in the Adelaide area. In 1850 the children (mostly from the Murray River area, but including a few Kaurna[37]) at theNative School (which had been on Kintore Avenue since 1846) were transferred to thePoonindie Native Training Institution nearPort Lincoln, on theEyre Peninsula, over 600 kilometres (370 mi) away.[38] Moorhouse resigned as Protector in 1856, and in 1857 the position was abolished.[39]
The Kaurna people had to accept colonial domination more quickly than in other regions, and they mostly chose to co-exist peacefully with the settlers. Most, however, resisted the "civilising" policies of the government and the Christian teachings of the missionaries. Being so small in number by the 1850s, some were absorbed into the neighbouringNarungga orNgarrindjeri groups, and some married settlers.[27]
By 1860 the Kaurna were vastly outnumbered by the colonists, who numbered 117,727. Adults were also relocated from the city to places such asWillunga,Point McLeay, andPoint Pearce in the 1860s. In 1888 a German missionary reported that there was "scarcely one remaining".[27] Some of the Kaurna people settled at Point McLeay and Point Pearce married into local families, and full-blood Kaurna still lived at the missions and scattered in the settled districts in the late 19th century, despite the wide belief that the "Adelaide tribe" was extinct by the 1870s.[40]
Rations continued to be supplied in Adelaide and from ration depots in the country. Although the office of Protector was restored in 1861, the government did not play an active role in Aboriginal affairs, leaving their welfare to the missionaries. A Select Committee reported that the race was doomed to extinction. Some Aboriginal people (Kaurna and others) moved around and sometimes visited the city, camping inBotanic Park, then called the Police Paddocks. In 1874, 18 men and women were arrested and charged as "vagrants", and after a 14 days' imprisonment were sent back toGoolwa andMilang. Running battles between the police and similar groups continued for decades.[41]
History books about Adelaide have largely ignored the Aboriginal presence, andWomadelaide is held each year in Botanic Park without acknowledgement of the Aboriginal encampments 150 years ago on the same land. There is a tradition of performingcorroborees and dances dating back to the 1840s, including the "Grand Corroboree" at theAdelaide Oval in 1885 and corroborees at the beaches ofGlenelg andHenley Beach around the turn of the century. This huge omission in the history books has been described as "strategic forgetting" by anthropologistW. E. H. Stanner.[42]
The last surviving person of full Kaurna descent, a woman calledIvaritji (Amelia Taylor or Amelia Savage[43]) died in 1929.[44][a] Born inPort Adelaide in the late 1840s, her name means "gentle, misty rain" in the Kaurna language. Her father,Ityamai-itpina, known as "Rodney", was one of the leaders of the Kaurna and prominent in the early settlers' accounts.[43] She was responsible for identifying locations of cultural significance in the city, such as the lake in theAdelaide Botanic Garden andVictoria Square/Tarndanyangga, andWhitmore Square has been given her name in honour of the prior occupation of the land by the Kaurna people.[45]
Unlike the rest of Australia, South Australia was not considered to beterra nullius. The enactment of theSouth Australia Act 1834 which enabled the province of South Australia to be established, acknowledged Aboriginal ownership and stated that no actions could be undertaken that would "affect the rights of any Aboriginal natives of the said province to the actual occupation and enjoyment in their own persons or in the persons of their descendants of any land therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such natives". Although the Act guaranteed land rights under force of law for the Indigenous inhabitants, it was ignored by the South Australian Company authorities and squatters, who interpreted the Act to mean "permanently occupied".[46][47]
In 2000, a group called Kaurna Yerta Corporation[48] lodged anative title claim on behalf of the Kaurna people. The claim covers over 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi) of land stretching fromCape Jervis toPort Broughton, including the entireAdelaide metropolitan area.[49] TheRamindjeri people contested the southern portion of the original claim.[18] In March 2018 the determination was made and the Kaurna were officially recognised as thetraditional owners of the land from "Myponga to Lower Light". AnIndigenous land use agreement for the area was finalised on 19 November 2018.[50] The agreement was among theSouth Australian government, thefederal government and the Kaurna people, with formal recognition coming after theFederal Court judgement, 18 years after lodgement. This was the first claim for a first land use agreement to be agreed to in any Australian capital city. The rights coverAdelaide's whole metropolitan area and includes "17 parcels of undeveloped land not under freehold". Some of the land isCrown land, some belongs to the state government and some is private land owned by corporations. JusticeDebra Mortimer said it would be "the first time in Australia that there [had] been a positive outcome within the area of (native title) determination".[51][52]
In 2009, a group called Encompass Technology[53] wrote to the Governor of South Australia on behalf of the Kaurna people, asserting sovereignty over theMarble Hill ruins in theAdelaide Hills, and theWarriparinga Living Kaurna Cultural Centre inMarion, and claiming that they were owed nearly $50 million in rent.[53] The South Australian Government rejected the claim.[54]
The Kaurna people were ahunter-gatherer society, who changed their dwellings according to climatic conditions: in summer they would camp near the coastal springs fishing formulloway. With the onset of winter, they would retire to the woodlands, often using hollowed out fallenredgums along creeks, with bark extensions as shelters.[55] Sudden downpours could quench their fires, the maintaining of which was old women's work, with deadly consequences. At times they would have to impose themselves on otherwise despised tribes, such as theNgaiawang andNganguruku to trade goods like their cloaks, quartz flints and red ochre in order to obtain firesticks.[56]
Among their customs was the practice offire-stick farming (deliberately litbushfires for hunting purposes) in theAdelaide Hills, which the early European settlers spotted before the Kaurna were displaced. These fires were part of a scrub clearing process to encourage grass growth foremu andkangaroo.[57] This tradition led to conflict with the colonists as the fires tended to cause considerable damage to farmland. In an official report, MajorThomas O'Halloran claimed the Kaurna also used this as a weapon against the colonists by lighting fires to deliberately destroy fences, survey pegs and to scatter livestock. Due to this regular burning by the time the first Europeans arrived, the foothills' originalstringybark forests had been largely replaced with grassland. Since the late 1960s, restrictions on foothills subdivision and development have allowed regeneration of native trees and bush to a "natural" condition that would not have existed at the time of European occupation.[58]
Items of Kaurna material culture, such as traditional objects, spears, boomerangs and nets etc. are extremely rare. Interest in collecting and conserving Kaurna culture was not common until their display at the1889 Paris Exhibition spurred an interest in Indigenous culture, by which time the Kaurna traditional culture was no longer practised. Many hundreds of objects were sent to the Paris exhibition and these were never returned to Australia.[citation needed]
The Kaurna collection held by theSouth Australian Museum contains only 48 items.[when?] In September 2002, aLiving Kaurna Cultural Centre was opened atWarriparinga in the southern suburbs area of Adelaide.
The Kaurna people lived in family groups called bands, who lived in defined territories calledpangkarra which were "passed" from father to son upon his initiation. Pangkarra always had access to the coastline and ran extensively inland. The coastline was essential for seafood hunting and the inland territories provided food, clothing and protection for the people during bad weather. The pangkarra were also grouped into larger areas of land calledyerta.[b]
As all the members of a band were related, marriage between a man and a woman within the same band was forbidden. Bands werepatrilineal andpatrilocal: a woman always lived with her husband's band following her marriage. Each band was also composed of twoexogamousmoieties, the Karuru and Mattari, which traced their descentmatrilineally to an ancestraltotemic being. All the children of a marriage would take their mother's moiety as children were considered to have "inherited" their "flesh and blood" from their mothers alone. Marriage within the same moiety was forbidden.[59] Girls became marriageable atpuberty, usually around 12 years of age. Conversely, men were only allowed to marry after the age of 25.[60]
Sexual relations were relatively free and uninhibited, regardless of marital status. Kaurna ownership of property was communal; the reproductive organs were seen no differently from any other form of property, and thusadultery was practically ubiquitous. The visitation of men from distant tribes was seen as a good opportunity to enhance thegene pool. The practice ofmilla mangkondi orwife stealing was also common, for the same reason.[c] Although this custom was hated by some victims, asarranged marriages were the norm, some women saw it as an opportunity to choose their own partners and actively encouraged a preferred suitor; all Kaurna bands are said to have engaged in the practice regularly.[61]
Very little is known of Kaurna rites and mythology as colonial written records are fragmentary and rare. Physically, the Kaurna practised chestscarification and performedcircumcision as an initiatoryrite and were the southernmost Indigenous language group to do so.Waterfall Gully has been linked to initiation rites.[62]
Historical accounts of Kaurna burial rites are unreliable as any gathering of Kaurna was thought to be for a funeral. As soon as a person died the body was wrapped in the clothes they had worn in life. The body was then placed on awiralli (crossed sticks that form the radii of a circle) and an inquest was held to determine cause of death. The body was then buried. Children under four years were not buried for some months, but were wrapped and carried by their mothers during the day with the bundle being used as a pillow at night.[63]Burial by bodies of water was common with the use of sandy beaches, sand dunes and banks of rivers. A large number of graves have been found onGlenelg beach and atPort Noarlunga.[64]Similarly, an unusually complex burial at Kongaratti was found. The grave was rectangular and lined withslate, the base was also lined with slate which had been covered with a bed of grass. An elderly woman was lying on her side, draped in a fishing net and wrapped in a Kangaroo skin cloak. The grave was topped with a layer of grass covered by marine sponges.[64]
Similar to aPeramangk dreamtime legend, the Kaurna regard the 35 miles from theMount Lofty Ranges toNuriootpa as the body of a giant called Nganno (often pronounced Nunoo) who was killed there after attacking their tribe. The peaks of the Mount Lofty Ranges andMount Bonython arejureidla (conserved in thetoponymUraidla), namely his "two ears".[65] There are other traditional stories connected to the two peaks Mt Lofty and Mt Bonython, one story concerning two men and another referring to the two moiety groups of the Kaurna.[66] The general theme of these stories surrounding the two peaks is the importance of community and the notion of unselfishness as a practice which supports community.
A legend recounted variously byUnaipon and Milerum concerns a culture hero calledTjilbruke[67] has topographical features that locate it in Kaurna territory. In Tindale's version Tjilbruke is associated with theglossy ibis; the name actually refers to theblue crane.[68] The "Tjilbruke Dreaming Tracks" have been mapped from theBedford Park area (Warriparinga), down theFleurieu Peninsula, and efforts have been made to preserve and commemorate it where possible.[69]
Munaitjerlo is an ancestral being who created the Moon and stars before himself becoming the Sun. The wordMunaitjerlo was believed by Teichelmann to also refer to the KaurnaDreamtime itself. The mythology of the Mura-Muras, ancestral beings who created landscape features and introduced laws and initiation, can be found in southwestQueensland, theNorthern Territory and in theFlinders Ranges through toEyre Peninsula in South Australia. As it is known that the Kaurna shared a common Dreaming with these peoples it is likely they shared the Mura-Muras as well. By way of contrast, the travels ofTjilbruke are well known fromNorman Tindale's research.[64]
The Kaurna seasonal calendar is divided into four seasons, roughly equivalent to summer, autumn, winter and spring:[70]
From the 1970s onwards, a number ofelders and community leaders led a cultural revival, and were responsible for introducing Kaurna perspectives into the SA education curriculum, establishing theTjilbruke Dreaming Track and other initiatives. These people includedLewis O'Brien,Gladys Elphick,Alitya (Alice) Rigney, andGeorgina Williams of theSouth Australian Museum. Much of its Aboriginal Studies curriculum is based onThe Kaurna People (1989).[71] Many Kaurna people grew up inBukkiyana (Point Pearce mission) andRaukkan (Macleay mission) and experienced some aspects ofNarungga andNgarrindjeri culture, and gradually started reclaiming Kaurna skills and Dreaming stories.[72]
TheKaurna Aboriginal Community and Heritage Association (KACHA) is recognised as the representative body for all Kaurna people. Starting life as theTjilbruke Track Committee based at the South Australian Museum, it was renamed as the Kaurna Heritage Committee before growing into KACHA, which encompasses broader issues thancultural heritage concerns, including rebuilding the language and culture.[72]
TheKaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation represents Kaurna people, and was involved in the creation of theWangayarta memorial park and burial site in 2021.[73]
There are at least two groups of Kaurna traditional dancers in South Australia:
Many places around Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula have names either directly or partially derived from Kaurna place names, such asCowandilla,Aldinga,Morialta andMunno Para. Some were the names of the Kaurna bands who lived there. There are also a few Kaurna names hybridised with European words.[81]
TheAdelaide City Council began the process ofdual naming all of the city squares, each of the parks making up theparklands which surround theAdelaide city centre andNorth Adelaide, and other sites of significance to the Kaurna people in 1997.[82] The naming process, which assigned an extra name in the Kaurna language to each place, was mostly completed in 2003,[83] and the renaming of 39 sites finalised and endorsed by the council in 2012.[84]
On 1 August 2019, the remains of 11 Kaurna people were laid to rest at a ceremony led by elder Jeffrey Newchurch atKingston Park Coastal Reserve, south ofAdelaide. John Carty, Head of Humanities at theSouth Australian Museum, said that the museum was "passionate" about working with the Kaurna people torepatriate their ancestors, and would also be helping to educate the community about what it means to Aboriginal people. The Museum continues to receive further remains of Aboriginal people from overseas museums, in addition to the large amount of remains it already has. While many of these ancestral remains may be returned to Country by their families, who many of these people were is unknown. Due to the large number of remains which continues to grow and that many are unknown, a way to return these ancestors to Country, such as a memorial park, needed to be found.[85]
In 2021, a new 2 ha (4.9-acre)burial site was built in the cemetery to accommodate the repatriated remains of Kaurna people, calledWangayarta, inEvanston South. It was designed by a group that includedelders Uncle Jeffrey Newchurch, Aunty Heather Agius,Uncle Major "Moogy" Sumner, and many others, and was supported by the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation.[86] The memorial site is in the shape of the Kaurna shield, to protect the ancestors now buried there.[87]
In November 2021, the South Australian Museum apologised to the Kaurna people for having held 4,600 Aboriginal remains over the past 165 years, and buried the first 100 remains of their ancestors at the site.[87] A second round of burials took place in June 2022.[88]
Jack Kanya Kudnuitya Buckskin (bornc. 1986[74]), a Kaurna/Narungga man[89] also known as Vincent Buckskin, who wasYoung South Australian of the Year in 2011, is a teacher of Kaurna language and culture.[80]
The impetus for his work stems from when he was just 19, and having become the second in his family to have finished Year 12, and started at university, received the news that his sister Mary, who had moved toDarwin, had committed suicide. Uncle Stevie Goldsmith (see below) invited him to join the Taikurtinna dance group to lift his spirits, and he first danced in public atFestival Plaza, featuring in aBollywood film calledLove Story 2050.[74] He has since established his own traditional dance group, Kuma Karro ("One Blood") in 2008, which has performed nationally and internationally,[79] and has taught dance atKaurna Plains School.[80] Kuma Kaaru has since evolved into a hub for many local Aboriginal cultural services,[90] employing 12 people who aim to teach both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people about the language, culture diversity of Aboriginal peoples. They work with schools, theSouth Australian Music Awards,Sydney Swans, and many others.[91]
Buckskin has taught Kaurna language atWarriparinga through the School of Languages; atSalisbury High School;Kaurna Plains School,Le Fevre High School; and atAdelaide High School. He works withRob Amery on language revival at theUniversity of Adelaide[79]
A documentary directed byDylan River and Glynn McDonald, portraying Buckskin's engagement with his language and culture, titledBuckskin, was released in 2013[92][93] and is available onSBS on Demand.[94] In 2018, theCity of Port Adelaide Enfield honoured him with an award.[79]
In 2020, he delivered the Kaurna Welcome to Country for the online theatre series,Decameron 2.0, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, and acted in a single-actor play by Alexis West in the series.[95][96][97][98]
As of 2023[update] Buckskin works atTauondi Aboriginal College inPort Adelaide as a cultural adviser and mentor,[89] and is frequently called upon to performWelcomes to Country. He and his partner Khesanh, whom he met while both were attending Salisbury High School, have three children, who have learnt to speak Kaurna at home.[74]
Stephen "Gadlabarti" Goldsmith (died July 2017), known as Uncle Stevie, a Kaurna,Narungga, andNgarrindjeri man,[99] was a respected cultural adviser. He worked at the Kaurnalanguage revival centre at theUniversity of Adelaide,Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi (KWP), and advised theSouth Australian Museum and theArt Gallery of South Australia.
Goldsmith established and danced with the Taikurtinna (meaning "family") group, and was an accomplished player of theyidaki. He was frequently called upon to deliverWelcomes to Country, including atWOMADelaide and otherWOMAD festivals overseas.[75] He also acted on television and stage, including theAdelaide Festival production ofThe Secret River, and appeared in many advertisements.[77]
Goldsmith was honoured at the 2017Lord Mayor of Adelaide'sNAIDOC Awards, and awarded Male Elder of the Year. He was a fan of theAdelaide Crows AFL team, and after his death, the team wore black armbands at theShowdown game.[75] After his death,Rob Amery, head of KWP, wrote on his staff web page: "This has been a great loss to the team who relied on Steve for so much - role model, mentor, Kurraka in the Pirltawardli Puppet Show, performer, editor, camera operator, cultural advisor, etc.".[100]
In 2018, an award was created in his honour as part of theRuby Awards – theStevie Gadlabarti Goldsmith Memorial Award.[101][102]Moogy Sumner won the inaugural award,[103] andArt Gallery of South Australia Indigenous art curatorNici Cumpston won the award in 2019.[104]
"Uncle Stevie's Classroom" continues in KidZone at WOMADelaide.[99] "The Portrait of Stephen Goldsmith" is a muralWright Street,Adelaide city centre, byJimmy C (James Cochran) with Eizabeth Close, painted in 2018. Goldsmith's son Jamie is a well-known yidaki player and dancer with the Taikurtinna group, who has also been honoured by a mural painted by Jimmy C, in Frank's Lane.[77][78]
Moogy Sumner is a widely respectedNgarrindjeri and Kaurna elder,[105] who mostly works to further Ngarrindjeri culture.[106]
Other notable Kaurna people include:
The important ceremony also acknowledged 50 years of work and activism that Senior Kaurna Meyunna Woman Georgina Williams has dedicated to her people, her culture and the broader Onkaparinga community.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link)