language territories It was originally thought that areas of traditional Jardwadjali land showed signs of human occupation dating back no more than 5,000 years. Recent research has established a longer timeframe, from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene, where the record of habitation becomes much richer. Archaeological evidence of occupation in Gariwerd many thousands of years before the last ice-age. One site in the Victoria Range (Billawin Range) has been dated from 22,000 years ago. It is likely that first contact with Europeans was through
smallpox epidemics which arrived with the
First Fleet in 1788 and rapidly spread through the trading networks of indigenous Australians and killed many people in two waves before the 1830s. One
Wotjobaluk account called the disease
thinba micka and that it killed large numbers of people, and disfigured many more with pock-marked faces, and came down the
Murray River sent by malevolent sorcerers to the north. According to
Norman Tindale, by the time white incursion began, the Jaadwa were on the move southwards, almost as far as
Casterton and
Hamilton.
Conflict and dispossession In 1836 the squatter
Edward Henty was exploring Jardwadjali land from the south, the start of the European invasion. A further wave of European occupation occurred from the north in 1840 with Lieutenant Robert Briggs squatting near Lake Lonsdale. The explorer Major
Thomas Mitchell passed through the lands of the Jardwadjali people in 1836 and named many geographical features, including the Grampian mountains which he named after the
range of mountains in Scotland. The Jardwadjali called these mountains
Gariwerd,
gar meaning 'pointed mountain';
i meaning 'the' and
werd meaning 'shoulder'. To the Jardwadjali and
Djab Wurrung peoples Gariwerd was central to the dreaming of the creator,
Bunjil, and
buledji Brambimbula, the two Bram brothers, who were responsible for the creation and naming of many landscape features in western Victoria. for a match at the
MCG in late December 1866 Jardwadjali people formed the nucleus of the
Australian Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868, although efforts were made by the
Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines to stop the tour. The team played 47 matches, winning 14, losing 14, and drawing 19 games. There were no aboriginal missions established in Jardwadjali territory, so by the 1860s and 1870s many Jardwadjali were forced to locate at
Ebenezer Mission in
Wergaia country on the
Wimmera River, and at
Lake Condah mission in
Dhauwurd Wurrung country.
Massacres Settlement was marked by resistance to the invasion often by driving off or stealing cows which then resulted in conflict and sometimes a massacre of aboriginal people. Very few of these reports were acted upon to bring the settlers to court. After the
massacre at Fighting Hills, John Whyte travelled to Melbourne to inform
Governor La Trobe in person of the massacre. The depositions of the Aboriginal Protector
Charles Sievwright who had personally investigated the massacre were disallowed. No trial was ever held. At the time aborigines were denied the right to give evidence in courts of law. The incidents listed below are just the cases that have been reported; it is likely other incidents occurred that were never reported and not documented officially.
Neil Black, a squatter in Western Victoria writing on 9 December 1839 states the prevailing attitude of many settlers:
George Robinson, the
Chief Protector of Aborigines wrote in his journal in 1841 referring to the Portland Bay area where the Whyte Brothers had settled:
Recent history In 1989 there was a proposal by Victorian Minister for Tourism,
Steve Crabb to rename many geographical place names associated with aboriginal heritage in the area. There was much opposition to this proposal by European descendants. The Brambuk centre, representing five aboriginal communities, advocated a dual name for the main area: Gariwerd/Grampians. Some of the changes included: • Grampians to Gariwerd (mountain range) • Mount Zero to Mura Mura (little hill) • Hall's Gap to Budja Budja The
Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre in
Halls Gap is owned and managed by Jardwadjali and
Djab Wurrung people from five Aboriginal communities with historic links to the Gariwerd-Grampians ranges and the surrounding plains.
Native title recognition The indigenous peoples of the
Wimmera won native title recognition on 13 December 2005 after a ten-year legal process. Descendants of the Jardwadjali had a partial recognition in 2005 of their
land rights when a settlement was arranged, which included also the
Wotjobaluk,
Wergaia and
Jupagalk, returning freehold title over a number of areas was transferred back to the
traditional owners. It was the first successful native title claim in south-eastern Australia and in Victoria, determined by Justice
Ron Merkel. In his reasons for judgement Justice Merkel explained the significance of his orders: ::"The orders I propose to make are of special significance as they constitute the first recognition and protection of native title resulting in the ongoing enjoyment of native title in the State of Victoria and, it would appear, on the South-Eastern seaboard of Australia. These are areas in which the Aboriginal peoples suffered severe and extensive dispossession, degradation and devastation as a consequence of the establishment of British sovereignty over their lands and waters during the 19th century." ==Notable members==