Kooma

The Kooma are a contemporary aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples descending from tribes living in the border region of Queensland and New South Wales. They are descendants of the Koamu.

Country

Contemporary Kooma people state their forebears lived upstream from, and to the east of, the Kunja, along parts of Nebine Creek and the Culgoa River.[1] They call this area yumba, literally 'camp'[2] but now bearing the broader sense of 'home,'[3] and the Murra murra station is of particular importance to them. Other tribes in this area, which more broadly encompasses the area beyond the middle reaches of the Nebine to take in the Warrego, Paroo, Bulloo and Wilson rivers, were the Bitjara, Kalili, Wangkumara Kunggari and Muruwari.[2]

People

According to one Kooma tradition, there was one group among them, taller and of lighter skin, who appeared to have an Asiatic appearance.[1] According to folk traditions, in the 1880s a German scientist was fascinated by a group of Kooma who were hairless, and wished to collect from them skin samples for examination. The clan refused, and yet a Kooma corpse was later reported to have been shipped back to Berlin.[4]

Mythology

The dreamtime in Kooma lore was called Matya Mundu. One tale relates how the rainbow serpent as it slithered along the Warrego River, dug out waterholes and populated them with yellow-belly, catfish, and cod.[4]

Notes

    Citations

    Sources

    • Horwitz, Tony (2010). One for the Road. Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-307-76302-0.
    • "Kooma People's Native Title Consent Determination" (PDF). 2014.
    • Memmott, Paul (2007). Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-702-23245-9.
    • Wharton, Herb (2011). Yumba Days. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-702-24471-1.
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