The Cadigal People

Now I'm learning about the Cadigal--the neighbors of the Wangal.

They were both Eora and their language was the Darug language--or a version of it. I'm a bit confused here. Am I always confused? No, not always! Just mostly. Maybe 90% of the time?


The Cadigal territory, according to many websites, lies south of Port Jackson. It's between South Head and Petersham. I had a hell of a time figuring this all out on google maps. I'm not sure what they mean by South Head. Is that South Head Road near Double Bay?   So, that's East. Then Petersham is near Marrickville. This makes sense to me because The Marrickville Council people have that great informative website about the Cadigal and Wangal people.

From what I'm reading, the Cadigals were a bit spread out. Honestly, it all made me very confused and I spent about an hour this afternoon trying to figure it all out. Actually, it wasn't THIS afternoon because by the time I post this it will be a few days later. I rarely post things the day I write them. Is that unethical? I'm not sure if that betrays the etiquette of blogging. Are there rules about that?

Anyway, this afternoon (the one I'm writing in and not the one I'll be posting in) I spent a long time trying to figure out where the Cadigal lived.

I've been a bit slow about Cadigal geography, but I think I have finally figured out the Eora thing. When Philip and his mates met the natives they told the white men that they were "Eora". This meant something like "Here" or "People from here". The white people thought this was there name and I guess it kind of stuck. I think the Cadigal and Wangal people (and others) thought it was probably cute. I don't know. They kept the name. I guess it's like when a toddler mispronounces your name. You find it cute and keep the nickname. That kind of thing.

The Museum of Sydney is located at the place where the Cadigal and British boat people had their first encounter.

I've been to that museum.

You know, some of this research is making me emotional. I don't know. Maybe I'm just getting my period soon. Who knows? But sometimes I read things and I come close to crying. I get this sinking feeling. I don't know. I imagine these people having this relatively peaceful life and then these big ships come.

And I'm not trying to come down hard on white people--well, cause I'm kind of one of them. And Stephen Colbert is white too. He's really cool.

I don't want to get into this white people are cruel, stupid, and evil. The Aborigine people were perfect and peaceful. I know it's not all cut and dry like that.

I do LOVE modern Australia. I really do. I love the modern world. I love all the pretty buildings and museums. I like all the restaurants. I like the great variety of cultures that live in Australia now.

I don't regret that Australia or America was invaded by Europeans. I mean I kind of do.

Oh, I don't know!

I LOVE Australia for what it is now. I guess I just feel so sad for these people having their way of life totally stolen from them.

Today in the car, I started thinking about Bennelong and felt all teary-eyed. Then later I read this:

From the edge of the trees the Cadigal people watched as the strangers of the First Fleet struggled ashore in 1788. We can only imagine what their thoughts would have been.

That made me teary-eyed too.


I don't remember the museum being that close the water. Maybe I'm confused, or maybe the Cadigal had damn good eyesite. Well, maybe I felt far from the water because there are all these streets and buildings now. Without all those buildings, the water might seem much closer.

Level three of the museum has a whole exhibit about the Cadigal people. I don't remember if I saw it or not. I wasn't as interested in Indigenous stuff back then--a little bit, but not as much as now.

There's no definite answer of how long the Cadigal were in the area. Shell Middens, which seems to be their version of trash, suggest they've been around at least 4500 years.


I wonder what part of Australia, the original people first landed then???? I mean the forty or so thousand years ago. I'm guessing it was in the North? I'm just thinking that since it's close to Asia.

Does anyone know this? I'll google it later I suppose.


I found a great Sydney Morning Herald article about an Aboriginal tour you can take.

It talks about the exhibit in the Royal Botanical Gardens. I saw part of this and that almost made me cry too.

I almost-cry a lot. Sometimes, I actually end up crying.

Why do we fight back our tears like that? Is it embarrassment? Shame?

I don't know.

Anyway enough about me and my crying. The article says that Captain Cook was missing a tooth and in Aborigine tradition this meant he was an ancestor. The article says this is why the white people were fairly welcomed at first. Yeah, but then they came back with a lot of ships and the ships carried diseases.

I guess it's like how we'd be if one space ship arrived. We'd all probably be pretty excited. We'd be a little scared, but also friendly and welcoming. But then if a whole fleet of space ships showed up a few years later, and our people started dropping like flies from disease.....Well, I think we wouldn't be so happy about it.

Okay, here are some more scattered facts I found out:

1. The Cadigal called Darling Harbor Tumbalong. This means a place where seafood is found. There's a playground in Darling Harbor called Tumbalong park. We went there. It's where an Ibis pooped on my backpack.

2. Before the Bennelong kidnapping, there was the Araboona kidnapping. He was kidnapped and learned some English. He then went and taught some of what he learned to some of his people. This didn't last long because he soon died from Smallpox.

3. Most of the Cadigal were wiped out from Smallpox. The few who survived lost their beautiful tribal way of life. I think most of them ended up with a pretty shitty life. Despite this though, there are some descendants of Cadigal still living in Sydney today.

There's so much more I want to learn.




What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there 
was life after death, and 
we could easily talk to our 
dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 




12 comments:

  1. Wow, I just learnt more from you than I ever learned in my history class.
    Amazing.

    As for the crying thing. I hate crying in front of people. It feels weird sharing that emotion with people. For whatever reason it feels like I am exposing myself.

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  2. I'm not sure what they mean by South Head. Is that South Head Road near Double Bay?

    Keep going east and north: the tip of the peninsula you see on the map is South Head (the suburb is Watsons Bay, and the naval base HMAS Watson is on the headland).

    Looking at the entrance to the harbour (where it meets the Pacific Ocean), on google maps (see here, zoom out to get your bearings)you'll see North Head and Sydney Harbour National Park to the north, HMAS Watson and Watsons Bay to the south, and HMAS Penguin and Cobbles Beach Reserve on the east. These are the three big headlands of Sydney, respectively known as North Head, South Head and Middle Head.

    Geography lesson for the day here endeth. :^)

    Not sure if know about this but SBS television will be airing a documentary series about Aboriginal Peoples called First Australians, beginning on 12 October. Dunno if sbs is restricting access to the webpage to Oz only, but it is here. No doubt they will also be releasing it on dvd once the series has finished broadcasting.

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  3. Tiff: Thanks. I'm glad you learned something. I'm glad to know I'm not just confusing everyone. Maybe I'm just confusing myself.

    It's weird. I'm less embarrassed to cry over something that happens to me personally (like I cried when we had to leave Australia). I'm more embarrassed to cry over a movie, a song, something in the news, a book I read, etc. I don't know why.

    Stephen: Thank you!!! I love geography lessons. I'm going to look at the maps now.

    The First Australians thing sounds awesome. I don't think I've ever even heard of SBS--only ABC and the Nine Network. I'll check out the website. I doubt they'll restrict it. I don't think websites usually do that. I mean I haven't yet been restricted from an Australian website.

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  4. Glad to be of assistance, Dina. :^)

    And on the restricting of webpages, it's a rare occurrence, but it does sometimes happen with tv programmes and such because of copyright issues. For instance, here in Oz I can't can't access the Showtime website hosted in the US because of copyright.

    Anyhow, hope you were able to access the page.

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  5. Stephen,

    I enjoyed the map stuff. You're very good at explaining stuff like that.

    I think I know what you mean about the websites. I'm guessing this would happen mostly with TV shows that haven't been yet released in one country or the other.

    For example, I know we get "Lost" a little bit before you. So I'm guessing they would restrict episode access to Australians.

    I WAS able to see the website. I watched the preview of the show. It looks really good.

    Is SBS one of the main networks? I'm guessing it's more educational? I'm wondering if it's like our PBS. Public Broadcasting system. It has a lot of educational programming--although I think it's been overshadowed by all cable networks.

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  6. SBS is one the two public broadcasters. ABC is wholly public, like the BBC or CBC. Though SBS does receive public funds, it is also allowed to air commercials to raise revenue (ABC can't do this). It's not one of the main networks, but in my opinion its one of the best, along with ABC. But that's just the kind of programming I like.

    SBS is an acronym which means Special Broadcasting Service. It's purpose is to provide multi-language programming to cater to the diverse ethnic and national communities here in Oz. It does television and radio.

    There are quite a few documentaries on SBS, sourced from around the world. It also broadcasts news from different countries - as in the news programme itself from that country - and movies from around the world. The news is not subtitled, but the movies and documentaries are if they're not in English. No dubbing of English voice, unless that's how SBS got the product (eg, Iron Chef, where part of the cult following is because of the English dubbing).

    We also get Dateline, which is from PBS. The difference between SBS and PBS is in funding (does PBS get any Public money, or is it all by donation and advertising?), but the broad purpose of each station is similar: to provide programming for the public good.

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  7. Did I write Dateline was from PBS? Ooops! That's Australian. I was thinking of Frontline. Can't remember what I wrote, so if I did write Frontline, oops! for this message. :^D

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  8. Stephen,

    I haven't watched Iron Chef in so long! We used to love that show. SBS sounds very appealing. I'm trying to think if we have anything like that. I can't think of anything on the top of my head.

    I THINK PBS is done by all donations, but I'm not 100% positive. They have very little advertising--as far as I remember. I think they do have local corporate sponsorship, but I think in terms of commercials, it's one quick commercia in between shows.

    Okay, just looked it up. PBS does get SOME public funding. About 20%.

    I think the difficult thing is PBS can be annoying because they so often use airtime to solicit donations. Right now there are so many cable networks competing with PBS. We have an animal channel, a travel channel, a learning channel, a discovery channel, etc. We have 2-3 channels that have programming specifically for preschoolers that do not have commmericals. We have multiple news networks.

    Oh and now you have the Internet as well......

    LOL about Dateline.

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  9. Stephen,

    I haven't watched Iron Chef in so long! We used to love that show. SBS sounds very appealing. I'm trying to think if we have anything like that. I can't think of anything on the top of my head.

    I THINK PBS is done by all donations, but I'm not 100% positive. They have very little advertising--as far as I remember. I think they do have local corporate sponsorship, but I think in terms of commercials, it's one quick commercia in between shows.

    Okay, just looked it up. PBS does get SOME public funding. About 20%.

    I think the difficult thing is PBS can be annoying because they so often use airtime to solicit donations. Right now there are so many cable networks competing with PBS. We have an animal channel, a travel channel, a learning channel, a discovery channel, etc. We have 2-3 channels that have programming specifically for preschoolers that do not have commmericals. We have multiple news networks.

    Oh and now you have the Internet as well......

    LOL about Dateline.

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  10. Can I just add to the love for SBS here? 'Cause I love that channel very much. :)
    (and if you want to access it via the States, there are, um, ways... *g*)

    Seriously, your posts on the Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney area are very interesting! I'll keep reading...

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  11. Tors,

    I am intrigued by these "Ways" you talk about ; )

    Glad you like the posts about Aborigines. I find it very interesting. I kind of want to learn more about Native Americans and how we treated them. My mom asked who treated the Indigenous people better--us or Australia. I really don't know.

    But we have the slavery stain as well.

    So I guess we're worse maybe.

    Oh and Australians helped Peter Singer's family escape from the Nazis when Americans would not. So ya got that too.

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  12. The Cadigal Wangal people are the traditional owners of land around Sydney Cove and beyond and it was they that Gov Phillip and the First Fleeters met when they arrived in 1788. When asked where they were from they said in their language "Eora" which means 'here'. The Europeans mistook this and called them the Eora Tribe but that was incorrect. Cadigalwangal is a great website and so too is information from the Sydney Rocks authority- click on educational resources - it is helpful. Good luck with your search
    Judy Tanner

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