Welcome from Wurundjeri

By Melissa Donchi
IT HAS been almost 150 years since Coranderrk Homestead was established for the local indigenous population, the Wurundjeri people.
Rounded up into an estate in 1859 by white settlers after their land was taken away, the Wurundjeri people were not even allowed to speak their own language.
More than a century later, the Wurundjeri people have welcomed people back to their land, this time on their own terms.
Last weekend, they held a festival celebrating indigenous culture in their own language.
More than 100 people attended the “murranawano” on Saturday to look through the Wandin family archives and pay their respects.
Wurundjeri elder, Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin said that despite the strict life at Coranderrk many residents had fond memories of their time there.
“Our mum, Olive Wandin McCartney used to always say she enjoyed her days here,” Ms Wandin said. “Our brother, Juby (James) Wandin was the last baby born here.”
Members of the Wandin family were also the last people to leave Coranderrk with Ms Wandin’s grandmother refusing to go. The remaining family members have kept files of their history at the homestead that includes everything from photos and letters, which explain what they were and weren’t allowed to do and how they were treated.
The archives have attracted the interest of several universities that sent representatives from history and anthropology departments to look through the documents.
Official guests included McEwen MP Fran Bailey, Seymour MP Ben Hardman, the mayor the Shire of Yarra Ranges Tim Heenan and Anglican Bishop John Bayton.
Bishop Bayton said it was an enormous privilege to stand where elders had once stood.
“There was something in Aboriginal Australia which did sustain something very precious,” he said. “It is beautiful because of the spirit of those who have lived here and whose bodies have returned to dust and whose spirits still inhabit the land.”
The festival included performances from the Aboriginal Children’s Choir who sang in the koori language, Wakka Wakka Clan and national champion gum leaf player Jeff Wilmott. The festival concluded with a dusk concert at Birrarung Flats with a rousing performance of a post-classical Wurundjeri bora.