COBURG PENINSULA TRIBES

FLORIO · **Joined:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:32 am **Posts:** 3

Dear fiends and all, my name is Florio Pozza and i am part of an italian university research project about a missionary called Father Angelo Confalonieri that preached in the Coburg Peninsula round 1850. He came from the city of Trento in northern Italy and started his mission in Port Essington we he rests. The aim of this project is to search for records of his passage in stories of the contemporary aboriginal inhabitants of Coburg Peninsula. Mr. Guan told me to ask for these info in this forum. At the moment we know he got in contact with these following tribes:
BINANOLOMBOS, LIMBAPIU, LIMAKAREGIO, TERRITON, MONOBA, MANCOROROTA, ALANCOROROTA.
We also know for sure that he lived for a long time with the LIMAKAREGIO people. Recent researches gave us no results about the existance of these tribes, neither in the past and neither in the present!! So if anyone knows something about them and maybe we they are, please contact me ASAP as it could be a real amazing and important information to end father Confalonieri's story. Thank you everybody. FLORIO POZZA

ididjaustralia · **Posted:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:08 pm

Hi there Florio,

Glad to see you made it here. I hope other people can help you with your inquiry, you never know!

My own knowledge of the area is limited, I've not been to Cobourg Peninsula myself, but I understand that the languages of the region is Iwaidjan. A Wikipedia entry provides an overview of the taxonomy of the languages:

Wikipedia on Iwaidjan languages

The 7 tribes or language groups you mentioned are unfamiliar to me, I've not heard of these names, but elsewhere I've read that Father Confalonieri was very competent in 7 local languages of the area and that he had compiled dictionaries on them.

I would suggest contacting Professor Nicolas Evans at the University of Melbourne, he is the foremost expert on Iwaidjan languages and if he can't help you with your inquiry, I don't think anyone can:

Prof Nicholas Evans profile, The University of Melbourne

A little poster of Evan's work with language map of the region

There might also be some historical information that could be useful to your research project, take a look at the following:

The Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has a heritage listing on the Cobourg Peninsula: Cobourg Peninsula database entry

The NT Catholic Education Office could also be useful, below is their entry on Father Confalonieri:

Quote:

Port Essington (1847-1849)
Education was part of the first mission to the north of Australia established near Port Essington on the Coburg Peninsula by Fr Angelo Confalonieri in the 1840s. Fr Angelo studied the language of the local people, compiling a dictionary and translating scripture and prayers. He also drew a map of the peninsula showing tribal lands.Port Essington (1847-1849)
Education was part of the first mission to the north of Australia established near Port Essington on the Coburg Peninsula by Fr Angelo Confalonieri in the 1840s. Fr Angelo studied the language of the local people, compiling a dictionary and translating scripture and prayers. He also drew a map of the peninsula showing tribal lands.

Source: NT Catholic Education Office

Also, a couple of books on the history of the Cobourg Peninsula:

Forsaken Settlement. an Illustrated History of the Settlement of Victoria, Port Essington North Australia 1838-1849, by Peter Spillet, 1979.

Letters from Port Essington, 1838-1845, by J. M. R. Cameron, 1999.

I would imagine that the descendants of the Aboriginal people that Father Confalonieri worked with are now living on Goulburn Island and Croker Island. If you need someone to visit those places on a fact-seeking mission, I would be a happy collaborator

Good luck!

Guan

FLORIO · **Joined:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:32 am **Posts:** 3

Thank thank you and thank you dear Guan for your unbelievable help!! Mr. Rolando Pizzini, the main researcher of the project, will be in Australia (Melbourne) on the 26 July and he is planning to go to Coburg to search for possible records of Fr Confalonieri. His aim is to meet the descendents of the people that fr Confalonieri met !! So, i think that your help as a guide could be really important and fundamental!! Can you tell me in wich period or days of this year you can be available? If so and if Mr. Rolando agrees, can i put him in touch with you so that you can discuss the terms of your collaboration? Thank you Guan. Florio Pozza

ididjaustralia · **Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:51 am

Hi Florio,

I'm glad I can be of assistance. I'm not sure if there is anything to be found at Cobourg Peninsula, there is no Aboriginal community there but there is Gurig National Park. Like I said, most of the families are to be found at Croker Island and Goulburn Island, and maybe at Oenpelli as well.

My time is flexible and I'm happy to work to Mr Pizzini's schedule. I can offer you a better guide who grew up at Goulburn Island and who speaks Maung, one of the Iwaidjan languages

Guan

ididjaustralia · **Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:28 am

Another source which could be helpful. A scan attached of a book, titled "Lamilami Speaks, An Autobiography". There's lot of information in there, including names of individuals, clans and tribes that Lamilami was connected to in Western Arnhem Land.

Guan

FLORIO · **Joined:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:32 am **Posts:** 3

You are a great soul and heart Guan! Florio Pozza

ididjaustralia · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:34 pm

Hello Florio,

Here is something else interesting to read about Cobourg Peninsula. The book is called "Commandant of Solitute: The Journals of Captain Collet Barker 1828-1831. This is a time before Father Confalonieri but it has a lot of information about the Aboriginal people of the area. It is a recent book by John Mulvaney and Neville Green, and was published in 1992.

For those interested only in the didgeridoo, it would appear that Captain Barker was the first European to describe the instrument though in unpublished form, his manuscript journals like those of most seamen and colonialists, only now being researched and published.

In 1829, at Raffles Bay in the Cobourg Peninsula, on the 29th of January, he wrote:

Quote:

Made remainder of pickles in large jar. About 2 pm saw 3 Blacks on the beach near the long flat, moving towards the settlement. They stopped every now & then & did not arrive till 3 pm, when they proved to be Mago, Alobo & Waterloo. The latter still very ill, which seemed to be the reason of their coming so slowly. They brought in 3 large fish with them which they had speared. Mago brought a stone hatchet & Waterloo a basket & some grass tree cord, telling me however they expected each a hatchet in return.

Had the tent pitched for them as usual. After dressing & eating their fish Waterloo soon lay down in a blanket that was lent him. He appeared at times light headed. The others amused themselves & our people by dancing, singing, etc. Mago brought a kind of musical instrument, a large hollow cane about 3 feet long bent at one end. From [this] he produced two or three low & tolerably clear & loud notes, answering to the tune of didoggery whoan, & he accompanied Alobo with this while he sang his treble. The Dr and some others were beating time with their hands during the first song, & when the second was going to begin Mago begged they would not add their accompaniment, which it must be confessed was not an improvement, as they beat most irregularly & must have annoyed a good timeist, as the Blacks seem to be.

The interesting points here is that the instrument most likely was made of bamboo, that the origin of the word "didgeridoo" could have had an earlier inspiration than current sources give credit to, and that the instrument was used to accompany song and dance in this area of Australia (it wasn't a musical instrument played solo).

The individual's name, Mago, is coincidental and almost certainly doesn't have any bearing on the indigenous word used today in some parts of Western Arnhem Land for the didgeridoo.

Attached is a pic taken from the book, said by Mulvaney and Green as possibly the first European depiction of the didgeridoo.

Guan

Peter Lister · **Posted:** Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:50 pm

Heh, this is great stuff - I love it when old records such as this come to light.

So, Guan, what happened with the planned trip ???

ididjaustralia · **Posted:** Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:13 pm

Hey Bita,

I didn't go as the university didn't have within its budget airfares and expenses for me and an Aboriginal guide. Tis a pity. I don't know how the research project went, but would love to hear of its progress. But really, if universities want to do good research, they MUST have Indigenous collaborators and native-speakers, it is almost pointless to send a bunch of academics out from another continent to a place, culture, and people they are unfamiliar with.

Guan

Peter Lister wrote:

Heh, this is great stuff - I love it when old records such as this come to light.

So, Guan, what happened with the planned trip ???

Peter Lister · **Posted:** Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:49 am

Heh Guan,

yep, I agree, yet it is still common for people to travel half way across the globe without having done any basic enquiries as to what the situation is in another country - the remoteness, the logistics,.... heh, even many aussies are unaware of the vastness of this continent even though they've spent their entire life here. It's a shame it amounted to nothing and disappointing you've not been told of the outcome of their research - it sounded like a great little project. Oh well.

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COBURG PENINSULA TRIBES

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