Correcting the Records Project 2020 – 2030
This project started in 2016 to research and record Aboriginal information about the tribes of the greater Cairns area.
Unfortunately there has been misinformation over the last 30 years. This project aims to correct the records to avoid future publishing of incorrect information in printed materials and on websites.
Hard copies of the research document set below are available on loan. Please contact us.
Aboriginal Groups of the Cairns Area – 2 pages
This page (A) shows the map, top left, of 3 groups in the Cairns area as documented by the pictured academics over the last 115 years.
The table left are the different spellings used in their documents to describe the groups (tribes).
This page (B) shows the map with “Djabugay Nation” over the entire area. “Djabugay Nation” is deliberately inside quote marks because it is misinformation (an invented term).
PATZ proposed in 1980 that these neighbouring tribes were dialects of Djabugay. PATZ 2002 publication she quotes DIXON to explain (see RED text below) “It is necessary…”. That is, PATZ arbitrarily chose ‘Djabugay’ however, she could have equally chosen ‘Buluwai’ or ‘Yirrgay’ to coin the term to describe language similarities between these neighbouring tribes. PATZ also describes that pre-colonisation these tribes saw themselves with their own languages and did not group themselves according to linguistic dialect theory.