Coranderrk, a home for Victoria’s First Nations people
Interpretive signage along the Resilience theme
Coranderrk, a home for Victoria’s First Nations people
“give us this ground and let us manage here … and then we will show to the country that we can work it and make it pay, and I know it will.”
– William Barak, Wurundjeri woiwurrung ngurungaeta, 1881
Within 12 years of its establishment in 1863, Coranderrk Aboriginal Station was home to 158 men, women and children. While most of the community was Wurundjeri woiwurrung, other First Nations people were welcomed at the reserve. It was a place where First Nations people from all over Victoria could come together and openly practise their Culture.
Coranderrk quickly became a strong, self-sufficient community. As well as building homes, farming crops and raising livestock, residents established a school, church, and court system. While the male Wurundjeri woiwurrung leaders, like Simon Wonga and Barak, are often talked about, the women who lived at Coranderrk, including Barak’s sister Borate (Annie), were also a significant force within the community, playing a vital role in keeping wurrung (Language) and Culture alive.
Living on biik (Country) and maintaining strong ties to each other, First Nations people at Coranderrk were able to live with a significant degree of self-determination, and to maintain their cultural practices in the face of ongoing threats from colonial authorities. Although Coranderrk was located in the Yarra Valley, the resilience of its residents allowed the ongoing connection that Wurundjeri people have with all of their biik today, including with goranwarrabil (the Dandenong Ranges).
woiwurrung translations by Wurundjeri woman Brooke Wandin.