Now available for pre-orders for delivery early June, ‘Yugambeh Jagun’ is a new book by Yugambeh author Faith Baisden

Aboriginal Australians are not a homogenous group, there are hundreds of Traditional Nations, clans, and family groups, as well as a myriad of complexity around Historical Communities and Stolen Generations. There is no single ‘Aboriginal’ group. Yet in many places, there is little transparency about how these consultations are being conducted and if they are a genuine reflection of Aboriginal wishes.

After receiving complaints from Yugambeh Nation representatives about the exclusion of Yugambeh people in its acknowledgement and processes, the Tweed Shire Council, located in North-East New South Wales has denied Traditional Owner families a role in its Aboriginal Advisory Council.

When Eddie Mabo went to the High Court, there was no concept of Native Title in Australia, no legislation, no recognition. It was his case that laid out the grounds for Native Title, that his people, the Meriam people, had a law and custom that predated British sovereignty, was still in existence, and gave them rights and interests in the land that the State of Queensland should recognise.

It was only inevitable that more individuals in similar circumstances to Thoms and Love would come forward asserting their Aboriginality and demanding their own releases. It was these cases that followed that put Mabo to the test and further complicated the area.

Do you know the story of the first Australian-Germans and their history with Yugambeh people?

Aboriginality has been an evolving space over the later half of the 20th century, with over 60 definitions for Aboriginality used since Colonisation.

With the Voice Referendum just over 2 weeks away, the Yugambeh Nation has conducted a poll with one simple question: If the Referendum were held tomorrow, how would you vote?

The words ‘Aboriginal’, ‘Indigenous’, ‘First Nations’, and ‘Traditional Owner’ get used a lot, but what exactly do they mean? It’s a question we’ve been arguing socially, politically, and legally for years now, but as talk of a Voice to Parliament, Treaties and Truth Commissions ramp up, it is only a matter of a time before these issues really come to a head, and by then, there can be a lot of hurt and social harm if these conversations don’t happen now.

5 things that make Yugambeh a special language!

Born c.1860 on the Albert river near Logan, Jenny Drumley was the daughter of Warri and Daramlee and the sister of Billy Drumley and Emily Blow. Born into a turbulent time, as the Native Police periodically encircled and attempted mass executions on Yugambeh clan groups from the Logan to the Tweed out to Boonah, no group had been spared a 'dispersal', and before her birth, over half her Nation would already be dead.

In roughly the year 40AI (40 years after the Dagai invasion - c.1872 by the Gregorian standard), a massacre took place in the town of Southport. While the attack was on a Kombumerri camp, the intended victims were not the people, but their canine companions, their Ngagam (native dogs).