Bulway

The Buluwai are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

Country

The Buluwai are a rainforest people of the Atherton Tableland, occupying, according to Norman Tindale, some 200 square miles (520 km²) in the area east of Tolga, and extending on north to Kuranda,^[1] and in a south-westerly direction to Tinaroo. The Barron River formed their coastal limit.^[2]

Language

The Buluwai language was recorded by Norman Tindale in 1938 during the 'Harvard and Adelaide Universities Anthropological Expedition, Australia, 1938-1939'.

Oxycanus buluwandji

Oxycanus buluwandji is a moth of the family Hepialidae, often referred to as swift moths or ghost moths. The family is considered primitive with at least 587 moths identified worldwide, including southern Gondwana distribution. Adult moths have greyish brown forewings each with a faint pale pattern. The hindwings are red shading to grey along the margins. The head and thorax have fawn patterns, and the abdomen is red. The wingspan is about 12 cms.

Norman Tindale first described the Buluwandji ghost moth in 1964 and named it after the Buluwai people where the moth was found.

History

The Seventh-day Adventists established a mission on Buluwai lands in 1930 calling it Mona Mona Mission. According to contemporary Buluwai elder Willie Brim, the missionaries imposed a highly regimented 'Christian' way of life. The Mission was closed down in 1962.^[3]

Today most descendants identify themselves with the Djabugay people, though some Buluwai maintain a separate identity^[4] as a Bama group.^[3]

Alternative names

• Buluwandji
• Bulwandji, Buluwandyi, Bulwandyi
• Bulwanydji^[4]
• Bulway^[1]

Notes

Citations

1. Tindale 1974, p. 166.
2. Henry 2012, p. 215.
3. Grieve-Williams 2020, p. 95.
4. Henry 2012, p. 184.

Sources

• Grieve-Williams, Victoria (2020). "'Reggae Became the Main Transporter of Our Struggle and Our Love': William Brim - Cultural Custodian, Bush Doctor and Songman of the Buluwai People of North Queensland". In Guntarik, Olivia; Grieve-Williams, Victoria (eds.). From Sit-Ins to #revolutions: Media and the Changing Nature of Protests. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 95–112. ISBN 978-1-501-33697-3.
• Henry, Rosita (2012). Performing Place, Practising Memories: Aboriginal Australians, Hippies and the State. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-857-45509-3.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Buluwai (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press.
• Tindale, Norman (1938). "'Australian Vocabularies gathered by Norman B. Tindale, 1938-1963' (see AA 338/8/20).". Harvard and Adelaide Universities Anthropological Expedition, Australia, 1938-1939. Journal and notes by Norman B. Tindale. I. (PDF). South Australia Museum.