Meet the true Guringai, Gyringay, gringai gooringai People – the first casualties of the GuriNgai hoax.

The True Guringai People.

Just as the non-Aboriginal People that invented the GuriNgai Cult stole my Ancestors, and Country in their mad dash for relevance – they also stole the name of another genuine Aboriginal Peoples – people from the Barrington Region of NSW, North of the Hunter River; far from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, and Central Coast of NSW.

As happened with much of our language when first encountered by European settlers, there have been multiple spellings on the word guringai, including, but not limited to: kuringai, Kuring-gai, Cooringay, Guringai, Gooreeggai, Goreenggai, Gourenggai, Gingai, Gringai, Corringorri, Guringay and Goringai.

 The Guringai people were first recorded 1820s located North of the Hunter river, Port Stephens NSW.

In 1883 John Fraser wrote the following, “I owe special acknowledgments to Mr. C Naseby, Maitland (for the Kamilaroi tribe) and Mr. J. W. Boydell, Camyrallyn Gresford for the Gringai tribe. Both of these men have had an intimate acquaintance with these tribes for more than thirty years (1882:199).

The word was repurposed by non-Aboriginal man John Fraser in 1892 when the government wanted to find a name for Kuring-gai Chase National Park and region.

John Fraser had earlier taken from the Aboriginal name Guringai or as he spells it Gooringgai in 1890, from the People North of the Hunter river, to whom the name belonged then, and belongs now.

The word “Budgery” in connection with “Gar” gives a name for the beautiful miniature parakeet now so frequently seen in cages. Gar Gai Galie Galla or alla refer to pleasant camping places as “Kuringa Gai”-“Bong Bong” is suitably applied to the locality, as the River Wingeecarribee here loses itself in a swamp.

The Kabook and Watoo People of the Gringai Barrington River Gloucester, NSW

According to former GuriNgai Cult aficionado, and current deceased non-Aboriginal man, Dr Geoff Ford:

The origin as ‘Goori’nggai’ is shown from the Aborigines at Paterson (i.e. of Boydell’s group), in Mathews’s notebooks transcribed in the footnote above. Given the dates they cite, Wafer & Lissarrague provide a punitively cynical view for an etymology:.

According to James Kohen (1993), Fraser [i.e. by 1892] invented the name “Kuringgai” using Mathews ‘Dharug grammar (1901) to add the Dharug possessive case form -nggai to the [Awabakal] word kuri or “man‘presumably this is supposed to mean [by Fraser] “the language of the people who say kuri to mean man” ’. 

Dr Geoff Ford goes on to say:

“The farther Wannerawa had since adopted another term proposed for near Broken Bay as ‘Guringai’ by Arthur Capell in a preliminary 1970 article. ‘Guringai’ had been used by Fraser in 1892 as ‘Kuringgai’ to designate people who used the common noun kuri for man, which he appeared to have taken from the term Gringai / Gooringai used by the settlers to identify a local group of`Kattung Language people across the Hunter River at the Paterson / Allyn River tributary.”

https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:40852

The non-Aboriginal hucksters that claimed the name Guringai for themselves have steadfastly refused to change the name they claimed for themselves as recently as 2003.

GuriNgai Cult leader Tracey Howie even went as far a creating a fictional suicide of a fictional member of her cult, in an attempt to silence these genuine Aboriginal People.

To be absolutely clear, there is no evidence that the contents of the above email from Tracey Howie are true. This is clear evidence of Tracey Howie using a fictional suicide of a fictional member of her group, in order to have genuine Aboriginal People stop looking too closely.

Aboriginal People rose up and called out this bizarre situation.

Which for a brief shinning moment, caused Tracey Howie to almost come close to nearly doing the right thing.

Before very quickly reverting to form, including threats, intimidation, and a reckless disregard for Aboriginal People, Culture and Country by falsly claiming genuine mob’s name, parts of language, their notion of our Culture, even stealing our Ancestors.

Which of course, Aboriginal People took issue with, and raised it in the organisations that Aboriginal People can choose to join – Local Aboriginal Land Councils.

A second media release the same day (RE: Aboriginal Cultural Authority on the Central Coast of New South Wales) came bundled with a few of the previous efforts by a variety of Aboriginal people to be heard on this issue.

The following is as close to an official response as the GuriNgai have been capable of presenting:

Paul Craig discusses the actual Guringai People, before letting lose appalling, ableist slander towards proud, clever, and staunch af Worimi, Guringai/Guringay Biripi Warrior, Registered Aboriginal owner of Worimi Guringai Lands, Australian Rwandan War veteran 1994-95, ANZAC Peace Prize 1995 AND Meritorious Unit Citation, Mr Robert Syron.

Then he tries to have a go at Nathan Moran for working tirelessly for his mob, AND for all mob, literally for decades longer than Paul Craig has decided to play at being mob.

Shameless racism from an easily led skinhead, let off his mission master’s chain; another day in the colony.