Warami,

My name is Jayson (JD) Cooke, proud Marramarra Carigal man, descendant of Bungaree and Matora, and producer of A Long Con Gone on Too Long, guriNgai.org and bungaree.org. I write/speak on behalf of the genuine Aboriginal descendants of our Ancestors, to advise that the terms Guringai, Kuringai, GuriNgai, Wannangine, and variations on this theme are not in any way connected to our genuine mob, Culturally, historically, or in modern times.

Although non-Aboriginal sources have sought to apply names to us, our mob, and our language post-invasion, these terms are inauthentic, Culturally harmful, and in many cases represent and compound ignorance and errors. For instance we are not biologically or Culturally related to the founders of the group that created Guringai Tribal Link Aboriginal Corporation, including Mr Warren Whitfield and Ms Tracey Howie, and have publicly declared that they are not who or what they claim to be for some time. We strongly oppose attempts to invent faux-Aboriginal pseudo-Culture, and find the notion of falsely claiming someone else’s Ancestors, Country, and stories as nothing short of genocide – another Colonisation by yet another group of non-Aboriginal People.

I am not a linguist or an Anthropologist, but I am a proud Aboriginal man who knows his Culture, history and Ancestors, and who sees through the non-Aboriginal people’s attempts to mimic us as easily as most people see through a clear glass window pane.

The name Guringai belongs to the Kabook and Watoo People of the Barrington region, north of the Hunter River – a completely different mob to us and our Ancestors, and this is/was known pre and post 1788 by us.

This name (the property of the Kabook and Watoo People) was first misappropriated and misapplied by John Frederick Mann in the 1800’s, then by Rev. John Fraser. In 1970 linguist Arthur Capell considered that ‘a language which it is convenient to call Kuringgai (Guringgai) was spoken on the north side of Port Jackson, and extended at least to Tuggerah Lakes, merging then into Awaba [i.e. the language recorded by Missionary Threlkeld at Lake Macquarie]’. Capell claimed that a different language, which he called Darginyung, was spoken in the Upper McDonald Valley, Wollombi and the western part of the Central Coast. 

As noted by Dr Lawrence Paul Allen in his PHD thesis titled ‘A History of the Aboriginal People of the Central Coast of New South Wales to 1874’, “it is important to note that Capell was simply seeking to find an appropriate name for a language and was not asserting that this was the name by which Aboriginal people identified themselves”.

In 2013 Geoffrey Ford added that the language was almost certainly called Darkiñung, while in 2015 the Aboriginal Heritage Office (AHO) published an exhaustive study of the name ‘Guringai’, which concluded that ‘the use of the term Guringai or any of its various spellings such as Kuringgai is not warranted [anywhere] given its origin and previous use’.

The work of Dr Lawrence Paul Allen, and the work of Anthropologist Dr Natalie Kwok both support, and provide insight into some of the past errors made by non-Aboriginal people incorrectly claiming to be descendants of my Ancestors Bungaree and Matora, and compliment the knowledge and understanding of our mob.

We have experienced invasion, germ warfare, genocide and war as a result of the invasion and ongoing occupation that began in 1788. We have survived all this, retained our knowledge and Culture, and are not content to suffer further genocidal practices by non-Aboriginal people who whether well-meaning or not, add to the suffering we experience by haphazardly applying their ideas and notions to us, and presenting prima facie nonsense as if it were truthful. 

As documented on guriNgai.org, in 2001 a non-Aboriginal man named Warren Whitfield decided to claim he was Aboriginal, and decided to claim to be a descendant of Bungaree. Whitfield created the ‘GuriNgai’ group using poor scholarship of non-Aboriginal sources, including plagiarism and myth-making, and his claims have been debunked many, many times.

Mr Whitfield’s niece, Tracey Howie took over from Mr Whitfield when he moved to North Queensland, and has run the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai group since the early 2000s. Under the stewardship of both Whitfield and Howie, this group sought recognition and support of non-Aboriginal community groups, who sadly were not adequately Culturally aware of genuine Aboriginality and Aboriginal People to recognise the GuriNgai for what they are.

Ms Howie created the notion that the Aboriginal community do not accept the bogus claims of the GuriNgai for reasons separate from the reality that the GuriNgai are categorically legally, biologically, spiritually and historically NOT Aboriginal people, not ‘traditional custodians’ and not culturally connected to either Bungaree, or the Central Coast region.

Ms Howie was aided by Beve Spiers, a non-Aboriginal woman who claimed to be Darkinoong, claimed to be magical, and claimed to be the last fully initiated Elder of the region – all false claims made to benefit Ms Spiers and her compatriots.

Mr Jake Cassar repeated the claims of Ms Howie and Beve Spiers, and continues to do so to this day, appearing to use their relationships as ‘black cladding’ for the objectionable racism, appropriation and entitlement from groups such as the ‘Coast Environmental Alliance (CEA)’ and the many satellite groups associated with CEA, such as Community Voice Australia (CVA), Coast 4 One, Coasties Who Care, Saving Kariong Sacred Lands, Jake Cassar Bushcraft, the GuriNgai, and many more.

Promoting the fictional narrative of the GuriNgai group undermines genuine Aboriginal People by misrepresenting us, our Ancestors, our Culture and our fundamental human rights. The crimes associated with these people have been reported to the authorities many times, over many years, and while justice is slow, progress is being made.

The GuriNgai are not recognised as being Aboriginal for the simple fact they are not: no racist conspiracy theory required.

Mr Cassar’s business identity involves pseudo-Aboriginal humbug such as the ‘grandmother tree’, the so-called ‘hieroglyphs’ at Gosford, and his aspiration for Old Sydney Town to reopen with Mr Cassar once more being able to play dress-up. Jake Cassar has been repeatedly asked to cease appropriating our Culture, cease racist attacks against Aboriginal People, Culture and organisations, no racist conspiracy theory required.

I have sympathy for the people who have readily accepted the word and marketing of these people at face value – it provides little comfort to know they are victims of a relentless campaign to create and empower a ‘tribe’ of non-Aboriginal People, at the expense of the longest existing Culture on Earth.

The digitised evidence regarding the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai group has been publicly available since NAIDOC 2023 at guriNgai.org. The ‘Who am I’ tab at the top of that website may ease concerns regarding my supposed anonymity, sincerity and motivations.

Encouraging non-Aboriginal people to jump to conclusions and attack mob is a long standing strategy of the GuriNgai, and a continuation of their goal to intentionally weaponise non-Aboriginal People against us. We hope that truth-telling and evidence-based education can rectify this issue.

JD Cooke