This map is based on the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia, and is an attempt to represent the language, tribal or nation groups of Northern Highlands region. It is not definitive nor exact, but has been produced for a general reading audience.
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Traditional territory of. the Banbai Nation. (Tindale 1974)
The traditional lands of the Jukambal stretched over an estimated 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2), running from around Glen Innes in a northern and easterly direction. We dwelt east of the line connecting Tenterfield and Glen Innes. Through Inverell, King's Plain, Newstead, Paradise Creek, part of Cope's Creek almost to Tingha, Elsmore and part of Auburn Vale, crossing into Byron Plains, then up to Drake, Tenterfield and Wallangarra.
CONTEXT
A bit of recent history for you up until 1953, the Aboriginal Nations of the Highlands would meet for ceremonies, such as initiations and celebrations, and one of those places where celebrations and corroborees were held, was just west of Drake, nearby, in Bundjalung Country. In 1954, a group of young Bundjalung men preparing for their initiation ceremony were advised that all festivals on the highlands had been cancelled as it was becoming more and more dangerous for Aboriginal people to go to and from such festivities. The year prior at the 1953 gathering, a confederacy of Nations from around our region, decided, that to preserve and save lives, all future ceremonies would be cancelled, and the ceremonial spears were burned. This was a real loss for the people of our area. To save lives, elders made the hard decision to forgo traditional ways of teaching culture, language and lore.
We wish to revieve these traditions and knowledge to reinstate its importance to individual and community wellbeing through listening, learning understanding and sharing what we can through indigenous led documentation.