Djadjawurrung

The Djadjawurrung, also called the "Djaara" or "Jajowrong" people and the Loddon River tribe, are Indigenous Australians. They are the traditional owners of land around the Loddon and Avoca rivers in the Bendigo area of central Victoria, Australia.^[1] They belong to the Kulin nation, a group of Aboriginal peoples in Victoria.^[2] The Djadjawurrung have 16 clans that follow a system where family lines are traced through the father. Like other Kulin peoples, they have two groups called moieties: Bunjil, the eagle, and Waa the crow.^[3]

The name "Dja Dja Wurrung" is made from two parts: a word for "yes" (like djadja or similar sounds) and the word for "mouth" (wurrung). This is different from many nearby languages, which often use their word for "no" to name their people.^[4] The Dja Dja Wurrung language had two main dialects: one in the east and one in the west.

Their lands covered more than 16,000 square kilometres (6,200 sq mi). It included the Upper Loddon and Avoca rivers. In the east it reached from what are now the towns of Maldon and Bendigo, to Castlemaine and west as far as St. Arnaud. It included Lake Buloke. In the north it went as far as Boort and northwest to Donald. The towns of Creswick, Daylesford and Woodend mark the south, and to the southwest, Navarre Hill and Mount Avoca. Stuart Mill, Natte Yallock and Emu Flat and the eastern source of the Wimmera River are all part of Dja Dja Wurrung traditional land.