Tjilbruke
Tjilbruke (also Tjirbruki, Tjilbruki, Tjirbruke, Tjirbuk or Tjirbuki,) is an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains in the Australian state of South Australia.
[3] The Tjilbruke Dreaming pre-dates European contact, probably arising when the "Adelaide plains tribe", the Kaurna, settled the area at least 2,000 years BP (as evidenced by archaeological finds at Hallett Cove, where Kaurna campsites succeeded those of the Kartan people of Kangaroo Island, who had been there tens of thousands of years earlier).
[2] It is more than a creation story; it assumes the status of a religion for some, sets standards and rules for living, and provides spiritual meaning.
[6] In about 1840, anthropologist Ronald Berndt recorded the spellings "Tjirbuk" or "Tjirbuki" from Ngarrindjeri man Albert Karlowan, as the name of a small wetland.
[9]) While Kulultuwi was cooking the emu meat over a fire, Jurawi and Tetjawi killed him with their spears, as punishment for his breaking the law of the clan.
[8] From Tulukudangga, Tjilbruke carried Kulultuwi's body all the way down the eastern side of Gulf St Vincent and onto and down the west coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula.
[6] At sunset every night of his journey Tjilbruke cried over his nephew's body, and his tears transformed into freshwater springs at six locations:[1] He arrived at a cave (perki[9]) at Rapid Bay, near Cape Jervis,[6] and then emerged from underground at Wateira nengal (Mount Hayfield) and created yellow ochre.
His spirit became a bird, the Tjilbruke (Glossy Ibis), and his body became a martowalan (memorial) in the form of the baruke (iron pyrites) outcrop at Barrukungga, the place of hidden fire (Brukunga - north of Nairne in the Adelaide Hills).
[8][9]The Tjilbruke Monuments Committee was formed by Robert Edwards of the South Australian Museum (SAM), sculptor John Dowie and staff of the Sunday Mail in 1971.
It was largely due to the efforts of Edwards and other non-Aboriginal people that drove the early promotion of Kaurna cultural tourism.
A public appeal helped to fund the marking of the trail by plaques and sculptures, to pay homage to the Kaurna culture and to attract and educate tourists.
While the original idea had been to erect a monument at Rosetta Head/The Bluff at Victor Harbor, the site where Tjilbruke's spirit left earth and turned into the ibis, Georgina Williams pushed for the idea of the track, with several sites down the coast marked, "to provide a contemporary Kaurna presence within the physical public space of their own lands and in the public imagination".
A complex and highly symbolic artwork, it incorporates coloured sands from the Red Ochre Cove area, morthi (tinder) made from Stringybark tree trunks, and eucalypts.
[9] After being planned since 1995,[10] official opening in October 1997 was attended by the Governor General of Australia, William Deane, Lowitja O'Donoghue, and several Kaurna representatives, and celebrated with traditional ceremony and dance.
[9] A federal government-funded reconciliation project in partnership with the City of Marion and the Kaurna community (Dixon and Williams clans) worked together to create a visitor and education centre for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together and reconcile their differences in the now metropolitan suburb of Marion, South Australia at a site known as site at Warriparinga.
