Murungiyalinya: Wiradjuri Cultural Revitalisation and Its Socio-Political Significance to the Wiradjuri People
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2025
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This thesis examines Wiradjuri cultural revitalisation, understood as the renewal of Wiradjuri cultural practices following their disruption through over two centuries of colonisation and attempted ethnocide in Australia. The research is conducted by a Wiradjuri man and is grounded in Indigenous standpoint and authority.
The study employs the Wiradjuri research methodology Yindyamarra Winanghana. This methodology is centred on the cultural philosophy of Yindyamarra, meaning respect, was developed by key research participants in this study, and is itself part of an ongoing process of Wiradjuri cultural revitalisation. Its use ensures that Wiradjuri ways of knowing, being, and doing remain central to the research design and analysis.
The thesis title incorporates the Wiradjuri verb murungiyalinya, meaning to be resurrected, revived, or brought back to life. This concept frames the investigation of two core research questions: how and why Wiradjuri people are undertaking cultural revitalisation, and what significance this revitalisation holds for Wiradjuri socio political status.
The first research question is addressed through Yindyamarra Winanghana by providing space for four Wiradjuri cultural revitalisation practitioners to articulate, in their own words, their motivations and processes for regenerating cultural practices. Their accounts demonstrate that Wiradjuri people engage in cultural revitalisation for a diverse range of reasons and through innovative and deeply grounded practices.
In addressing the second research question, the findings show that cultural revitalisation plays a significant role in strengthening Wiradjuri socio political status. It does so by intentionally and unintentionally challenging negative colonial misrepresentations imposed on Wiradjuri people, culture, and identity within Wiradjuri ngurambang, or Country. The thesis argues that the deliberate disruption of these misrepresentations through cultural revitalisation constitutes an act of self determination, enabling Wiradjuri people to reclaim control over their representation. In doing so, cultural revitalisation also contributes to the ongoing articulation and strengthening of Wiradjuri identity as a First Nation.
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