Humpy

{{Short description|Temporary shelter traditionally used by Australian Aboriginals}}

{{for multi|the John Williamson album|Gunyah (album)|the chess player|Koneru Humpy}}

Image:Native Encampment by Skinner Prout, from Australia (1876, vol II).jpg

File:Aboriginal winter encampments in wurlies, near Adelaide, South Australia, Eugene von Guérard ca. 1858.jpg

File:Queensland-aboriginal-architecture-walater-roth.jpg

A humpy, also known as a gunyah,{{cite web|url=http://www.allwords.com/word-gunyah.html|title=Definition of gunyah|website=www.allwords.com}}{{Citation | author1=Memmott, Paul | title=Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley : the Aboriginal architecture of Australia | year=2007 | publication-date=2007 | publisher=University of Queensland Press | edition= 1st | isbn=978-0-7022-3245-9 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.oneplanet.com.au/tents.html |title=Tents |publisher=One Planet |access-date=2012-12-06}}{{Citation | author1=Cannot, Jack | author2=Prince, Victor | title=I'll build a gunyah for you : song | publication-date=1912 | publisher=Allan & Co. Pty. Ltd | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34768258 | access-date=7 January 2019 }} wurley, wurly, wurlie, mia-mia, or wiltija, is a small, temporary shelter, traditionally used by Australian Aboriginal people. These impermanent dwellings, made of branches and bark, are sometimes called a lean-to, since they often rely on a standing tree for support.

Etymology

The word humpy comes from the Jagera language (a Murri people from Coorparoo in Brisbane); other language groups would have different names for the structure. In South Australia, such a shelter is known as a "wurley" (also spelled "wurlie"), possibly from the Kaurna language.Peters, Pam, The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p818{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23130901 |title=A Bark Humpy. How to Build it? |newspaper=The Queenslander |location=Queensland, Australia |date=30 October 1930 |access-date=7 January 2019 |page=57 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97703505 |title=Humpies and Gunyahs : Coloured Families on the Tweed |newspaper=Sunday Mail |issue=550 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=10 December 1933 |access-date=7 January 2019 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}} They are called wiltjas in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara languages, mia-mia in Wadawurrung language.[http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/technology/ Australian Indigenous tools and technology - Australia's Culture Portal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100416140453/http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/technology/ |date=2010-04-16 }}{{cite web |title=Our People |url=http://boroughqueenscliffeducation.weebly.com/our-people.html |website=Borough of Queenscliffe}}

Usage

They were temporary shelters made of bark, branches, leaves and grass used by Indigenous Australians.{{cite book |last=Australian National Research Council |author-link=Australian National Research Council |title=Oceania |publisher=University of Sydney |year=1930 |page=288}} Both names were adopted by early white settlers, and now form part of the Australian lexicon. The use of the term appears to have broadened in later usage to include any temporary building made from any available materials, including canvas, flattened metal drums, and sheets of corrugated iron.

In Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe argues that contrary to popular perception of Aboriginal dwellings being only temporary, some gunyahs in the Channel Country could accommodate up to 50 people and formed part of permanent agricultural communities.https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-our-new-archaeological-research-investigates-dark-emus-idea-of-aboriginal-agriculture-and-villages-146754

Gallery

File:Aboriginal family group, Eugene Von Guerard, ca. 1859.jpg|Aboriginal family and their temporary bark gunya (shelter), {{Circa|1856}}

File:Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya (shelter), Johns Album ca. 1872.jpg|Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya (shelter), Victoria, c. 1872

File:Two Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya (shelter) wrapped in traditional pelt cloaks, John Hunter Kerr. ca. 1850s.jpg|Two Aboriginal woman in front of bark gunya, c. 1850s

File:Aboriginals under temporary bark gunya (shelter), ca. 1888.jpg|Temporary lean-to bark gunyah, c. 1888

File:Aboriginal temporary bark gunyah (shelter), ca. 1870.jpg|Temporary lean-to bark gunyah, 1889

File:Four Aboriginal people at the entrance to their dwelling, Western Australia, Gustav Riemer ca. 1876.jpg|Aboriginal people at the entrance to their dwelling, Western Australia, c. 1876

File:Humpy, Gunyah, south west Queensland. part of scenes of far western Queensland, Fred McKay gulf patrol, 1937 - (John Flynn?) (19306853893).jpg|Framework of a humpy in far western Queensland, 1937

File:Native Wurley.jpg|Native Wurley, 1886

File:StateLibQld 1 113072 Bushman with his dog and horse outside a humpy, Hughenden district^, 1910-1920.jpg|Bushman humpy, 1910s

File:StateLibQld 2 239273 Bark humpy on Cleveland Road, Brisbane, 1874.jpg|Bark humpy, Brisbane, 1874

File:Govers 067.tif|[Aboriginal people] and wurlie near Alice Springs (Mparntwe), c. 1930s.

File:Govers 193.tif|Aboriginal wurlie near Alice Springs, c. 1930s