Humpy

{{Short description|Temporary shelter traditionally used by Australian Aboriginals}} {{for multi|the John Williamson album|Gunyah (album)|the chess player|Koneru Humpy}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

thumb|250px|A 19th-century engraving showing Aboriginal people and a humpy

thumb|Aboriginal winter encampments in wurlies, South Australia, c. 1858 thumb|Aboriginal camp, Victoria, c. 1858 thumb|Different types of Aboriginal shelters, Queensland. A '''humpy''', also known as a '''gunyah''',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allwords.com/word-gunyah.html|title=Definition of gunyah|website=www.allwords.com}}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oneplanet.com.au/tents.html |title=Tents |publisher=One Planet |access-date=2012-12-06}}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref> '''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 Turrubal language (a Murri people from now-inner Brisbane, e.g. Coorparoo, Nundah). Other languages had different names for the structure. In South Australia, such a shelter is known as a "wurley" (also spelled "wurlie"), possibly from the Kaurna language.<ref>Peters, Pam, The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p818</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> They are called wiltjas in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara languages; mia-mia in Wadawurrung language around Melbourne.<ref>[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 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Our People |url=http://boroughqueenscliffeducation.weebly.com/our-people.html |website=Borough of Queenscliffe}}</ref>

==Usage== They were temporary shelters made of bark, branches, leaves and grass used by Indigenous Australians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Australian National Research Council |author-link=Australian National Research Council |title=Oceania |publisher=University of Sydney |year=1930 |page=288}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | last1=Westaway | first1=Michael | last2=Gorringe | first2=Joshua | editor-first1=Suzy | editor-first2=Lucy | editor-last1=Freeman-Greene | editor-last2=Beaumont | title=Friday essay: How our new archaeological research investigates Dark Emu's idea of Aboriginal 'agriculture' and villages | date=17 June 2021 | doi=10.64628/AA.9f5jnr66f | url=https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-our-new-archaeological-research-investigates-dark-emus-idea-of-aboriginal-agriculture-and-villages-146754 }}</ref>

==Gallery== <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 </gallery>

==See also== * Wiltja * Wigwam * Goahti

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE7215351&mode=browse State Library of Victoria photo of Aboriginal people and humpy]

Category:Australian Aboriginal bushcraft Category:Australian Aboriginal cultural history Category:Huts in Australia Category:Human habitats Category:Indigenous architecture Category:Architecture in Australia Category:Australian Aboriginal words and phrases Category:House types