Bunuba

Bunuba country covers the southern West Kimberley: limestone ranges cut by the Fitzroy and its tributaries, deep gorges such as Geikie and Windjana, and broken high country extending toward the Oscar Range. Waterholes in the gorges and along the rivers made these seemingly harsh lands habitable, supporting movement between exposed ridges and sheltered valleys.

The Bunuba are one of the traditional owners of this country, and Bunuba is one of only two languages in the Bunuban family. For centuries, families moved with the wet and dry seasons, harvesting fish, shellfish, game and plant foods from river pools, grasslands and rocky uplands. Oral law connected particular lineages to named gorges, springs and ranges; marriage and exchange linked them to neighboring Ngarinyin and Gooniyandi communities.

The river and its permanent pools formed the densest concentrations of food and the principal corridors through the limestone. The ranges shaped movement and boundaries without enclosing the population in a few permanent towns. Bunuba country remained a network of water, shelter and ceremonial places, with European ships and coastal visitors affecting the far north Kimberley more than these inland gorges.