About us

The clans and families of the Bangerang Nation are the People of the Tall Trees.

Our clans and families are the Traditional Owners of a large tract of Victoria's Goulburn Murray and Ovens Murray Regions, and the Southern Riverina Murray Region of New South Wales.

“Land is the starting point from where everything in our world began. We don’t own the land, the land owns us. We see our bodies as the land and our veins are the rivers that flow through us, nourishing us and sustaining life. We are spiritually connected to the land, like an artery and its tributaries – like the life-giving water that flows through the Ovens River and its tributaries, from the mountains, down across the plains and into the mighty Murray River” – Uncle John ‘Sandy’ Atkinson AM.

We are indelibly tied to our country as our creator Baimiya defined from the rivers and wetlands, to the trees that line their banks, to the valleys and plains, and to the western edges of the high country with the animals Baimiya created.

We have passed down the stories of Baimiya’s creation of Dunggula (Murray River) and the role of Dunatban (Rainbow Serpent) over hundreds of generations. Of Dunggudja Nanit (Great Earthquake), now known as the Caddell Fault which occurred across the north-western reaches of Bangerang country thousands of years ago altering the landscape and forming the great lake we knew as Ganyabala (Kanyapella), which created the largest Biyala (river red gum) forest in the world at Barmah and the remnants of which are the Moira Lake. We have also passed down the stories of how our ancestors dug a trench on the banks of that great lake Ganyabala (Kanyapella), releasing the Wala (water) and creating the current course of Dunggula (Murray River).

We have been the sovereign people of our country since time immemorial. We have never ceded our sovereignty.

Always was. Always will be Bangerang Woka (Country).