The traditional custodians of the land in the Bayside area are the Kulin Nation People and now more specifically the Bunurong People.
The Kulin Nation
The Kulin Nation consists of five Nations who are the traditional custodians and are those that lived in the Port Phillip and Western Port regions:
Boonwurrung (Boon-wur-rung)
Dja Dja Wurrung (Jar-Jar-Wur-rung)
Taungurung (Tung-ger-rung)
Wathaurung (Wath-er-rung)
Wurundjeri.
These groups have strong cultural connections with this land. Aboriginal culture holds an inherent ethic of land stewardship incorporating a belief system that places Traditional Owners as both custodians of and belonging to the land.
The collective traditional territory of the Kulin Nation extends around Port Phillip and Western Port. It extends up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys.
On July 1st 2021, the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council has once again announced the reallocation of land, back to the Traditional Owners. The land which has been allocated is the land in the east of Melbourne, which is considered land of the Kulin Nation. After consultation with both the Bunurong and Wurundjeri peoples, two of the five clan groups of the Kulin nation, new boundaries have been decided.
The following map shows the distribution of land and its boundaries.
Sandringham Primary School respectfully acknowledges the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people, and other peoples of the Kulin Nation on whose ancestral lands we teach and learn. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
