View source for 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}}

[[Image:Native Encampment by Skinner Prout, from Australia (1876, vol II).jpg|thumb|250px|A 19th-century engraving showing Aboriginal people and a humpy]]

[[File:Aboriginal winter encampments in wurlies, near Adelaide, South Australia, Eugene von Guérard ca. 1858.jpg|thumb|Aboriginal winter encampments in wurlies, South Australia, c. 1858]]
[[File:Aboriginal camp, ca.1858.jpg|thumb|Aboriginal camp, Victoria, c. 1858]]
[[File:Queensland-aboriginal-architecture-walater-roth.jpg|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'', ''wiltija'', is a small, temporary shelter, traditionally used by [[Aboriginal Australians|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|Jagera]] language (a [[Murri people|Murri]] people from [[Coorparoo, Queensland|Coorparoo]] in [[Brisbane]]); other [[Australian Aboriginal languages|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|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=[[The Sunday Mail (Brisbane)|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.<ref>[http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/technology/ Australian Indigenous tools and technology - Australia's Culture Portal<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{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 English vocabulary|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.

==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
</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]

{{Indigenous Australians}}
{{Tents}}
{{Huts}}

[[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]]


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