Meen warann (Smallpox)
Several generations ago, our Ancestors heard stories down song lines of a violent sickness raging across the lands. The brave young messengers raced along the inland trade routes to warn other nations. But still, our people suffered and died.
Mourning lost relatives, helping their spirits find peace, is at the heart of our communities. Our people suffered and died in such large numbers, we could not properly bury the dead.
In 1880 Scottish pastoralist and friend James Dawson published the smallpox song in the Djab Wurrung language as “meen warann”. Composed one hundred years earlier in the Eora languages of Sydney as “galgalla”, messengers translated the song into local languages as they travelled along the inland trade routes.