As Gunggari People, we acknowledge and pay our respects to our ancestors who have entrusted us with the care and well-being of our country and culture. 

For thousands of years, Gunggari People have travelled throughout our ancestral lands to the east and west of the Maranoa River, following in the tracks of the Mundagudda (Rainbow Serpent), an important ancestral being who travelled through our country, flicking his tail to create banks along our waterways, rivers, creeks and waterholes, and filling them with water.

It was during this time the Mundagudda also embedded our language into the land, naming all of our waterways, sacred sites and significant places, which is why language is very important to the Gunggari People. We are the Gunggari People because that is the name of the language given to us by the Mundagudda during creation time. Munda means ‘snake’ and gudda means ‘belonging to the water’.

The traditional song “Ilmargan” is a dreaming story/song line the celebrates the spirit and power of the Maranoa River and associations with the Mundagudda, the Rainbow Serpent.

As Aboriginal people, we have maintained a strong spiritual, emotional and physical connection to our land and culture that has in many cases been weakened, but never broken. We celebrate the return of families, some of whom were forcibly removed from country but now have the freedom to come back and reconnect with family, culture and country.