Kabi Kabi people
aboriginal Australian people of south-east Queensland
The Kabi Kabi people, also spelt Gubbi Gubbi, Gabi Gabi, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people native to South Eastern Queensland. During the Australian frontier wars of the 19th century, there were several mass killings of Kabi Kabi people by settlers. They are now classified as one of several Murri language groups in Queensland. A 2024 determination granted non-exclusive native title rights over a 365,345-hectare (902,790-acre) area of land and waters on the Sunshine Coast.
Naming
As is often the case, ethnonyms distinguishing one tribe from another select the word used by any one group for the concept "no", which is the meaning of kabi/gubi/gabi. However, AIATSIS's Austlang database prefers Gubbi Gubbi.
In recent times, the name Gubbi Gubbi, which was recorded in early documents, has been used interchangeably with Kabi Kabi. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) favours Gubbi Gubbi as the name of the language, but also gives other spellings and name variants. However, recent publications have referred to the people as Kabi Kabi. Native title claims have been lodged in the name of Kabi Kabi people by the Kabi Kabi Aboriginal Corporation.
The public source identifies “Kabi Kabi people” as aboriginal Australian people of south-east Queensland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kabi, people and aboriginal.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kabi Kabi people”, the useful work is to connect “aboriginal Australian people of south-east Queensland” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3191655. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2024.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Kabi Kabi people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.