PART TWO: The JagaJagas and Five others
PART TWO: The JagaJagas and Five others
Eight senior men, literally not one a chief, but ‘chiefs’[1] almost certainly elders, leading men - ‘woringarpil’- maybe there was even a ‘barnbuyal’ medicine man, or a ‘neyerneryerneet’ a clan head or two among them, met Batman with three whites and the black Parramatta Five. One of the kin brothers Jagga or Jaika was certainly a charismatic and courageous leader among his people in the early post contact years.[2] The Aborigines had no compulsion on them to make a treaty.[3] A greater likelihood was violence towards Batman’s little troupe in retaliation for the hurts of two generations. They had both been trespassed upon without leave, and worse, raped, kidnapped, violated, or had their people killed without compunction.
Sure, if they officially met the Europeans as the records report they were treated kindly. From the sea: by Bass and Flinders in Western Port, October of 1798; by Grant in the Lady Nelson in 1800 in Port Phillip, and again in 1801; by John Murray in 1802; by Flinders again in April 1802; by Charles Grimes up the Yarra in early 1803; by Collin’s settlement at Sorrento in late 1803; by J.H.Tuckey in his Port Phillip-wide survey in October 1803; by much to and froing from Collins’ settlement till early 1804. Then, overland, by Hume and Hovell in October 1824; -though Hume’s native understandings just averted violence in the cross-cultural chasm of misunderstanding at Lara, near the You-Yangs. Then, by Hovell, inland from Western Port in 1826;[4] and finally, by the Western Port defence-settlement of 1826.[5]
But how were they treated by their recordless meetings of the wild straightsmen? By the other convict desperates escaped from Sullivan’s Bay, by sealers on Phillip Island, by tan-barkers in Western Port? Or by Dutton and his men after 1828? By Captain Griffiths men? By the Mills men? By ticket-of leave men, hardened criminals, escapee bushrangers from Van Deimens Land who sought licence in the work-force of Bass’s Straights? By crews of the boats: Fairy? Henry? Madeira Packet? Elizabeth? Thistle? Sarah Ann? Arabin? or others? either plying or pillaging Bass Straight of its wealth. By the women-dealers, kidnappers, woman-hunters, whalers; indeed by the Henty’s, let alone by the crew of the pirate ship possibly reported by Buckley.[6] By the scurvied crew of the Livey in 1831. By other seadogs out of historic knowledge. The memories of aborigines cried out for contact avoidance.
[1] Marie Fels ~ Good men and True ~ pp 86~ Billibolary being the ‘chief’ no duty was required of him; he would not drill, and he would not go out of his own country on duty, but each evening, an hour before sundown, he dressed himself in his police uniform and marched back and forth between his mia-mia and Thomas’s tent which was adjacent. Billibolary was making a statement about his corporate solidarity with the police, but at the same time asserting his status. Uniforms worked to make quite a number of statements for the police about their situation .
[2] That he was an escapologist in the practice of his sense of liberty and native rights to freedom (the ironic legacy of which is that he is memorialised by a sense of criminality, in that Jika Jika maximum security prison was named for him. He was a coach of courage in his people, killed at Bulleen.
For a fictional recreation of him in context see. Mick Woiwood: The Last Cry
[3] Fels: Good Men And True. p.53 ‘Billibolary, it will be recalled had made his mark once before on a European document, Batman’s land treaty: Bonwick quoted Wedge’s original description of Billibolary’s signature on the land treaty with Batman, noting how Billibolary cut a notch in the bark of a tree with his mark, attaching the bark to the piece of paper, the mark being the signature of his tribe and country. Bonwick said that the idea of making a treaty with naked savages has ben treated as a capital joke, but in his view, they well knew the nature of the instrument they were called upon to sign. They knew about boundaries, he said, the preservation of the soil and the reception of a material equivalent.’
[4] Keith Bowden ~ The Western Port Settlement and its Leading Personalities - S.E.H.A.1970
[5] Henry Field Gurner ~ Chronicle of Port Philip, now the Colony of Victoria from 1770 to 1840. First published 1876 George Robertson, Melbourne ( Intro. & Ed. Hugh Anderson, Melbourne 1978)
[6] ‘Natives told Buckley of seeing crew members tied to trees and shot. Perhaps the pirate ship RELAMPAGO of Benito Bonito of the West Indies who sacked the cathedral of Lima in Peru, did bury those treasure in these parts.’ as suggested by Kevin Hayden, in Wild White Man, pp 15
Eight senior men, literally not one a chief, but ‘chiefs’[1] almost certainly elders, leading men - ‘woringarpil’- maybe there was even a ‘barnbuyal’ medicine man, or a ‘neyerneryerneet’ a clan head or two among them, met Batman with three whites and the black Parramatta Five. One of the kin brothers Jagga or Jaika was certainly a charismatic and courageous leader among his people in the early post contact years.[2] The Aborigines had no compulsion on them to make a treaty.[3] A greater likelihood was violence towards Batman’s little troupe in retaliation for the hurts of two generations. They had both been trespassed upon without leave, and worse, raped, kidnapped, violated, or had their people killed without compunction.
Sure, if they officially met the Europeans as the records report they were treated kindly. From the sea: by Bass and Flinders in Western Port, October of 1798; by Grant in the Lady Nelson in 1800 in Port Phillip, and again in 1801; by John Murray in 1802; by Flinders again in April 1802; by Charles Grimes up the Yarra in early 1803; by Collin’s settlement at Sorrento in late 1803; by J.H.Tuckey in his Port Phillip-wide survey in October 1803; by much to and froing from Collins’ settlement till early 1804. Then, overland, by Hume and Hovell in October 1824; -though Hume’s native understandings just averted violence in the cross-cultural chasm of misunderstanding at Lara, near the You-Yangs. Then, by Hovell, inland from Western Port in 1826;[4] and finally, by the Western Port defence-settlement of 1826.[5]
But how were they treated by their recordless meetings of the wild straightsmen? By the other convict desperates escaped from Sullivan’s Bay, by sealers on Phillip Island, by tan-barkers in Western Port? Or by Dutton and his men after 1828? By Captain Griffiths men? By the Mills men? By ticket-of leave men, hardened criminals, escapee bushrangers from Van Deimens Land who sought licence in the work-force of Bass’s Straights? By crews of the boats: Fairy? Henry? Madeira Packet? Elizabeth? Thistle? Sarah Ann? Arabin? or others? either plying or pillaging Bass Straight of its wealth. By the women-dealers, kidnappers, woman-hunters, whalers; indeed by the Henty’s, let alone by the crew of the pirate ship possibly reported by Buckley.[6] By the scurvied crew of the Livey in 1831. By other seadogs out of historic knowledge. The memories of aborigines cried out for contact avoidance.
[1] Marie Fels ~ Good men and True ~ pp 86~ Billibolary being the ‘chief’ no duty was required of him; he would not drill, and he would not go out of his own country on duty, but each evening, an hour before sundown, he dressed himself in his police uniform and marched back and forth between his mia-mia and Thomas’s tent which was adjacent. Billibolary was making a statement about his corporate solidarity with the police, but at the same time asserting his status. Uniforms worked to make quite a number of statements for the police about their situation .
[2] That he was an escapologist in the practice of his sense of liberty and native rights to freedom (the ironic legacy of which is that he is memorialised by a sense of criminality, in that Jika Jika maximum security prison was named for him. He was a coach of courage in his people, killed at Bulleen.
For a fictional recreation of him in context see. Mick Woiwood: The Last Cry
[3] Fels: Good Men And True. p.53 ‘Billibolary, it will be recalled had made his mark once before on a European document, Batman’s land treaty: Bonwick quoted Wedge’s original description of Billibolary’s signature on the land treaty with Batman, noting how Billibolary cut a notch in the bark of a tree with his mark, attaching the bark to the piece of paper, the mark being the signature of his tribe and country. Bonwick said that the idea of making a treaty with naked savages has ben treated as a capital joke, but in his view, they well knew the nature of the instrument they were called upon to sign. They knew about boundaries, he said, the preservation of the soil and the reception of a material equivalent.’
[4] Keith Bowden ~ The Western Port Settlement and its Leading Personalities - S.E.H.A.1970
[5] Henry Field Gurner ~ Chronicle of Port Philip, now the Colony of Victoria from 1770 to 1840. First published 1876 George Robertson, Melbourne ( Intro. & Ed. Hugh Anderson, Melbourne 1978)
[6] ‘Natives told Buckley of seeing crew members tied to trees and shot. Perhaps the pirate ship RELAMPAGO of Benito Bonito of the West Indies who sacked the cathedral of Lima in Peru, did bury those treasure in these parts.’ as suggested by Kevin Hayden, in Wild White Man, pp 15
posted by Wayne D Knoll | 5:02 PM
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