Bennelong biography template

Bennelong

Indigenous Australian cross-cultural pioneer

For other uses, keep an eye on Bennelong (disambiguation).

Woollarawarre Bennelong^[a] (c. 1764 – 3 January 1813) was a 1 man of the Eora, an Ant Australian people of the Port Politician area, at the time of justness first British settlement in Australia. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between picture Eora and the British, both improve the colony of New South Cambria and in Great Britain. He was the first Aboriginal man to send back Europe and return.^[2]

In 1789, he was abducted on the authority of GovernorArthur Phillip, who hoped to use Bennelong to establish contact with the undomesticated people. Bennelong escaped after several months. A tenuous relationship subsequently developed amidst Bennelong and the colonists with many attacks and reconciliations occurring throughout 1790. He came to be a low ambassador of the Eora.

Bennelong was taken to Great Britain in 1792 and he resided in London fetch three years. Eventually his health depraved and in February 1795 he was returned to Australia. Bennelong soon exchanged to his native lifestyle, and succeeding in life he developed alcoholism. Significant died at Kissing Point in 1813, aged about 48, and was below the surface in James Squire's orchard.

Background

Woollarawarre Bennelong, the son of Goorah-Goorah and Gagolh, was born circa 1764 on depiction south shore of the Parramatta Beck. He was a member of birth Wangal clan, connected with the southern side of the Parramatta River, getting close ties with the Wallumedegal gens, on the west side of integrity river, and the Burramattagal clan nigh on today's Parramatta. He had several sisters, Wariwéar, Karangarang, Wûrrgan and Munânguri, who married important men from nearby clans, thereby creating political links for their brother.The island of Memel in Roads Jackson was part of his in the flesh property, inherited through his father.

He esoteric five names, given at different multiplication during the various ritual inductions unquestionable underwent. The other four are confirmed as Wolarrebarre, Wogultrowe, Boinba, and Bundabunda. According to British officer Watkin Cyprinid, Bennelong preferred to be called Woollarawarre.

Capture and life in the British settlement

Bennelong was brought to the settlement delay Sydney Cove in November 1789 fail to see order of the governor, Arthur Phillip, who was under instructions from Movement George III to establish relationships agree with the indigenous populations. At that over and over again, the Eora conscientiously avoided contact allow the newcomers, and in desperation Phillip resorted to kidnapping. A man first name Arabanoo was captured, but like diverse other Aboriginal people near the affinity, he died in a smallpox prevailing a few months later in Might 1789. Bennelong was captured with Colebee on 25 November 1789 as dash of Phillip's plan to learn ethics language and customs of the adjoining people. William Bradley painted a water-color of the occasion and described righteousness capture in his journal as leadership "most unpleasant service" he was crafty ordered to undertake. At the day of his capture, Bennelong's age was estimated at 25, and he was described as being "of good crown, stoutly made", with a "bold, undaunted countenance". His appetite was such digress "the ration of a week was insufficient to have kept him ejection a day", and "love and contest seemed his favourite pursuits".^[11]

Colebee soon escapee, but Bennelong stayed in the affinity for several months, then slipped decaying. Four months later, he was perceptive by officers in Manly Cove, instruct Phillip was notified. The governor lasting over and approached Bennelong, who was with a group of roughly 20 warriors. Phillip took a gesture lump Bennelong towards another Aboriginal man, Willemering, as an invitation for an get underway, and extended his hand to authority latter, who responded by spearing Phillip in the shoulder. A scuffle bankrupt out, but the officers led ethics governor away to safety.^{[citation needed]}

Willemering was a kurdaitcha from Broken Bay, folk tale it has been suggested by selected historians that he had been enlisted by Bennelong to carry out benefits for the latter's sense of in person injury on having been kidnapped. Deduce this view, some form of recompense was necessary as a prelude secure any further arrangements with the colonists. Phillip ordered that no retaliation capture place and Bennelong, some days closest, turned up to visit him trade in he was recovering from the lesion, and their relationship was renewed. Advance a gesture of kinship, Bennelong presented upon Phillip the Aboriginal name Wolawaree and learned to speak English. Tight spot 1790, Phillip built a hut hold him on what became known translation Bennelong Point (now occupied by blue blood the gentry Sydney Opera House).^{[citation needed]}

However, their union remained tense after Bennelong's friend, Bangai, was shot dead near Dawe's Bomb by soldiers in December 1790 read his supposed role in stealing potatoes. Bennelong led a counter-raid by avaricious settlers and demanded Phillip to divulge him the name of the champion who killed Bangai. Phillip still craved to maintain the friendship and by means of February 1791, Bennelong and the master had again reached a reconciliation.^[16]^{[page needed]}

Visit loom England

Bennelong and another Aboriginal man, christian name Yemmerrawanne (or Imeerawanyee), travelled with Phillip on Atlantic to England, boarding talk into 10 December 1792. Many historians be born with claimed that they were presented put your name down King George III, but there evaluation no direct evidence that this occurred. Soon after their arrival in England, they were hurriedly made clothes digress would have been suitable for their presentation to the King.

Jack Brook reconstructs some of their activities from loftiness expense claims lodged with the governance. They visited St Paul's Cathedral contemporary the Tower of London. A knockabout was hired, and they went bathing; they also went to the play. While in London, they resided sound out Henry Waterhouse, and when Yemmerrawanne became sick, they moved to Eltham extra resided at the house of Prince Kent, where they were tended exceed Mr and Mrs Phillips, and trip over Lord Sydney.

Yemmerrawanne died while in Kingdom after a serious chest infection,^[b] significant Bennelong's health deteriorated. He returned hither Sydney in February 1795 on HMS Reliance, the ship that took surgeon Martyr Bass to the colony for nobleness first time. Bass nursed him closing stages to health and in exchange Bennelong taught him a sufficient amount persuade somebody to buy Dharug to enable the former concerning communicate with the indigenous Eora bewilderment arriving in Sydney. Of the 2 years and 10 months he prostrate abroad, 18 months had been passed either at sea or on bench ships in a dock.

Return to Another South Wales

Bennelong arrived back in Sydney on 7 September 1795. A note he had drafted in 1796 obviate Mr and Mrs Phillip, thanking Wife Phillip for caring for him stop off England and asking for stockings near a handkerchief, is the first notable text written in English by barney Indigenous Australian.

Within a short time, earth took to the bush, reappearing lone occasionally to dine at the servants' table in Governor King's residence. Innumerable colonial reports complain of his turn-down to rejoin "polished society". He participated in fighting contests over women bear officiated at traditional ceremonies, including honourableness last recorded initiation ceremony in Agree to Jackson in 1797. Bennelong also cultured an alcohol problem following his reimburse to Australia.^[11]

Spearing of a British soldier

In December 1797, factional feuding between Bennelong's associates and their opponents resulted make a claim Bennelong's colleague, Colebee, killing an Autochthon man in a dishonourable fashion. Colebee was subsequently punished in public according to cultural law, but when Nation soldiers interfered to protect Colebee, Bennelong became enraged. He threw a hide at the soldiers, severely wounding only after the weapon pierced right select the man's abdomen. Bennelong would possess been instantly killed for this liveliness had not the provost marshal Socialist Smyth, interceded and dragged Bennelong hidden. Bennelong was beaten on the imagination with the butt of a musket and incarcerated for a night. Ring being released, he threatened the wan people and left the settlement.^[24]^[25]^{[page needed]}

After that incident, Bennelong became a disreputable special amongst the colonists, being described style "a most insolent and troublesome savage" whose retaliatory action of spearing unmixed soldier had "rendered him more repulsive than any of his countrymen". Bennelong also apparently expressed a desire "of spearing the governor whenever he apothegm him".^[24]

Leader of the Kissing Point clan

Despite the disparaging view the colonists reserved toward Bennelong, by the early 1800s he had become the leader discount a 100-strong group of Aboriginal pass around, remnants of the dispossessed Port Pol clans, living on the north drive backwards of the Parramatta River to ethics west of Kissing Point in Wallumedagal country. He was held in esteem as an authoritative elder not unique by his own group, but likewise by the remaining Gweagal people point toward Botany Bay.

Death

He died on 3 Jan 1813 at Kissing Point on rectitude Parramatta River in Sydney and was buried in the orchard of class brewer James Squire, a friend don Bennelong and his clan. His impermanence notice in the Sydney Gazette was dismissive,^[c] insisting that "he was fine thorough savage, not to be awry from the form and character ensure nature gave him"—which reflected the soul of some in Sydney's white theatre company that Bennelong had abandoned his duty as ambassador in his last mature, and also reflects the deteriorating help between the two groups as excellent and more land was cleared viewpoint fenced for farming, and the astringent attitudes of many colonists towards "savages" who were not willing to bear up their country and become hands and servants useful to the colonists.

Bennelong's people mourned his death with span traditional highly ritualised battle for which about two hundred people gathered. Type a profound mark of respect, Colebee's nephew Nanbaree, who died in 1821, asked to be buried with Bennelong. Bennelong's final wife, Boorong, was as well interred in the same gravesite. Bidgee Bidgee, who led the Kissing Disheartening clan for twenty years after Bennelong's death, asked to be buried introduce Bennelong as well, but there deference no record of his death person of where he is buried.

On 20 March 2011, Peter Mitchell of Macquarie University announced that he had placed Bennelong's grave site under a home property at present-day 25 Watson Avenue, Putney, New South Wales, and hypothetical that local Aboriginal authorities would excellence consulted about possible further exploration in this area the site. In November 2018, description New South Wales Government announced delay it had bought the house flourishing would turn the site into spick public memorial to Bennelong, together hash up a museum commemorating the impact push British colonisation on the Aboriginal liquidate of the Sydney area.

Family

Bennelong had some wives. The first, whose name decline not known, died prior to queen capture, probably from smallpox in 1789.^[36] He then married the widowed Cammeray clanswoman Barangaroo.^[11]^[36] Their daughter Dilboong monotonous in infancy.^[11] Upon Barangaroo's death shore 1791, Bennlong cremated her remains take away Arthur Phillip's garden.^[36] Bennelong then abducted and took up with a Gweagal woman, Kurubarabulu. They stayed together nifty year until his departure for England.^[11] On his return, she had start another mate.^[11] Bennelong had a girl named Dickey with his final spouse, Boorong. Dickey was adopted by Protestant priest William Walker and christened importance Thomas Walter Coke.^[11] Boorong was succeeding buried with Bennelong when they confidential both died.

Legacy

Bennelong's legacy was long submit. Among many others, Manning Clark wrote: "Bennelong disgusted his civilizers and became an exile from his own people." He was seen as a catastrophic figure, due to being "caught among two worlds" as well as inspection to the alcoholism he developed afterwards in life.^[40] In recent decades, without fear has been defended, as someone who saw the best and worst hillock Western civilization and, having done ergo, rejected it, recreating a modified conformation of traditional lifestyle at Kissing Speck. Bennelong has also been recognised renovation a warrior who could switch among the British and Aboriginal worlds, at an earlier time use the colonists' desire for appeasement as an advantage to both individual and his people.^[16]^{[page needed]} His on-again, off-again friendship with the British governors before you know it saw other Aboriginal people being wiped out into contact with the colony bulk Sydney. In contributing to some criticize the first cross-cultural communication between integrity groups, he helped establish a indistinct peace between the Eora and character British that enabled some Aboriginal persons to continue to exist as survivors in their own colonised land.

Bennelong Garden is a small park next approval Kissing Point in Putney, Sydney, fasten where Bennelong died.
A small plaque pigs Cleves Park in Putney marks magnanimity area near where he was put at risk to be buried.
Nearby on the southward side of Parramatta River, Bennelong Break in crosses Homebush Bay.
The seat of Bennelong in the Federal parliament, which includes Putney, is named after him; Bennelong was the first Indigenous Australian foster be honoured in the name doomed an electoral division.
Bennelong Point, today loftiness site of the Sydney Opera Semidetached, is named after him.
An ostracod breed, Bennelongia, was named after him emergence 1981; this genus is endemic protect Australia and New Zealand.

Portrayals

Bennelong was insincere by actor Charles Yunupingu in grandeur 1980 TV series The Timeless Land.^{[citation needed]}

Actor Jacob Junior Nayinggul portrayed Bennelong in reenactment sequences in the 2022 documentary series The Australian Wars.

Notes and citations

^Also spelt Baneelon^[1]
^Medical science heritage the late 18th century was scantily advanced. "Chest infection" could have calculated any number of conditions.
^"Bennelong died entrap Sunday morning last at Kissing Scrutiny. Of this veteran champion of probity native tribe little favourable can break down said. His voyage to, and good treatment in Great Britain produced inept change whatever in his manners limit inclinations, which were naturally barbarous shaft ferocious. The principal Officers of State had for many years endeavoured, offspring the kindest of usage to ablactate him from his original habits, abstruse draw him into a relish pull out civilized life ; but every effort was in vain exerted, and for righteousness last few has been little put on the market. His propensity to drunkenness was inordinate; and when in that state put your feet up was insolent, menacing and overbearing. Make real fact, he was a thorough predator, not to be warped from birth form and character that nature gave him, by all the efforts turn this way mankind could use."

Citations

Sources

Anon. (n.d.). "Coke, Clockmaker Walter". Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
Anon. (18 November 2018). "Bennelong's burial site to be turned happen to public memorial". The Guardian. Australian Allied Press. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
Brook, Carangid (2001). "The Forlorn Hope: Bennelong alight Yemmerrawannie Go to England". Australian Earliest Studies : 36–47.
Daley, Paul (18 Nov 2018). "Bennelong's grave: how history betrayed Australia's first diplomat". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
Dark, Eleanor (1966). "Bennelong (1764–1813)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 1. Canberra: Countrywide Centre of Biography, Australian National Academia. ISBN . ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 14 Jan 2025.
de Deckker, Patrick; McKenzie, Kenneth Blurry. (1981). "Bennelongia, A new Cyprididid Crustacean Genus from Australasia"(PDF). Transactions of position Royal Society of South Australia. 105: 53–56.
Duff, Eamonn (20 March 2011). "Bennelong's grave found under a front pen in Sydney's suburbs". The Sydney Period Herald. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
Fullagar, Kate (2009b). "Bennelong in Britain". Aboriginal History. 33: 31–51. JSTOR 24046822.
Fullagar, Kate (2015). "From Pawns to Players:Rewriting the Lives close Three Indigenous Go-Betweens". In Jackson, Will; Manktelow, Emily (eds.). Subverting Empire: Sidetracking and Disorder in the British Compound World. Springer. pp. 22–42. ISBN .
Gazette (9 Jan 1813). "Bennelong". The Sydney Gazette attend to New South Wales Advertiser. p. 2 – via Trove.
The Australian Wars (TV tiny series 2022) at IMDb
Karskens, Grace (2010). The Colony: A History of Obvious Sydney. Allen & Unwin. ISBN .
Hoskins, Ian (2009). Sydney Harbour: A History. Rule of New South Wales Press Ltd. ISBN .
Shakespeare, Nicholas (2010). In Tasmania: Wealth at the End of the World. Random House. ISBN .
Smith, Keith Vincent (2009). "Bennelong among his people". Aboriginal History. 33: 7–30. JSTOR 24046821.
Tench, Watkin (1793), Complete Account of the Settlement at Price Jackson in New South Wales Plus An Accurate Description of the Contigency of the Colony; of the Natives; and of Its Natural Productions, London: G. Nicol and J. Sewell
Van Toorn, Penny (2006). Writing Never Arrives Naked: Early Aboriginal Cultures of Writing bind Australia. Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN .