Perth Indy Guide
Editorial Policy
You Publish!
Search Us
Calendar
Library
Chat
Email Lists:
Perth-IMC General
Editorial Mob
RadioFreePerth
Techgeeks
RadioFreePerth:
Oceania
Oceania Indymedia
newswreal
email list
video list
tech list
chat
wiki
about indymedia
indymedia
www.indymedia.org
Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video
Africa
ambazonia
canarias
estrecho / madiaq
kenya
nigeria
south africa
Canada
hamilton
london, ontario
maritimes
montreal
ontario
ottawa
quebec
thunder bay
vancouver
victoria
windsor
winnipeg
East Asia
burma
jakarta
japan
korea
manila
qc
Europe
abruzzo
alacant
andorra
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
bristol
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
euskal herria
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
imc-london
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
nice
norway
oost-vlaanderen
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
saint-petersburg
scotland
sverige
switzerland
thessaloniki
torun
toscana
toulouse
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia
Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela
venezuela
Oceania
adelaide
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
oceania
perth
qc
sydney
South Asia
india
mumbai
United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
austin
baltimore
big muddy
binghamton
boston
buffalo
charlottesville
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
tennessee
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester
West Asia
armenia
beirut
israel
palestine
Topics
biotech
Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech
volunteer
|
email the perth indmedia mob...
Yagan: an Aboriginal resistance hero |
| by GB |
2007-01-26 12:26 AM +0900 |
| Noongar warrior Yagan was one of the most respected Aboriginal resistance leaders... |
By Craig Cormick
Noongar warrior Yagan was one of the most respected Aboriginal resistance leaders. Yagan was of the Nyungar people from south-west Western Australia, where Perth, Fremantle and Albany are now situated.
When Captain James Stirling established a colony on the Swan River in 1829, he proclaimed the Nyungar British subjects. Early reports show that the local people and the European settlers cooperated well at first, trading fish and game for bread and flour.
When the clashes did come, they were over land and resources. The Nyungar annual practice of burning the land was mistakenly seen as an act of hostility by the settlers, and the Nyungar saw the settlers' livestock as fair game to replace the dwindling stocks of native animals, which the settlers were hunting or displacing.
In 1831, a Nyungar was shot while taking potatoes from a settler's garden. Yagan was amongst the group that returned to seek revenge. A settler, Enion Entwhistle, was speared in the attack, but his two sons escaped to report the incident.
In June 1832, another man, named Gaze, was killed by Nyungar warriors. Yagan was named one of the leaders responsible and officially declared an outlaw. A reward of Ł320 was placed on his head.
Attacks and reprisal attacks grew. The Perth Gazette wrote: “The reckless daring of this desperado, who sets his life at a pin's fee, is being the subject of general observation, and we firmly believe for the most trivial offence, even with a loaded musket at his breast, he would take the life of any man who provoked him.” Efforts to capture Yagan were increased, and later in 1832 he was captured.
Yagan was described as over six feet (1.8 metres) tall and possessing “a dignified bearing ... head and shoulders above his fellows, in mind as well as in body, and though a subject of terror to the white people, he yet commanded their admiration”. The contradictory views of Yagan by the settlers can be seen in reports of the time that described him as either courteous and hospitable or very menacing.
Yagan was saved from execution by a settler, Robert Lyon, who argued that Yagan should be treated as a prisoner of war rather than a criminal. It is tragic that this never became a precedent for later indigenous resistance fighters.
Yagan was sentenced to exile on a rocky island off Fremantle, Carnac, where Lyon was to be responsible for “civilising” him. Lyon sympathised greatly with Yagan's fight to protect his people and his land, and he published many articles about him. Yagan did not stay in exile long, however. After six weeks on Carnac, he and his Nyungar companions stole a small boat and returned to the mainland.
Yagan was soon being pursued by the military again, after taking part in a pay-back slaying of two men who had shot a Nyungar without provocation. The reward on his head was increased to Ł330, but the armed patrols that scoured the countryside had no success.
The growing conflict between muskets and spears took a heavy toll on the Nyungar people. Yagan's brother, Domjuim, was killed and decapitated, and his father, Midgegooroo, was captured, tried and shot. Tensions in the colony were high, with rumours that hundreds of well-armed Nyungar were mobbing to attack outlying areas.
Yagan next appeared at the farm of George Moore and demanded to know what had happened to his father. Moore wrote in his diary: “Yagan stepped forward, and leaning his left hand on my shoulder, while he gesticulated with the right, delivered a short of recitative, looking earnestly at my face. I regret that I could not understand it; I thought from the tone and manner that the purport was this: `You came to our country; you have driven us from our haunts and disturbed us in our occupations. As we walk in our country we are fired upon by the white men. Why should the white men treat us so?'”
On July 11, 1833, with a group of Nyungar, Yagan approached two young shepherds he knew, James and William Keats, and asked them for flour. Recognising Yagan and keen for the reward, William, when he saw the chance, levelled his musket at Yagan behind his back and shot him dead. Both brothers then fled, but William was caught and speared to death.
James soon returned to the scene with an armed party. They found the body of William and, some distance away, the bodies of Yagan and another Nyungar, Heegan. Heegan was still alive and was shot in the head. Yagan's head was cut off and his tribal markings skinned off his back.
James Keats received the Ł330 reward, but the Perth Gazette criticised his actions as “a wild and treacherous act ... which it appears to us will annihilate the surest road to perfect amity -- mutual confidence ... We are not vindicating the outlaw, but, we maintain, it is revolting to hear this lauded as a meritorious deed.”
Nyungar resistance was to continue under leaders such as Calyute, south of Fremantle, and Weeip of the upper Swan group, until the Battle of Pinjarra in 1834, when troops slew up to 50 Nyungar warriors and forced a surrender.
Yagan's head was preserved by smoking in a hollow tree stump for several months and was then taken to England by one Ensign Robert Dale. It was described as having had the hair combed, possum fur string tied around the forehead and red and black cockatoo feathers added for show.
The head was presented to the Liverpool Royal Institute for exhibition. In January 1835, London's Literary Gazette noted that phrenological examination had confirmed the “barbarous passions” of its owner when living.
In 1894 the head was passed on to the Liverpool City Museum, where it was exhibited until 1964, it was buried in the Everton Cemetery.
Ken Colbung, the 66-year-old descendant of Yagan who was instrumental in finding the head and having it exhumed, said the spirit of Yagan would now be able to join the continuum and could perhaps live on in a new body. His fighting spirit and stance against injustice should at least live on in our history. |
|
|
|
|
Link here
|
More info... |
| by Y |
2007-01-26 12:30 AM +0900 |
On its return to Perth, Yagan's head continued to be a source of controversy and conflict.
Responsibility for reburial of the head was given to a "Committee for the Reburial of Yagan's Kaat", headed by Richard Wilkes. However, the reburial was delayed by disputes between elders over the burial location, mainly due to uncertainty of the whereabouts of the rest of his body, and disagreement about the importance of burying the head with the body.
A number of attempts were made to locate the remains of Yagan's body, which are believed to be on a property on West Swan Road in the outer Perth suburb of Belhus. A remote sensing survey of the site was carried out in 1998, but no remains were found. An archaeological survey of the area was undertaken two years later, but this also was unsuccessful.[14] Disputes then arose over whether the head could be buried separately from the body. Wilkes has claimed that it can, so long as it is placed where Yagan was killed, so that Dreamtime spirits can reunite the remains.[16]
In 1998 the Western Australian Planning Commission and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs jointly published a document entitled Yagan's Gravesite Master Plan, which discussed "matters of ownership, management, development and future use" of the property on which Yagan's remains are believed to be buried. Under consideration was the possibility of turning the site into an indigenous burial site, to be managed by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board.
To date, Yagan's head remains unburied. It spent some time in storage in a bank vault, before being handed over to forensics experts who reconstructed a model from it. Since then it has been in storage at Western Australia's state mortuary. Plans to re-bury the head have been deferred or delayed numerous times, and this has caused ongoing conflict between Noongar groups. The reburial committee have been accused of acting against the wishes of the Noongar community, by deferring its burial in the hope of making money out of it with elaborate parks and monuments. Richard Wilkes, however, says that the committee has direct kinship lines to Yagan, and wants the head to be buried properly, but has been delayed by searches and burial site negotiations. Alternative proposals have been put forward: for example, early in 2006 Ken Colbung called for the head to be cremated and the ashes scattered on the Swan River.[17] In June 2006, Wilkes stated that the head would be buried by July 2007.[18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagan
Link here
|
Yagan |
| by smorf |
2007-01-26 3:34 AM +0900 |
The spirit of yagans resistance lives on.
One day the Nyungah will be free.
Link here
|
Genocide - The A.L.P. way |
| by kyan gadac |
2007-01-27 2:41 PM +0900 |
kiangardarup.blogspot.com
Link here
|
|
ALLOWED:44426
|
|
