Abduction

The building of the town at Warrane/Sydney Cove came at a profound cost. Aboriginal people witnessed the destruction of Country as fresh water was soiled, trees were chopped down, stones cut from the ground, clay dug up, food and fish supplies were depleted.  They also realised that these invaders were not going away and they fought tirelessly to protect their land and their people.

Historians agree that convicts (and the soldiers) were harassing and harming Aboriginal people by stealing their possessions and physically hurting them. Convicts venturing beyond the setttlement had dealings with Aboriginal people that were sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile. There are very few records of the relationships between convicts and Aboriginal people as the journals recordings what was happening were written mostly by the officers of the militiary.

Read Judge David Collins’ thoughts on the treatment of Aboriginal people in February 1789:

had they never been ill-treated by our people, instead of hostility, it is probable that… friendship would have subsisted.

Answer these questions:

• What is he saying?
• Could that have happened?
• The colonists were portrayed as ‘defending their property’ while Aboriginal people were considered hostile. Why do you think that is? Is this reasonable?

The convicts were not the only people committing violence against Aboriginal people.

Two Aboriginal men, Colebee and Bennelong, were abducted in Manly Cove in November 1789 under the order of Governor Arthur Phillip. Phillip had hoped that he could hold these Aboriginal men in captivity in order learn more about Aboriginal people, to teach them British ways and to build a relationship. (Governor Phillip had already tried this before, when he had a man named Arabanoo kidnapped in December 1788!)

Look at this detail from a painting titled ‘Taking of Colbee & Benalon’, that was painted by Lieutenant William Bradley, depicting what he witnessed in November 1789. You can see, by the red arrows, Bennelong and Colebee being kidnapped and placed in the boat.

View the whole painting here.

Read Lieutenant William Bradley’s recollection of the event after the two men were lured away from their people with the offer of two large fish:

They eagerly took the fish, they were dancing together when the Signal was given by me, and the two poor devils were seiz'd & handed into the boat in an instant…They were bound with ropes and taken by boat to Sydney Cove…It was by far the most unpleasant service I was ever ordered to Execute…all that could be said or done was not sufficient to remove the pang they naturally felt at being torn away from their friends; or to reconcile them to their situation. 

Bennelong and Colebee were shackled, with leg irons attached to ropes, in a hut near the Governor’s house and watched by a guard.

Read what Arthur Phillip wrote in 1786 before leaving England about his motivation and plan for establishing relationships with Aboriginal people. He wanted to:

 give them a High Opinion of their New Guests.

Answer these questions:

• What do you think Bennelong and Colebee were thinking and feeling? How would you feel?
• Why did Arthur Phillip want Aboriginal people to have a high opinion of the people on the First Fleet?
• Do you think that Bennelong and Colebee and their families had a high opinion of the colonists at this point?
• Is this method the best way to establish friendly relations?
• How would you suggest building a relationship or friendship with someone you have never met before or know little about?

Colebee soon escaped by breaking the rope attached to his leg irons. Bennelong remained and escaped at a later date. So what happened next in this cross-cultural relationship? A few months after Bennelong’s escape, on 7 September 1790, Governor Arthur Phillip was rowed to Manly Cove/Kayeemy to meet up with him again. A whale feast had brought many Aboriginal people to the cove, including Bennelong and Colebee.

Read the following account by Judge David Collins, who was with Governor Arthur Phillip on this day. He recalls that while conversations were happening, armed Aboriginal men,

…twenty or thirty which appeared were drawing themselves into a circle round the governor and his small unarmed party.

While Governor Phillip and his party slowly withdrew to their boat, Bennelong introduced an older man, later identified as Willemering. The Governor then,

… stepped forward to meet, holding out both his hand toward him.

Willemering then,

…lifted a spear from the grass with his foot, and fixing it on his throwing-stick, in an instant darted it at the governor. The spear entered a little above the collar bone, and had been discharged with such force that the barb of it came through on the other side.

One of the lieutenants broke the spear and Governor Phillip was rowed back to his house within two hours. The surgeon declared that the wound was not fatal. Within ten days, Governor Phillip was recovered enough to accept Bennelong’s invitation to visit him. Bennelong explained that Willemering,

…throwing the spear at the governor was entirely the effect of his fears, and done from the impulse of self-preservation.

It has been suggested that this may not be the whole story. Bennelong may have been the mastermind behind the plan to spear Governor Phillip. Governor Phillip ordered no retaliation to his spearing. Some historians suggest that the spearing of Governor Phillip was a personal payback or revenge or an act of justice according to law/lore and Aboriginal protocols. Perhaps it was atonement for Governor Phillip’s crimes and the crimes of the colonists who were under his authority?

Define the word atonement.

Answer these questions:

• How do you think Governor Phillip was feeling about the spearing?
• Do you think Governor Phillip feared for his life?
• Would it have made a difference if Governor Phillip had stayed motionless and not stepped forward towards Willemering?
• How might Willermerang, Bennelong and other Eora people have felt differently about this event?
• Would you consider this punishment fair if a member of your family had been abducted?
• By reading these quotes, whose perspective are we seeing? Whose is missing?

Brainstorm a list of ways in which the arrival of the First Fleet changed the lives of the Eora people.

Answer these questions:

• If we could ask them, what reasons do you think that Willemering/Bennelong/the Eora people would give for wanting to spear Governor Arthur Phillip?
• Why do you think Governor Phillip might have requested that NO retaliation to his spearing occur?
• Do you feel that wounding Governor Phillip like this would have made up for the changes to the Eora people’s lives you identified?

In three groups prepare a speech for either Willemering, Bennelong or Governor Arthur Phillip about their part in the spearing of Governor Arthur Phillip. Present their perspective and motivations.

However it happened, the spearing of Governor Phillip allowed everyone to come together a month later. Bennelong and three companions returned to the settlement on 8 October 1790 to see Phillip, and everybody was quite friendly. Bennelong and Colebee both started coming to have lunch with Phillip. Bennelong requested that a hut be built for him near the town at the eastern point of the cove on land that we now call Bennelong Point, the present-day site of the Opera House. This was the start of the ‘coming in’ of Aboriginal people on ‘friendly’ terms, and often on their own terms, to Sydney Town on the shores of their place - Warrane. Aboriginal people did not actually leave the area they were just forced into different places and moved around. The choices available to them were very limited too. For some, and possibly Bennelong, the only realistic option left after the decimation was to try and work with the colony.

Answer these questions:

• If the spear attack had been planned by Bennelong, did he get the result he wanted? What was that? Was this simply a power play or part of a bigger plan of atonement?
• How would you feel about the whole event and consequences if you were one of the Eora?

Barangaroo

Barangaroo was an independent and determined Camaraygal woman who was an expert fisher.  She had survived the smallpox epidemic in 1789 but sadly lost her husband and two children to the disease. Bennelong was Barangaroo’s second husband. She was living through challenging times for her people, and she often expressed her unhappiness about Bennelong’s relationship with Governor Arthur Phillip. On a number of occasions she was seen trying to stop Bennelong going to meet with the Governor, making it quite clear she was very angry.

In October 1790 Bennelong met with Governor Arthur Phillip in Warrane/Sydney Cove, after Barangaroo had objected to this meeting and refused to go with him on the visit. She was enraged!

Read Captain Watkin Tench’s record:

she had violently opposed Baneelon's departure… and…she snatched up in her rage one of his fish-gigs, and dashed it with such fury on the rocks, that it broke.

Every time Bennelong tried to visit Rose Hill, Barangaroo would oppose it.

Read Watkin Tench’s description of Barangaroo in May 1791:

fierce and unsubmissive.

Answer these questions:

• Do you think Bennelong and Barangaroo felt differently about Governor Arthur Phillip? Do you think they felt differently about the colony in general?
• How would you describe their reactions?
• Why would Barangaroo be so opposed to Bennelong’s relationship with the Governor?

 [For more information on Barangaroo see Activity 4 Looking to Learn in Food of the Colony learning activity]

Perspective

The way we remember and think about events in history is shaped by something called perspective.

Define and discuss perspective.

The way in which the people of the First Fleet recorded what they saw happen to Arthur Phillip on the beach would be very different from how the Eora people saw, and felt about, this event. We can also see, by looking at Barangaroo and Bennelong, that people whom we might group together can also feel very differently about events in history. This idea of perspective is what makes history both a little bit tricky, but also very interesting!

Most of our information about this time in history is from diaries, journals and letters written by people who travelled on the First Fleet. The recorders of these First Fleet primary sources were mostly British, mostly military, mostly men and mostly well-educated.

Answer these questions:

• What is a primary source?
• Whose viewpoint of history are we seeing? And whose is missing? (Consider that there might be more than one viewpoint missing.)

Remember that these primary sources may be incomplete, biased or inaccurate, so they may be not telling the whole story. Only having one version of events is never enough to form a view of history.

We know some Aboriginal stories today because of the holding and passing down of knowledge in the Aboriginal oral tradition. These first-hand narratives are another source of information and inform the written history. The First Fleet journals and diaries were written down on paper and passed down through the generations (and some ended up in the State Library of NSW collection!)

Answer and discuss this question:

• If the main difference between the oral tradition of recording history and the written tradition of recording history is the writing on paper, can Aboriginal oral tradition be considered a primary source?

Look at this portrait of Bennelong.

Answer these questions:

• What type of clothes is Bennelong wearing? Why? [Answer in Additional Information.]
• Where do you think he might be? [Answer in Additional Information.]
• How do you think his life might have changed from before the invasion?

Research Bennelong’s extraordinary life and his meeting with King George III in England!

You might like to read this picture book The Unlikely Story of Bennelong and Phillip written by Michael Sedunary with artwork by Bern Emmerichs.