Reconstructing the Battle of 'Narawai (Moongalba)
Keywords:
Battle of ’Narawai, North Stradbroke Island, 1827–1832, Aboriginal peoples, 'pullen-pullen', frontier warsAbstract
The Battle of ’Narawai on North Stradbroke Island, and skirmishes that culminated in this event (c. 1827–32) have been sidelined in recent decades, based on the assumption that the event was more likely a massacre, and that sources are too conflicted to build a workable narrative. Here we utilise known and unexamined sources, and the untapped oral tradition and environmental knowledge of Stradbroke Island Aboriginal peoples, to reconstruct both the build-up and phases of the confrontation. We find that our primary sources for this incident ultimately derive from Aboriginal informants; together with current Aboriginal perspectives, these allow a more nuanced and Aboriginal-driven narrative than is normally possible for a frontier wars skirmish. It is argued that the Battle of ’Narawai was not a one-sided massacre but rather a well-planned operation by Aboriginal combatants, orchestrated to provide tactical advantages. We contend that the battle merged tactics of traditional pullen-pullen (inter-tribal tournaments) with strategies more suited to the demands of the frontier wars, and that it was perceived as a victory by Aboriginal Stradbroke Islanders.
References
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Dale Ruska, interview.
Dale Ruska, interview:
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 64
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Dale Ruska, interview:
Dale Ruska, interview.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 51.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
Dale Ruska, interview.
Dale Ruska places the soldiers’ camp at the foreshore between Coorooign-Coorooign-pa and Arananwai Creeks. This remains a traditional camp ground to this day.
Dale Ruska, interview.
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Dale Ruska, interview.
Dale Ruska, interview.
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Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65-6
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Twenty was the usual minimum. Rolf Grein, personal communication, 20 September 2018.
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Uncle Bob Anderson, interview.
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
At this time, the manner in which soldiers’ end of duty was recorded did not usually detail the circumstances or whether they were deceased. Rod Pratt, personal communication, 14 September 2018.
CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
Raymond Evans, ‘The Mowgi Take Mi-An-Jin,’ p. 64, n.84.
Uncle Bob Anderson, interview.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
W. R. F. Love, ‘Henry Stobart and the Brisbane Aborigines in 1853’, Anthropological Society of Queensland Newsletter 152 (30 October 1984), p. 4.
Elisabeth Gondwe, personal communication, 15 May 2017.
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Dale Ruska, interview.
Petrie, Tom Petrie’s reminiscences, pp. 44–8, 160–4; Gearbaugh notes.
‘An Aboriginal fight’, Daily Examiner (Grafton), 16 July 1931, p. 6.
‘An Aboriginal fight’, p. 6; JW, ‘Romance of real life in Australia’, p. 4.
Uncle Bob Anderson, personal communication, 4 January 2019.
Gaiarbau and Winterbotham, ‘The Gaiarbau story’, p. 61.
Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
Gaiarbau and Winterbotham, ‘The Gaiarbau story’, pp. 60–1.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Joshua Peter Bell, Moreton Bay and How to Fathom It, 8th ed. (Brisbane: Queensland Newspapers, 1984 [1950]), p. 50.
Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
Jenny Cooke-Bramley, ‘Early Settlement in Dunwich’, in Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Historic North Stradbroke Island, p. 42.
Dale Ruska, interview.
Thomas Welsby, ‘Men and things of long ago’, Courier-Mail, 14 October 1933, p. 19.
Dale Ruska, interview. This may pertain to soldiers dispersing a gathering at Russell Island oyster camp.
Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
Uncle Bob Anderson, interview.
