Читать книгу Australian History For Dummies - Alex McDermott - Страница 69

One of the Eora leaders, a man named Bennelong, developed a unique relationship with Governor Phillip — which is pretty amazing, because he started out by being kidnapped, on Governor Phillip’s direct orders, in November 1789.

Phillip really wanted to learn the local Aboriginal languages and get a better sense of the local customs. Essentially, he wanted to find out how he could discuss and negotiate, and, well, let’s just say that that moment in the meeting where someone points out, ‘Kidnapping people to initiate good relations with the neighbours is actually a really, incredibly stupid idea, sir’ just didn’t happen that day. The instructions from the British Government were to live harmoniously with the local tribes, and to get to know them as well. And abduction … just seemed to be the way to go about realising those aims.

Bennelong clearly wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect of becoming the Governor’s captive ambassador. He engaged, he picked up the newcomers’ language, and he filled them in on local names and peoples — and he then took off pretty much as soon as he got the chance, shortly after the leg irons had been removed and he’d gained his captors’ trust.

Bennelong wasn’t against continued relations with Phillip and the whitefellas, and was willing to engage in ongoing cultural broking between the two groups. As much as we can tell from this distance, he and Phillip seemed to actually like and respect each other. And it absolutely made good cultural sense for Bennelong to establish close relations with the leader of the white folk, for himself, his clan, and the wider Eora nation.

First, though, some sort of payback was required.

Phillip was speared at Manly Cove near Sydney, after he’d been invited there by Bennelong as he and his clan feasted on a stranded whale there. Manly was the place Bennelong had been originally abducted from, and this hardly seems a coincidence. The spear wound wasn’t fatal, but then it wasn’t meant to be. Soon after this, Bennelong re-established relations with the Governor, this time not as captive but on some sort of equality, or mutual recognition.

For the rest of the time Phillip was governor of NSW, Bennelong was invited to Government House regularly. He was welcome company at the Governor’s dinner table, where lively conversation dominated proceedings. Phillip had a hut built for Bennelong to live in at the settlement. (This hut was built on the point where the Sydney Opera House stands today.)

When Phillip left Sydney to return to London in 1792, Bennelong went with him. He wasn’t the first Indigenous Australian to be abducted by the Governor (another man, Arabanoo, preceded him), but along with a young kinsman, Yemmerrawanne, Bennelong was the first Indigenous Australian to voyage out from their home country to make their own journey of discovery, to the alien country of Britain, at the other corner of the world. Here he lodged in Mayfair, was measured for and wore Georgian frock coat and breeches, went to the theatre, watched Opera from a private box, caused a minor sensation when he visited the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, pined badly when Yemmerrawanne died of a lung complaint, and sailed back to Australia on the HMS Reliance.

He returned to life as clan leader, described by one settler as ‘the chief, or king of his tribe’.

While Bennelong adopted some of the habits and customs of the British, dressing in their clothes and learning their language, Barangaroo, Bennelong’s wife, wasn’t as impressed. She opposed what she saw as her husband’s conciliatory relationship with the people who were establishing themselves on Aboriginal land. She refused to adopt the European customs or clothing, angering her husband. All she ever wore was a slim bone through her nose, even when dining with the Governor.

For more on relationships between local Aboriginal people and the new arrivals, see Indigenous Australia For Dummies, 2e, by Larissa Behrendt, Wiley Australia Publishing.