Monday, December 6, 2021

Indigenous history

In my last post I mentioned the story that Billy Fawkner, also known as 'King Billy', was a trusted servant of the Ward family and 'helped raise the children'. In following up this story, I became aware that the History Department of Newcastle University is researching the indigenous history of the Central Coast. I sent off an email to see if they had any further information on the relationship between the Ward family and Billy Fawkner and I am now in contact with the person who has done the research on Billy Fawkner. He seems very happy to be in contact with our family and would be very interested to hear about any family stories about the Aboriginal people.

If anyone has stories to contribute, please let me know. I can either pass the stories along, or put you directly in touch with Ryan (my contact)

I have already sent him the few stories our Dad told us, including the following:

One of the Ward women was having a difficult childbirth (Dad said it was 'Grandma Ward', but it is not likely to be Madeline in my opinion). The Aboriginal women arrived and ushered all the men away. They took the mother down to a nearby creek and supervised a water birth in the creek. The baby and mother both survived.

I discussed this with one of my cousins at a family gathering yesterday and she said she had heard the same story, but not that it was one of the Ward women.

And this story:

There was an extended drought and the entrance to the coastal lakes became choked with sand. The catch of fish in the lakes fell dramatically and the Aboriginal people who depended heavily on the fishing were on the verge of starvation. Manasseh rode out to their camp and supplied them with flour and taught them top make damper so they could survive.

Billy Fawkner died in 1874 or 75 and was widely reported as the last of the coastal Darkinjung people. Manasseh would have been only 24 when Billy died. The story refers to a group of people, so must have been some years before Billy died. I suspect that it was more likely in William's time, if it occurred at all. 

This story also seems a little paternalistic, to me at least. The Aboriginal people were well versed in the use of flour from native seeds and routinely made damper-like cakes and I see no reason that the Darkinjung people would have been any different. They also used a range of food sources, so the idea of dependance on only fish does not quite ring true to me. Perhaps they had already lost access to much of their traditional country and that is why they became so dependant on fish from the lakes.

I also found a rambling article from the Australian Town Country Journal, Sydney.  Published in 1875 in two parts, this article presents Henry Kendall's thoughts on Brisbane Water and includes several mentions of Billy Fawkner, including an account of his death by drowning at Terrigal. The link below should take you to a page on the National Library's 'Trove' website with links to the two parts of the article. The first part seems also to have appeared in the Evening News.

The author is given as just 'HK', but the Gosford Times refers to the article 50 years later and that reference confirms the author as Henry.

I was a bit disappointed that Henry did not mention our William Ward in his recounting of the history of the district. We know from other sources that Henry and William were well known to each other and also have records that William settled Killcare well before many of the men mentioned. I wonder why he left his friend out of the story?

Some people think that Billy Falkner was the inspiration for Henry Kendall's poem The Last of His Tribe which was first published in 1864. The idea that Billy Fawkner and his contemporaries were the last of the Darkinjung people is rightly challenged today by their descendants, many of whom still live on the Central Coast today. I am sure some would doubt just how much connection today's generation have with their Darkinjung ancestors – to them I say that their connection is almost exactly the same as our connection to William Ward!

Don't forget to let me know if you have any family stories, particularly about the indigenous people. Post a message in the 'Manasseh's Mob' facebook page or send me an email. 

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