King Bungaree: A Sydney Aborigine Meets the Great South Pacific Explorers, 1799-1830 - Hardcover

Smith, Keith Vincent

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0864174705 ISBN 13: 9780864174703

Publisher: Kangaroo Pr, 1993

Synopsis

King of the Broken Bay Aborigines who settled in Sydney, Bungaree was witty, intelligent, something of a diplomat. He accompanied Flinders and Philip Parker King on their voyages of exploration. For many years he was a Sydney 'character', dressed in cast-off European military clothes, often mentioned in contemporary accounts of the colony and often painted or sketched. Anyone who has worked in the field of early Australian race relations makes the acquaintance of Bungaree, whether as an example of significant collaboration between white and black in many different ways ranging from maritime exploration to the recapturing of escapees, or as a case study exhibiting the essential tragedy of Aboriginal history post contact. This hook reveals the unexpectedly wide dimensions of this one Aboriginal life. In Keith Smith's story we have the excitement of seeing an Aboriginal taking on a range of attributes and emerging as a recognizable human being rather than a simplistic, familiar portrait. The result ing book will he widely read largely because of the extreme scarcity of biographical studies of Aborigines. It contributes not only to the understanding of the Aborigine who was most often discussed and depicted in the first fifty years but also to our knowledge of those fields of endeavor to which he contributed. Light is thrown on the work of several major marine explorers and their relationships with coastal Aborigines; on the personalities and attitudes of a swag of marine visitors from many countries, enabling us for example to discern changes from the time of Bellingshausen to that of d'Urville. Smith is at his best in dealing with pictorial representations of Aborigines and highly knowledgeable not only in relation to contemporary sources but also perceptive in using modern commentaries, including that of Dutton's White on Black, quoting the illuminating remark, 'He mocked the white men by mocking himself'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Kangaroo Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0864174705
• ISBN 13: 9780864174703
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192