WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

Oscar Ranges [also see criterion (a) for further discussion]. Jandamarra (aka Pigeon)
led the Bunuba resistance from 1894–1897. The timing of the last wave of European
settlement and the impenetrable nature of the place itself helped create the man and
the legend of Jandamarra - a man brought up in two worlds, whose detailed
knowledge of European settlers and capacity to train his Bunuba countrymen and
women, severely threatened the colonising project. While Jandamarra did not act
alone, his abilities to disappear and avoid capture, and to appear to even cheat death
itself, made him a much feared adversary to European settlers and a powerful leader
amongst his own people. His success brought a severe response from authorities who
threw enormous resources into efforts to capture Jandamarra. His death in 1897
marked the end of large-scale organised violent resistance by Aboriginal people in
Australia's cultural history (Lowe 1994).
For Dillon Andrews, a senior Bunuba man: 'Jandamarra will always be a hero to the
Bunuba people. Doesn't matter how people see it as good or bad, he'll always be a
hero…who fought for the Bunuba People and for his country' (Andrews quoted in
Kinnane 2008, 234–235). But to the Western Australian Government authorities and
the pastoralists of the time, Jandamarra was a serious threat to the colonising project.
Jandamarra – a man between two worlds
Jandamarra was born in 1873, just as the rolling frontier of European settlement was
about to arrive in the northwest. Ten years later, Jandamarra and his family were part
of that first wave of settlement, living as part of a station mob on Lennard River
station. Jandamarra picked up pastoral skills extraordinarily fast, and by his mid-teens
he was already considered one of the fastest shearers and best horsemen in the district,
and a 'deadly rifle shot' (Lowe 1994; Nicholson 1997; Newbury 1999). He could
speak English confidently, had a 'gregarious' sense of humour and became popular
with the Europeans, including William Lukin, the station owner who named him
Pigeon (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995; Grassby and Hill 1988; Lowe 1994).
At the age of fifteen, Jandamarra was taken by his Bunuba elders for initiation and did
not return to Lennard River station, instead joining his uncle, Ellemarra and other
Bunuba in a campaign that saw over 4,000 sheep killed at Lillimooloora station and
more than 2,000 sheep on William Lukin's station, the place where Jandamarra had
spent the previous five years. (Lowe 1994). Jandamarra was growing up in two
worlds: Bunuba and European. As Pedersen (quoted in Kinnane 2008, 235) notes:
'Jandamarra was getting to know two things here. He was getting to know the magic
of his own country and at the same time getting to know the white fellas, and he was
very good at knocking around with the white fellas. He was noticed very early for
being something different'.
In 1889, at the age of 16, Jandamarra was arrested with his uncle, Ellemarra, on a
charge of stock killing. While Ellemarra was sent to Roebourne prison to serve out his
sentence, Jandamarra was imprisoned in Derby for a year where he was put into
service looking after the trooper's horses. He then returned to work for William Lukin,
but this did not last and he ended up back in the protection of the limestone ranges of
Bunuba country. However, the Bunuba elders did not welcome him there because of
his continuing cultural transgressions, including inappropriate relations with Bunuba
women. To escape tribal punishment, Jandamarra left the ranges and began working
at Brooking Springs station. But this did not last either. Before his elders had a chance
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