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Yagan

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

   Portrait of Yagan by George Cruikshank.This portrait was painted from
   observations of Yagan's severed head, which had shrunk substantially
   during smoking. According to George Fletcher Moore, it bears little
   resemblance to the living face of Yagan, which was "plump, with a
   burly-headed look about it."
   Enlarge
   Portrait of Yagan by George Cruikshank.
   This portrait was painted from observations of Yagan's severed head,
   which had shrunk substantially during smoking. According to George
   Fletcher Moore, it bears little resemblance to the living face of
   Yagan, which was "plump, with a burly-headed look about it."

   Yagan ( IPA: [ˈjæɪgən]; rhymes with pagan) (c. 1795– 11 July 1833) was
   a Noongar warrior who played a key part in early indigenous Australian
   resistance to European settlement and rule in the area of Perth,
   Western Australia. After he led a series of attacks in which white
   settlers were killed, a bounty was offered for his capture dead or
   alive, and he was shot dead by a young settler. Yagan's death has
   passed into Western Australian folklore as a symbol of the unjust and
   sometimes brutal treatment of the indigenous peoples of Australia by
   colonial settlers.

   Yagan's head was removed and brought to London, where it was exhibited
   as an "anthropological curiosity". It spent over a century in storage
   at a museum before being buried in an unmarked grave in 1964. In 1993
   its location was identified, and four years later it was exhumed and
   repatriated to Australia. Since then, the issue of its proper reburial
   has become a source of great controversy and conflict amongst the
   indigenous people of the Perth area. To date, the head remains
   unburied.

Yagan's life

Early life

   A member of the Whadjuk Noongar people, Yagan belonged to a tribe of
   around 60 people whose name, according to Robert Lyon, was Beeliar.
   Lyon's information is not entirely reliable, however, and it is now
   thought that the Beeliar people may have been a family subgroup of a
   larger tribe that Daisy Bates called Beelgar. According to Lyon, the
   Beeliar people occupied the land south of the Swan and Canning Rivers,
   as far south as Mangles Bay. It is evident, however, that the group had
   customary land usage rights over a much larger area than this,
   extending north as far as Lake Monger and north-east to the Helena
   River. The group also had an unusual degree of freedom to move over
   their neighbours' land, possibly due to kinship and marriage ties with
   neighbouring tribes.

   Yagan is thought to have been born around 1795. His father was
   Midgegooroo, an elder of the Beeliar people; his mother was presumably
   one of Midgegooroo's two wives. Yagan was probably a Ballaroke in the
   Noongar classification. According to Green, he had a wife and two
   children, but most other sources state that he was unmarried and
   childless. Described as taller than average with an impressive burly
   physique, Yagan had a distinctive tribal tattoo on his right shoulder
   which identified him as "a man of high degree in tribal law". He was
   generally acknowledged to be the most physically powerful of his tribe.

Relations with settlers

   Yagan would have been about 35 years old in 1829 when British settlers
   landed in the area and established the Swan River Colony. For the first
   two years of the colony, relations between settlers and Noongars were
   generally amicable, as there was little competition for resources, and
   the Noongars welcomed the white settlers as Djanga, the returned
   spirits of the Noongar dead. As time passed, however, conflicts between
   the two cultures gradually became more frequent. The settlers took the
   view that the Noongars were nomads with no claim to the land over which
   they roamed, and so they considered themselves free to fence off land
   for grazing and farming. As more and more land was fenced off, the
   Noongars were increasingly denied access to their traditional hunting
   grounds and sacred sites, so by 1832 Yagan's family group was unable to
   approach the Swan or Canning Rivers without danger, because land grants
   lined the banks. The Noongars' response to the loss of their hunting
   and gathering grounds was to take the settlers' crops and spear their
   cattle. They also developed a taste for the settlers' food, and their
   constant theft of flour and other food supplies became a serious
   problem for the colony. Another cause of conflict was the Noongar
   practice of firestick farming, firing the bush to flush out game and
   encourage germination of undergrowth, which threatened the settlers'
   crops and houses.

   The first significant Aboriginal resistance to white settlement in
   Western Australia occurred in December 1831 after Thomas Smedley, a
   servant of farmer Archibald Butler, ambushed some natives who were
   raiding a potato patch, and shot dead one of Yagan's family group. A
   few days later, Yagan, Midgegooroo and others stormed the farmhouse
   and, finding the door locked, began to break through the mud-brick
   walls. Inside was another of Butler's servants, Erin Entwhistle, and
   his two sons Enion and Ralph. After hiding his sons under the bed,
   Entwhistle opened the door to parley and was instantly speared to death
   by Yagan and Midgegooroo. Noongar tribal law required that murders be
   avenged by the killing of a member of the murderer's tribal group, not
   necessarily the murderer. The spearing of Entwhistle may therefore be
   understood as retribution under tribal law, as the Noongars would have
   thought of Butler's household as a family group. The white settlers,
   however, saw the act as the unprovoked murder of an innocent man.

   In June 1832 Yagan led a party of Aborigines in an attack on two
   labourers who were sowing a field of wheat alongside the Canning River
   near Kelmscott. One of the men escaped, but the other, William Gaze,
   was wounded and later died, possibly through infection of the spear
   wound. In response to this, Yagan was declared an outlaw with a reward
   of £20 offered for his capture. Yagan managed to avoid capture until
   early October 1832, when a group of fishermen enticed Yagan and two of
   his friends into their boat, then pushed off into deep water. The three
   Noongars were initially taken to the Perth guardhouse, then later
   transferred to the Round House at Fremantle. Yagan was sentenced to
   death, but he was saved by the intercession of a settler named Robert
   Lyon, who argued that Yagan was defending his land against invasion,
   and was therefore not a criminal but a prisoner of war, and was
   entitled to be treated as such. At the recommendation of John Septimus
   Roe, Yagan and his friends were instead exiled on Carnac Island at the
   Governor's pleasure, under the supervision of Lyon and two soldiers.

   Lyon was convinced that he could civilise Yagan and convert him to
   Christianity, and hoped to use his tribal standing to obtain the
   Noongars' acceptance of white authority. To this end Lyon spent many
   hours with Yagan learning his language and customs. However, his
   efforts were cut short when, after a month, Yagan and his companions
   escaped by stealing an unattended dinghy and rowing to Woodman Point on
   the mainland. No attempt was made to recapture the men; apparently, the
   Government considered that they had been sufficiently punished.

   In January 1833 two Noongars, Gyallipert and Manyat, visited Perth from
   King George Sound, where relations between settlers and natives were
   amicable. Two settlers, Richard Dale and George Smythe, arranged for
   the men to meet a party of local Noongars in the hope that it might
   encourage the same friendly relations in the Swan River Colony. On 26
   January Yagan led a group of ten formally armed Noongars in greeting
   the two men near Lake Monger. The men exchanged weapons and held a
   corroboree, though neither group seemed to understand the language of
   the other. Yagan and Gyallipert then competed at spear throwing, Yagan
   striking a walking stick from a distance of 25 metres.

   Gyallipert and Manyat remained in Perth for some time, and on 3 March,
   Yagan obtained permission to hold another corroboree, this time in the
   Post Office garden in Perth. The Perth and King George Sound men met at
   dusk, chalked their bodies, and performed a number of dances including
   a kangaroo hunt dance. The Perth Gazette wrote that Yagan "was master
   of ceremonies and acquitted himself with infinite grace and dignity".

   During February and March, Yagan was involved in a series of minor
   conflicts with settlers. In February settler William Watson complained
   that Yagan had pushed open his door, demanded a gun, and taken
   handkerchiefs, and that Watson had had to give him and his companions
   flour and bread. The following month, he was among a group who received
   biscuits from a military contingent under Lieutenant Norcott; when
   Norcott tried to restrict his supply, Yagan threatened him with his
   spear. Later that month, Yagan was with a group of Noongars that
   entered Watson's house while he was away. The group left after Watson's
   wife called on neighbours for help, but were brought back the next day
   to be lectured about their behaviour by Captain Ellis. The constant
   conflict prompted The Perth Gazette to remark on "the reckless daring
   of this desperado who sets his life at a pin's fee ... For the most
   trivial offence ... he would take the life of any man who provoked him.
   He is at the head and front of any mischief."

Wanted dead or alive

   On the night of 29 April, a party of Noongars broke into a Fremantle
   store to steal flour and were fired upon by the caretaker Peter
   Chidlow. Domjum, a brother of Yagan, was badly injured and died in jail
   a few days later. The rest of the party then moved from Fremantle to
   Preston Point, where Yagan was heard to vow vengeance for the death.
   Between fifty and sixty Noongars then gathered at Bull Creek, within
   sight of High Road, where they met a party of settlers who were loading
   carts with provisions. Later that day, the group ambushed the lead
   cart, spearing to death two white men, Tom and John Velvick. Tribal law
   only required a single death; the native Munday later explained that
   both were speared because they had previously mistreated Aboriginal
   people. The Velvicks had previously been convicted for assaulting
   Aboriginal people and coloured seamen. Alexandra Hasluck has also
   argued that a desire to steal the provisions was an important motive in
   the attack , but this has been refuted elsewhere .

   For the killing of the Velvicks, the Lieutenant-Governor Frederick
   Irwin declared Yagan, Midgegooroo and Munday outlaws, offering rewards
   of £20 each for the capture of Midgegooroo and Munday, and a reward of
   £30 for Yagan's capture dead or alive. Munday successfully appealed
   against his proscription. Midgegooroo and Yagan must have realised that
   they would be hunted by settlers, as their group immediately moved from
   their territory north towards the Helena Valley. Four days after the
   murder, Midgegooroo was captured on the Helena River, and after a
   brief, informal trial was executed by firing squad. Yagan, however,
   remained at large for over two months.

   Late in May, Yagan was seen by George Fletcher Moore on his property in
   Upper Swan, and the two held a conversation in pidgin English. Yagan
   then spoke in his own language; Moore wrote:

     Yagan stepped forward and leaning with his left hand on my shoulder
     while he gesticulated with the right, delivered a sort of
     recitation, looking earnestly into my face. I regret that I could
     not understand it. I thought from the tone and manner that the
     purport was this:-
     You came to our country; you have driven us from our haunts, and
     disturbed us in our occupations. As we walk in our own country we
     are fired upon by the white men; why should the white men treat us
     so?

   Since Moore had little knowledge of Yagan's native language, Hasluck
   suggests that this conjecture is probably more indicative of "a feeling
   of conscience on the part of the white men" than an accurate rendering
   of Yagan's state of mind.

   Yagan then asked Moore whether Midgegooroo was dead or alive. Moore
   gave no reply, but a servant answered that Midgegooroo was a prisoner
   on Carnac Island. Yagan responded with a warning: "White man shoot
   Midgegooroo, Yagan kill three." Moore made no attempt to capture Yagan
   other than to report the sighting to the nearest magistrate; he wrote,
   "The truth is, every one wishes him taken, but no one likes to be the
   captor ... there is something in his daring which one is forced to
   admire."

Death

   Map of skirmish area showing gravesite and Henry Bull's mill
   Enlarge
   Map of skirmish area showing gravesite and Henry Bull's mill

   On 11 July 1833, two teenage brothers named William and James Keates
   were herding cattle along the Swan River north of Guildford when a
   group of Noongars approached on their way to collect their rations of
   flour from Henry Bull's house. Being on friendly terms with Yagan, the
   Keates brothers suggested he remain with them to avoid arrest. Yagan
   remained with them all morning, during which time the boys decided to
   kill Yagan and claim the reward. William Keates tried once to shoot him
   but the gun stopped at half-cock; no further opportunity arose before
   they were rejoined by the other natives. When the natives attempted to
   depart, the Keates took their last opportunity. William Keates shot
   Yagan, and James shot another native, Heegan, in the act of throwing
   his spear. Both boys then ran for the river, but William was overtaken
   and speared to death. James escaped by swimming the river and returned
   shortly afterwards with a party of armed settlers from Bull's estate.

   Moore records that a party of soldiers passed by the area shortly after
   the incident, and speculates that they must have "frightened the
   natives (I supposed) or they would have carried off the bodies". When
   the party of settlers arrived, they found Yagan dead and Heegan dying.
   Heegan "was groaning and his brains were partly out when the party
   came, and whether humanity or brutality, a man put a gun to his head
   and blew it to pieces." Yagan's head was then cut from his body, and
   his back was skinned to obtain his tribal markings as a trophy. The
   bodies were buried a short distance from where they had been killed.

   James Keates successfully claimed the reward, but his actions were
   widely criticised; The Perth Gazette referred to Yagan's killing as "a
   wild and treacherous act ... it is revolting to hear this lauded as a
   meritorious deed." Keates departed the colony the following month; the
   reasons are unknown, but it is possible that he left from fear of being
   murdered in retaliation.

Yagan's head

Exhibition and burial

   A portion of George Fletcher Moore's handwritten diary, showing
   sketches of Yagan's head.
   Enlarge
   A portion of George Fletcher Moore's handwritten diary, showing
   sketches of Yagan's head.

   Yagan's head was initially taken to Henry Bull's house. Moore saw it
   there and sketched the head a number of times in his unpublished,
   handwritten diary, commenting that "possibly it may yet figure in some
   museum at home". The head was then preserved by smoking, by hanging it
   in a hollow tree over a fire of Eucalyptus wood for three months.

   In September 1833 Yagan's head was taken to London by Ensign Robert
   Dale. According to Paul Turnbull, Dale appears to have persuaded
   Governor Irwin to let him have the head as an "anthropological
   curiosity" . After arriving in London, Dale approached a number of
   anatomists and phrenologists attempting to sell the head for £20,
   claiming that it was worth twice that much. Having failed to find a
   buyer, he then entered into an arrangement with Thomas Pettigrew for
   the exclusive use of the head for one year. Pettigrew, a surgeon and
   antiquarian who was well-known in the London social scene for holding
   private parties at which he unrolled and autopsied Egyptian mummies,
   displayed the head on a table in front of a panoramic view of King
   George Sound that was reproduced from Dale's sketches. For effect the
   head was adorned with a fresh corded headband and feathers of the
   Red-tailed Black Cockatoo.

   Pettigrew also arranged for the head to be examined by a phrenologist.
   Examination was considered difficult because of the large fracture
   across the back of the head caused by the gunshot. The findings, which
   were predictably consistent with contemporary European opinion of
   Indigenous Australians, were published as part of a pamphlet by Dale
   entitled Descriptive Account of the Panoramic View &c. of King George's
   Sound and the Adjacent Country, which Pettigrew encouraged his guests
   to buy as a souvenir of their evening. The frontispiece of the pamphlet
   was a hand-coloured aquatint print of Yagan's head by the artist George
   Cruikshank.

   Early in October 1835, both Yagan's head and the panoramic view were
   returned to Dale, who was then living in Liverpool. On 12 October he
   presented them to the Liverpool Royal Institution, where the head may
   have been displayed in a case along with some other preserved heads and
   wax models illustrating cranial anatomy. In 1894 the Institution's
   collections were dispersed, and Yagan's head was lent to the Liverpool
   Museum; it is thought not to have been put on display there. By the
   1960s Yagan's head was badly deteriorated, and in April 1964 the
   decision was made to dispose of it. On 10 April 1964, Yagan's head was
   placed in a plywood box, along with a Peruvian mummy and a Māori head,
   and buried in Everton Cemetery's General Section 16, grave number 296.
   In later years a number of burials were made around the grave, and in
   1968 a local hospital buried 20 stillborn babies and two babies who had
   lived less than twenty-four hours directly over the museum box.

Lobbying for repatriation

   For many years, at least since the early 1980s, a number of Noongar
   groups sought the return of Yagan's head.

     It is Aboriginal belief that because Yagan's skeletal remains are
     incomplete, his spirit is earthbound. The uniting of his head and
     torso will immediately set his spirit free to continue its eternal
     journey.

   It was unknown at that time, however, what had happened to the head
   after it left Pettigrew's possession. In the early 1980s, Ken Colbung
   was entrusted with the search for the head by tribal elders. In 1985 he
   engaged Lily Bhavna Kauler as a researcher, and a number of
   unsuccessful enquiries were made to various United Kingdom museums. In
   the early 1990s, Colbung enlisted the aid of University of London
   archaeologist Peter Ucko. One of Ucko's researchers, Cressida Fforde,
   was funded by the Government of Australia to conduct a literature
   search for information on the head. She successfully traced the head in
   December 1993, and in April the following year, Colbung applied for
   permission to exhume it under Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857. Home
   Office regulations required next of kin consent for the remains of the
   22 babies to be disturbed, but Colbung's solicitors requested that this
   condition be waived on grounds that the exhumation would be of great
   personal significance to Yagan's living relatives, and great national
   importance to Australia.

   Meanwhile, divisions in the Perth Noongar community began to show, with
   Colbung's role in the repatriation questioned by a number of elders,
   and one Noongar registering a complaint with the Liverpool City Council
   over Colbung's involvement. There was much acrimonious debate within
   the Noongar community about who had the best cultural qualifications to
   take possession of the head, some of which was publicly aired. On 25
   July a public meeting was held in Perth, where all parties agreed to
   put aside their differences and co-operate to ensure that the
   repatriation was a "national success". A Yagan Steering Committee was
   established to co-ordinate the repatriation, and Colbung's application
   was allowed to proceed.

   In January 1995 the Home Office advised Colbung that it was unable to
   waive the necessity of obtaining next of kin consent for the
   exhumation. It then contacted the five relatives whose addresses were
   known, receiving unconditional consent from only one. Accordingly, on
   30 June 1995, Colbung and the other interested parties were advised
   that the application for exhumation had been rejected.

   The Yagan Steering Committee then met on 21 September and decided to
   proceed by lobbying Australian and British politicians for support.
   This approach led to an invitation for Colbung to visit the United
   Kingdom at the British government's expense. Colbung arrived in the
   United Kingdom on 20 May 1997. His visit attracted substantial media
   coverage and increased the political pressure on the British
   Government. It also allowed him to secure the support of the Prime
   Minister of Australia, John Howard, after gate crashing the Prime
   Minister's June visit to the United Kingdom.

Exhumation

   A horizontal colour contour map of ground conductivity of Yagan's grave
   site, showing an anomaly in the electromagnetic signature caused by
   metal artifacts buried with Yagan's head.
   Enlarge
   A horizontal colour contour map of ground conductivity of Yagan's grave
   site, showing an anomaly in the electromagnetic signature caused by
   metal artifacts buried with Yagan's head.

   While Colbung was in the United Kingdom, Martin and Richard Bates were
   engaged to undertake a geophysical survey of the grave site. Using
   electromagnetic and ground penetrating radar techniques, they
   identified an approximate position of the box that suggested it could
   be accessed from the side via the adjacent plot. A report of the survey
   was passed to the Home Office, prompting further discussions between
   the British and Australian Governments.

   Of concern to the Home Office were an undisclosed number of letters
   that it had received objecting to Colbung's involvement in the
   repatriation process; it therefore sought assurances from the
   Australian Government that Colbung was a correct applicant. In response
   Colbung asked his elders to ask the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
   Islander Commission (ATSIC) to tell the British Home Office that he was
   the correct applicant. ATSIC then convened a meeting in Perth at which
   it was again resolved that Colbung's application could proceed.

   Colbung continued to press for the exhumation, asking that it be
   performed before the 164th anniversary of Yagan's death on 11 July, so
   that the anniversary could be the occasion of a celebration. His
   request was not met, and on the anniversary of Yagan's death, Colbung
   conducted a short memorial service at the burial plot in Everton. He
   returned to Australia empty-handed on 15 July.

   The exhumation of Yagan's head eventually proceeded, without Colbung's
   knowledge, by excavating six feet down the side of the grave, then
   tunnelling horizontally to the location of the box. Thus the exhumation
   was performed without disturbing any other remains. The following day,
   a forensic palaeontologist from the University of Bradford positively
   identified the skull as Yagan's by correlating the fractures with those
   described in Pettigrew's report. The skull was then kept at the museum
   until 29 August, when it was handed over to the Liverpool City Council.

Repatriation

   On 27 August 1997, a delegation of Noongars consisting of Ken Colbung,
   Robert Bropho, Richard Wilkes and Mingli Wanjurri-Nungala arrived in
   the UK to collect Yagan's head. The delegation was to have been larger,
   but Commonwealth funding was withdrawn at the last minute. The handover
   of Yagan's skull was further delayed, however, when a Noongar named
   Corrie Bodney applied to the Supreme Court of Western Australia for an
   injunction against the handover. Claiming that his family group has
   sole responsibility for Yagan's remains, Bodney declared the exhumation
   illegal and denied the existence of any tradition or belief
   necessitating the head's exhumation and removal to Australia. Another
   Noongar, Albert Corunna, then came forward with a claim to be Yagan's
   closest living relative. The Supreme Court had no power to grant an
   emergency injunction binding the Government of the United Kingdom, so
   instead it asked the Government of Western Australia to object formally
   to the handing over of Yagan's remains. The United Kingdom Government
   responded favourably to the objection, agreeing to withhold the head
   until the injunction application had been considered. On 29 August the
   court rejected the injunction application, on the grounds that Bodney
   had previously agreed to the current arrangements, and on the evidence
   of another Noongar elder and an anthropologist, both of whom refuted
   Bodney's claim to sole responsibility.

   Yagan's skull was handed over to the Noongar delegation at a ceremony
   at the Liverpool Town Hall on 31 August 1997. In accepting the skull,
   Colbung made comments that allegedly linked Yagan's death with the
   death of Princess Diana, who had died that day:

     Because the Poms did the wrong thing they have to suffer. They have
     to learn too, to live with it as we did and that is how nature goes.

   Colbung's comments prompted a media furore throughout Australia, with
   newspapers receiving many letters from the public expressing shock and
   anger at the comments. Colbung later claimed that his comments had been
   misinterpreted.

   On its return to Perth, Yagan's head continued to be a source of
   controversy and conflict. Responsibility for reburial of the head was
   given to a "Committee for the Reburial of Yagan's Kaat", headed by
   Richard Wilkes. However the reburial was delayed by disputes between
   elders over the burial location, mainly due to uncertainty of the
   whereabouts of the rest of his body, and disagreement about the
   importance of burying the head with the body.

   A number of attempts were made to locate the remains of Yagan's body,
   which are believed to be on a property on West Swan Road in the outer
   Perth suburb of Belhus. A remote sensing survey of the site was carried
   out in 1998, but no remains were found. An archaeological survey of the
   area was undertaken two years later, but this also was unsuccessful.
   Disputes then arose over whether the head could be buried separately
   from the body. Wilkes has claimed that it can, so long as it is placed
   where Yagan was killed, so that Dreamtime spirits can reunite the
   remains.

   In 1998 the Western Australian Planning Commission and the Department
   of Aboriginal Affairs jointly published a document entitled Yagan's
   Gravesite Master Plan, which discussed "matters of ownership,
   management, development and future use" of the property on which
   Yagan's remains are believed to be buried. Under consideration was the
   possibility of turning the site into an indigenous burial site, to be
   managed by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board.

   To date, Yagan's head remains unburied. It spent some time in storage
   in a bank vault, before being handed over to forensics experts who
   reconstructed a model from it. Since then it has been in storage at
   Western Australia's state mortuary. Plans to re-bury the head have been
   deferred or delayed numerous times, and this has caused ongoing
   conflict between Noongar groups. The reburial committee have been
   accused of acting against the wishes of the Noongar community, by
   deferring its burial in the hope of making money out of it with
   elaborate parks and monuments. Richard Wilkes, however, says that the
   committee has direct kinship lines to Yagan, and wants the head to be
   buried properly, but has been delayed by searches and burial site
   negotiations. Alternative proposals have been put forward: for example,
   early in 2006 Ken Colbung called for the head to be cremated and the
   ashes scattered on the Swan River. In June 2006, Wilkes stated that the
   head would be buried by July 2007.
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