Cooman

Last updated
Cooman
Two of the Natives of New Holland, Advancing to Combat.jpg
The two Aboriginal warriors that Cook fought with, as depicted by Sydney Parkinson
Born1700s~
Gweagal Country
Nationality Gweagal (Dharawal)

Cooman was a Gweagal man identified by some of his descendants as the warrior who was shot and wounded by James Cook's landing party at Kamay (Botany Bay) in 1770. He was previously unnamed in historical documents, and his identity has been disputed within the local Aboriginal community. Little is known of Cooman's life apart from his possible involvement in this incident. [1]

Contents

Life

The two Aboriginal warriors opposing Cook's landing at Kamay (Botany Bay) Indig2 (cropped).jpg
The two Aboriginal warriors opposing Cook's landing at Kamay (Botany Bay)

Little is documented of Cooman's life. He is mainly known through the oral histories of some of his descendants who state that Cooman was the older of the two Gweagal men who opposed the landing of James Cook and his crew at Kamay (later named Botany Bay) in 1770. [2] [1]

During Cook's first voyage to the Pacific, he charted the east coast of the Australian continent and claimed it for Britain.

On 29 April 1770, Cook and crew attempted their first landfall on the continent at a beach now known as Silver Beach at Botany Bay (Kamay). The older warrior, who some identify as Cooman, and another Gweagal man came down to the beach to fend off what they thought to be spirits of the dead. They shouted "warra warra wai" meaning 'you are all dead' and gestured with their spears. [3] [4] Cook's party attempted to communicate their desire for water and threw gifts of beads and nails ashore. The two Aboriginal men continued to oppose the landing and Cook fired a warning shot. The older warrior responded by throwing a rock, and Cook shot him in the leg with small shot. [5] [6] The crew then landed, and the Gweagal men threw two spears before Cook shot at them again and they retreated. [7] The crew took their spears and shield and Cook found several children in nearby huts, and left some beads with them. [5] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] The shield taken is now known as the Gweagal shield. [14]

"Shaking their lances and menacing, (they) in all appearances resolved to dispute our landing to the utmost though they were two and we were 30 or 40 at least. They remained resolute so a musket was fired over them. A musket loaded with small shot was now fired at the eldest of the two ... It struck him on the legs but he minded it very little so another was immediately fired."

—  Joseph Banks

... I fired a musket between the two which had no other effect than to make them retire back where bundles of their darts lay and one of them took up a stone and threw at us which caused my fireing a second Musquet load with small shott and altho' some of the shott struck the man yet it had no other effect than to make him lay hold of a ^Shield or target ^to defend himself ...

—  James Cook, Cook's Journal: Diary Entries - 29 April 1770

Disputed identity

The name of Cooman as the warrior shot by Cook has been disputed. [15] In 2020, Noeleen Timbery of the Gujaga Foundation stated there were a "number of more feasible candidates present within the oral histories kept by Aboriginal families belonging to the area". [16] Academic Maria Nugent, writing with Dr Gaye Sculthorpe of the British Museum, states that there is "no consensus" that Cooman was one of the warriors. [17] However, many sources, primarily drawing from Biddy Giles, Keith Vincent Smith, and Rodney Kelly, refer to Cooman as the man shot and wounded in the leg by Cook. [18] [2] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]

The identification of Cooman as the name of the wounded warrior stems from an 1840s oral history told by Biddy Giles which was subsequently recorded. Biddy stated that Cooman was the grandfather of her husband, also called Cooman, who was often described as ‘the last of the Georges River Tribe’. [29] Smith cites a 1905 document recounting the 1840s oral history told by Biddy Giles. [30] However, there were several documented Coomans in Sydney, and it is not clear who Biddy's husband was. [31] Maria Nugent calls Smith's identification of Cooman as the Gweagal spearman on this basis "a mere assertion" based on "inconclusive evidence" and "a questionable interpretative leap." [32]

Legacy

Cooman fathered a lineage spanning at least six generations. [33] His descendants Theresa Ardler and Rodney Kelly have campaigned for the return of a shield from the British Museum [34] [35] which later analysis has shown is likely not the shield collected by Cook's party from Botany Bay. [13] In 2021, spears collected by Banks during the encounter were returned by Cambridge University to the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council. [36]

In August 2016, as part of Kelly's campaign, a motion passed the New South Wales Legislative Council acknowledging the Gweagal people as the “rightful owners” of the shield and spears and identifying Cooman as the man who was shot by Cook's party. [37] In October 2016, a similar motion was adopted by the Australian Senate, identifying Cooman as the man shot by Cook. [38]

Theresa Ardler, a descendant of Cooman, is one of the Dharawal community working with libraries, museums and linguists to tell the story of Cook's landing from an Aboriginal perspective in an attempt to correct misrepresentations of the encounter. [10]

There have been several other people named Cooman in the Sydney region who should not be confused with this Cooman. [39] It is unclear if this Cooman is the grandfather of a later Cooman ('King Kooma'), an Aboriginal man who lived in the Liverpool region and who the local Aboriginal Cooman surname comes from. [40]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Cook</span> British explorer, cartographer and naval officer (1728–1779)

Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamay Botany Bay National Park</span> Protected area in New South Wales, Australia

The Kamay Botany Bay National Park is a heritage-listed protected national park that is located in the eastern part of Botany Bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The 456-hectare (1,130-acre) national park is situated approximately 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) south-east of the Sydney central business district, on the northern and southern headlands of Botany Bay. The northern headland is at La Perouse and the southern headland is at Kurnell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Perouse, New South Wales</span> Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

La Perouse is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburb of La Perouse is located about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) southeast of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Randwick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St George, Sydney</span> Region in New South Wales, Australia

The St George region of Sydney is part of the southern suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The area includes all the suburbs in the local government area of Georges River Council and the part of Bayside Council which was Rockdale City prior to 2016. This is everything within the boundaries of Salt Pan Creek to the west, The Georges River to the south, Botany Bay to the east and the M5 Motorway and Wolli Creek to the north. This area corresponds to the southern portion of the cadastral Parish of St George, from which the region derives its name and the area was later covered by the St George County Council, the electricity supplier for the councils in this region. This southern portion of the parish below The M5 and Wolli Creek is the more contemporary definition of The St George Region that is considered part of Southern Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pemulwuy</span> Aboriginal Australian political leader (born 1750)

Pemulwuy, also rendered as Pimbloy, Pemulvoy, Pemulwoy, Pemulwy or Pemulwye, or sometimes by contemporary Europeans as Bimblewove, Bumbleway or Bembulwoyan, was a Bidjigal man of the Eora nation, born around 1750 in the area of Botany Bay in New South Wales, Australia. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is noted for his resistance to European colonisation which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Botany Bay</span> Open ocean bay in Sydney, Australia

Botany Bay is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 13 km (8 mi) south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and San Souci as well as the Cooks River at Kyeemagh, which flows 10 km (6 mi) to the east before meeting its mouth at the Tasman Sea, midpoint between the suburbs of La Perouse and Kurnell. The northern headland of the entrance to the bay from the Tasman Sea is Cape Banks and, on the southern side, the outer headland is Cape Solander and the inner headland is Sutherland Point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurnell, New South Wales</span> Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Kurnell is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 21.4 kilometres (13.3 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire along the east coast. Cronulla and Woolooware are the only adjacent suburbs. La Perouse is located opposite, on the northern headland of Botany Bay. The Cronulla sand dunes are on the south eastern headland of Botany Bay. The eastern side of the peninsula is part of Botany Bay National Park, and Towra Point Nature Reserve is located on the western side of the suburb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Aboriginal artefacts</span> Cultural artefacts used by Aboriginal Australians

Australian Aboriginal artefacts include a variety of cultural artefacts used by Aboriginal Australians. Most Aboriginal artefacts were multi-purpose and could be used for a variety of different occupations. Spears, clubs, boomerangs and shields were used generally as weapons for hunting and in warfare. Watercraft technology artefacts in the form of dugout and bark canoes were used for transport and for fishing. Stone artefacts include cutting tools and grinding stones to hunt and make food. Coolamons and carriers such as dillybags, allowed Aboriginal peoples to carry water, food and cradle babies. Message sticks were used for communication, and ornamental artefacts for decorative and ceremonial purposes. Aboriginal children’s toys were used to both entertain and educate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dharawal</span> Australian Aboriginal people of southern and south western areas of Sydney

The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coastal area of what is now the Sydney basin in New South Wales.

Herman Diedrich Spöring Jr. (1733–1771) was a Finnish explorer, draughtsman, botanist and a naturalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gweagal</span> Clan of the Eora people, who inhabited southern Sydney area before colonisation

The Gweagal are a clan of the Dharawal people of Aboriginal Australians. Their descendants are traditional custodians of the southern areas of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge</span> University Museum in Cambridge

The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, also known as MAA, at the University of Cambridge houses the university's collections of local antiquities, together with archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from around the world. The museum is located on the university's Downing Site, on the corner of Downing Street and Tennis Court Road. In 2013 it reopened following a major refurbishment of the exhibition galleries, with a new public entrance directly on to Downing Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First voyage of James Cook</span> Combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun, and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "undiscovered southern land".

Nicholas Jeremy Thomas is an Australian-born anthropologist, Professor of Historical Anthropology, and Director, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge since 2006, and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge since 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cronulla sand dunes</span> Sand dunes in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The Cronulla sand dunes, also known officially as the Cronulla Sand Dune and Wanda Beach Coastal Landscape, are an open space, heritage-listed nature conservation, and visitor attraction located on the Kurnell Peninsula at Lindum Road, Kurnell within the Sutherland Shire local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Formerly, it was a site for sand mining, film making, and had use as pastoral property. It is also known as part of Kurnell Peninsula Headland and Cronulla Sand Hill. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 26 September 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian frontier wars</span> 1788–1934 conflicts between settlers and Indigenous Australians

The Australian frontier wars were the violent conflicts between Indigenous Australians and primarily British settlers during the colonial period of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars</span> Australian frontier conflict

The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars (1794–1816) were a series of conflicts where British forces, including armed settlers and detachments of the British Army in Australia, fought against Indigenous clans inhabiting the Hawkesbury River region and the surrounding areas to the west of Sydney. The wars began in 1794, when the British started to construct farms along the river, some of which were established by soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gweagal shield</span>

The Gweagal shield is an Aboriginal Australian shield dropped by a Gweagal warrior opposing James Cook's landing party at Botany Bay on 29 April 1770. The shield was recovered by Joseph Banks and taken back to England, but it is unclear whether the shield still exists. An Aboriginal shield held by the British Museum, and once thought to be the Gweagal shield, is more likely to originate from an area further north. It is currently the subject of a campaign for its repatriation to Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver Beach (New South Wales)</span> Beach in Sydney

Silver Beach is a 2.8 km (1.7 mi) long west-trending sand spit in Kurnell, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is located 18 km (11 mi) south of the Sydney CBD. Situated on the northwestern reaches of the Kurnell Peninsula and linked with the sandstone of Sutherland Point in the east, the beach is characterised by silver-coloured sands, hence the name, and fourteen rockwall groynes which project into Botany Bay. The eastern point of the beach is the site where Captain James Cook first set foot on Australian soil in 1770, which marked the beginning of Britain's interest in Australia and in the eventual colonisation of this new "southern continent".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colebe</span>

Gringerry Kibba Colebee also spelt Colebe, Coleby or Colbee, was an eighteenth-century Gadigal man, an Aboriginal Australian people from present-day Sydney, New South Wales.

References

  1. 1 2 Donaldson, Mike; Jacobs, Mary; Bursill, Les (2017). "A History of Aboriginal Illawarra, Volume 2 : Colonisation". University of Wollongong - Research Online.
  2. 1 2 McDonald, Alasdair (2016-05-22). "Gweagal warrior's descendants to travel to British Museum to demand return of Aboriginal artefacts". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  3. ↑ "Voices heard but not understood". Gujaga Foundation. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  4. ↑ Jonathon Jones, Murruwaygu: following in the footsteps of our ancestors , Masters Thesis, University of Technology Sydney
  5. 1 2 "Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 29 April 1770". southseas.nla.gov.au. South Seas. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  6. ↑ McGregor, Carol. Art of the Skins: Un-silencing and remembering. Diss. PhD thesis, Griffith University, Brisbane, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Eight days in Kamay". State Library of NSW. 2020-04-22. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  8. ↑ Blainey, Geoffrey (2020). Captain Cook's Epic Voyage pp. 141-43
  9. ↑ Smith, Keith Vincent (2009). "Confronting Cook". Electronic British Library Journal (2009).
  10. 1 2 "Captain Cook's landing contested by Aboriginal leaders". ABC News. 2020-04-28. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  11. ↑ "Virtual Cook to face an actually changed Australia". Australian Financial Review. 2020-01-24. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  12. ↑ Pearson, Elizabeth (2016). "Old Wounds and New Endeavors: The Case for Repatriating the Gweagal Sheild from the British Museum". Art Antiquity and Law. 21: 201.
  13. 1 2 Thomas, Nicholas (2018). "A Case of Identity: The Artifacts of the 1770 Kamay (Botany Bay) Encounter". Australian Historical Studies. 49 (1): 4–27. doi:10.1080/1031461X.2017.1414862. S2CID   149069484 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
  14. ↑ Lawn, Kathryn (2019). "The Gweagal Shield". NEW: Emerging Scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies. 5 (1). doi: 10.5130/nesais.v5i1.1585 . ISSN   2208-1232.
  15. ↑ Dakin, F. H. (2019). Objects As Polyagents: Tracing The Histories Of The Gweagal Spears. doi : 10.17863/CAM.45153
  16. ↑ Timbery, Noeleen (2020-04-27). "Aboriginal history told by Aboriginal people". Gujaga Foundation. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  17. ↑ Sculthorpe, Maria Nugent Dr Gaye (2020-04-26). "Tall ship tales: oral accounts illuminate past encounters and objects, but we need to get our story straight". The Mandarin. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  18. ↑ Neill, Rosemary (17 June 2017). "Cambridge refuses to return Aboriginal spears 'stolen' by Cook". The Australian. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  19. ↑ Sydney, Bernard Lagan (2023-11-01). "Cook's Aboriginal booty found in Berlin museum". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  20. ↑ Taylor, James (2022-07-14). "No improper measure". Overland literary journal. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  21. ↑ Wahlquist, Calla (2016-10-11). "Australian Senate joins push to repatriate Indigenous artefacts from British Museum". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  22. ↑ Bourke, Anthony R (2008) Family footprints: tracing the past in the present through curatorial autobiographical practice Masters Thesis, University of Wollongong
  23. ↑ Constantinou, Menios. "A womans bid to heal country". Impact - Australian Catholic University. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  24. ↑ Vanderbyl, Nikita. "Aboriginal artworks and cultural objects as primary sources." agora 57, no. 3 (2022): 53-56.
  25. ↑ Jones, Michael (March 2019). "Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives". Heritage. 2 (1): 884–897. doi: 10.3390/heritage2010059 . ISSN   2571-9408.
  26. ↑ Pearson, Elizabeth (2018). "Colonial Statutes and Statues: Rethinking the Law on Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in New South Wales". Art Antiquity and Law. 23: 197.
  27. ↑ Langlais, Pandora (2021). "Return of the Past: The Challenges of Oceanian Art's Restitution in Today's Art World". Journal of Art Crime . 25: 83.
  28. ↑ DeMuynck, Ellyn (2020-01-01). "When Repatriation Doesn't Happen: Relationships Created Through Cultural Property Negotiations". Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
  29. ↑ Smith, Keith Vincent. "Confronting Cook." Electronic British Library Journal (2009).
  30. ↑ Smith, Keith Vincent. "Confronting Cook." Electronic British Library Journal (2009).
  31. ↑ Mason, Kody (2023). "Giles, Biddy/Biyarung (c. 1810–1888)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  32. ↑ Sculthorpe, Maria Nugent Dr Gaye (2020-04-26). "Tall ship tales: oral accounts illuminate past encounters and objects, but we need to get our story straight". The Mandarin. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  33. ↑ Donnelly, Marea (August 17, 2018). "Captain Cook shot my grandpa". The Daily Telegraph.
  34. ↑ "Aboriginal man demanding British Museum return shield stolen from his ancestor granted private viewing". The Independent. 2019-05-07. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  35. ↑ Ardler, Theresa. "Place, tradition, whales, and story of the Eora, Dharawal and Yuin nations: Linking Aboriginal life and spirituality from past to present." Historic Environment 33.1/2 (2021): 94-107.
  36. ↑ "Historic Gweagal spears stolen at First Contact are repatriated back to Eora-Sydney". NITV. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  37. ↑ "New South Wales Legislative Council Hansard, 23 August 2016". Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  38. ↑ "Senate supports return of Gweagal Shield". NITV. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  39. ↑ Mason, Kodie, "Biddy/Biyarung Giles (c. 1810–1888)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-01
  40. ↑ "1820s | A History of Aboriginal Sydney". www.historyofaboriginalsydney.edu.au. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.