Mokare (c. 1800 - 26 June 1831) was a Noongar Aboriginal man from the south-west corner of Australia, who was pivotal in aiding European exploration of the area.
Mokare (c. 1800 - 26 June 1831) was a Noongar Aboriginal man from the south-west corner of Australia, who was pivotal in aiding European exploration of the area.
Mokare was from the Minang clan of Noongar people. He had at least two brothers: Mollian (d. 1829), who may have been known as Yallapoli, and Nakina, who like Mokare, became a frequent visitor to the settlement at King George Sound (now Albany). He also had a married sister.
Mokare was probably the same man who met Phillip Parker King when his ship stopped at King George Sound in 1821. [1] "Jack", as King called the man, was a charismatic intermediary between the ship's crew and Noongar people who visited the ship.
In 1826 Mokare met the crew of the French barge Astrolabe who passed the area during their voyage to circumnavigate the world.
In 1827 Major Edmund Lockyer arrived at King George Sound in the brig Amity, to found a penal settlement at King George Sound. Mokare showed Lockyer and other Europeans local walking trails that Noongar people had used and maintained over generations. Many of these became key roads still used in the region. Mokare became a close friend of the surgeon-assistant Isaac Scott Nind, who he frequently visited.
In December 1829 Mokare guided Thomas Braidwood Wilson's overland expedition during which Mount Barker and Mount Lindsay were named, as well as Hay River, Denmark River and Wilson Inlet. Two months later he guided Captain Collet Barker's expedition over the same area.
In 1831 Albany formally became part of the Swan River Colony, and Scotsman Alexander Collie became its first government resident. Mokare built a positive relationship with Collie as he had his predecessors. He sometimes lived with Collie in the latter's house.
As there was no competition between the small European population and the local Minang people for land, women or hunting, intercultural relations at Albany were largely peaceful during Mokare's lifetime. Mokare has also become known as a skilled peacemaker and mediator between Aboriginal and white communities. He was concerned when Governor James Stirling began to take command of the King George Sound settlement in 1830, as he had heard of battles and massacres between European settlers and Aboriginal people, and wished it to be maintained as a separate settlement.
Mokare fell ill and died at Collie's house on 26 June 1831. Collie described his burial, noting that Noongar people and Europeans assembled at the house and walked to a site selected by Nakina, where the Europeans dug a grave and Mokare was interred with a buka cloak and personal artefacts to Nakina's specifications. [2]
When Collie was dying from tuberculosis in 1835, he asked to be buried alongside Mokare. Their graves were together beneath Albany Town Hall. Four years after Mokare's death, the surveyor John Septimus Roe had the graves exhumed. Collie was re-interred at the newly established Albany Cemetery; however it is not known what happened to Mokare's remains. [1]
A park consisting of native bushland on the northern side of Mount Melville in Albany was named after Mokare in 1978. [3] A statue was erected in Alison Hartman Gardens on York Street in the centre of Albany in 1997 as part of a reconciliation project. [4]
Mokare's name was also spelt as Mokaré, Mokkare, Mawcarrie, Markew or Makkare.
Dumont d'Urville spells his name "Maukorraï" in the second volume of his Voyage pittoresque autour du Monde.
Mokaré's portrait was sketched by Louis-Auguste de Sainson in 1826. It appears in colour with his name on the bottom right-hand corner of plate 8 of Dumont d’Urville, Voyage et découvertes de l’Astrolabe..., Atlas, 1833.
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer, he gave his name to several seaweeds, plants and shrubs, and places such as d'Urville Island in New Zealand.
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region in the Australian state of Western Australia, 418 kilometres (260 mi) southeast of Perth, the state capital. The city centre is at the northern edge of Princess Royal Harbour, which is a part of King George Sound. The central business district is bounded by Mount Clarence to the east and Mount Melville to the west. The city is in the local government area of the City of Albany. While it is the oldest colonial, although not European, settlement in the territory that today is Western Australia, predating Perth and Fremantle by over two years, it was a semi-exclave of New South Wales for over four years until it was made part of the Swan River Colony.
The human history of Western Australia commenced between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago with the arrival of Aboriginal Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded across the east and south of the continent.
Joseph Paul Gaimard was a French naval surgeon and naturalist.
The Great Southern Region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia, as defined by the Regional Development Commissions Act 1993, for the purposes of economic development. It is a section of the larger South coast of Western Australia and neighbouring agricultural regions.
Mount Barker is a town on the Albany Highway and is the administrative centre of the Shire of Plantagenet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. At the 2016 census, Mount Barker had a population of 1,905.
The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 337 kilometres (209 mi) south-east of Perth. It is over 60 kilometres (37 mi) wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranbrook eastward past Gnowangerup. The Stirling Range is protected by the Stirling Range National Park, which was gazetted in 1913, and has an area of 1,159 km2 (447 sq mi).
King George Sound is a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came into use from about 1934, prompted by new Admiralty charts supporting the intention to eliminate the possessive 's' from geographical names.
Denmark is a coastal town located on Wilson Inlet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 423 kilometres (263 mi) south-south-east of the state capital of Perth. At the 2016 census, Denmark had a population of 2,558; however, the population can be several times the base population during tourist seasons.
Edmund Lockyer, was a British soldier and explorer of Australia.
The Hay River is a river in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The traditional owners of the area are the Noongar people who know the river as Genulup.
Astrolabe was a horse barge converted to an exploration ship of the French Navy and was originally named Coquille. She is famous for her travels with Jules Dumont d'Urville. The name derives from an early navigational instrument, the astrolabe, a precursor to the sextant.
This is a timeline of Aboriginal history of Western Australia.
Kendenup is a small town in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Plantagenet. It is known for its view of Porongorup and the Stirling ranges. It is 345 kilometres (214 mi) south east of Perth and 22 kilometres (14 mi) north of Mount Barker. The Great Southern Railway passes through the town, being one of the original stations on the line. At the 2006 census, Kendenup had a population of 1,290.
Isaac Scott Nind (1797–1868) was an early colonial doctor, artist and pharmacist. He qualified LAC in London on 13 July 1820. He arrived in New South Wales in 1826. Within three weeks of his arrival he was appointed an Assistant Colonial Surgeon and sailed with the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot under Major Edmund Lockyer on the Amity to establish a convict-supported military garrison at King George Sound on Australia's south-west coast.
Princess Royal Harbour is a part of King George Sound on the South coast of Western Australia, and harbour to Albany. On its northern shore is the Port of Albany. The name Princess Royal also appears in Albany in Princess Royal Fortress and Princess Royal Drive.
Mineng, also spelled Minang or Menang or Mirnong, are an indigenous Noongar people of southern Western Australia.
The Old Farm, also known as Strawberry Hill or Barmup is located on Strawberry Hill in the suburb of Mira Mar in Albany, Western Australia. It is known as being the first farm in Western Australia.
The coastline of the Albany area was observed by Europeans for the first time in 1627 by the Dutchman François Thijssen, captain of the ship 't Gulden Zeepaert, who sailed to the east as far as Ceduna in South Australia and back. Captain Thijssen had discovered the south coast of Australia and charted about 1,768 kilometres (1,099 mi) of it between Cape Leeuwin and the Nuyts Archipelago.
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