The Eora man kidnapped by British colonists to bridge a divide between two worlds
In short: In 1788, British settlers at Sydney Cove abducted an Aboriginal man named Arabanoo, hoping to force a diplomatic breakthrough. Instead, he became a tragic witness to the collapse of his people, caught between the colonial governor who esteemed him and the devastating epidemic that ultimately claimed his life.
When the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Harbour in January 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip faced a mandate from King George III to establish friendly relations with the local Eora people. However, as the colony struggled to feed itself and encroached on Indigenous resources, friction grew. Phillip, seeking to end this state of uncertainty, decided that kidnapping one or two Eora men was the only way to facilitate language acquisition and explain the benefits of colonial contact.
In late December 1788, Lieutenant George Johnston and Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball targeted Manly Cove. After a violent struggle, they captured Arabanoo, who was roughly 30 years old. Initially held in chains and locked in a hut with a convict at night, Arabanoo eventually gained the governor's trust. By April 1789, his fetters were removed, and he lived as an honoured courtier at the governor's residence, though he struggled to learn English well enough to communicate his people's grievances.
The diplomatic experiment failed to prevent conflict, and the situation worsened when a smallpox epidemic swept through the Eora population in April 1789. Arabanoo, who had been tasked by the colonists to locate survivors, was confronted with the sight of his people's campsites filled with corpses. He worked to nurse the sick, including a boy named Nanbaree and a girl named Boorong, before contracting the disease himself. Arabanoo died on 18 May 1789 and was buried in the government garden, mourned by the colonists as a man who had shown a remarkably amiable nature during his brief time among them.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Arabanoo
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