Brisbane Traditional Owners
Brisbane Aboriginal Traditional Owners are alive and well in the 3rd largest city in Australia. The decendents of the well known figure King Sandy Brisbane are on stage in their homeland and worldwide. Below is a simple genealogy of the original people who have occupied Brisbane for 65,000 yrs.
Genealogy of Aboriginal Traditional Owners
Decendents of Kerwallie and Sarah Naewin
King Sandy of Brisbane aka King Sandy of the Morton's -Turrbal/Bobbera/Boodaperra of Yuggera clans of Brisbane City (b. circa 1820) = Sarah Naewin- Toorbal, Kabi Kabi Pine Rivers and Glass house Mountains region (b. Circa 1820s)
PARENTS of One child - Sarah Sandy/Moreton (b. circa 1845)
Sarah Sandy/Moreton = Charlie Dandrubah aka Charlie Drumpel (her first Marraige he was Cooparoo, Coobenpil, Gorenpil Aboriginal Clan stretched from Brisbane South to Dunwich)
Children- Charlie Mookin Moreton (born 1871)
Thomas Moreton -Born in Bulimba
Sarah Sandy/Moreton = Billy Moreton (Moreton Island Native)
Children - Janie Moreton Sunflower (1878)
Billy Moreton (went to NZ)
Charlie Mookin Moreton = Daisy Muminda (b. circa. 1880s Ipswich Region)
Children = Henry, Eddie, Alfie, Levinya, Charlie
Alfie (Grampy) Moreton = Levinya Newfong
Children- Charlie, Donny, Dulcie, Mable Coghill, Shirley Moreton, Joan Moreton, Dennis Moreton, Irene Egert
Dulcie Moreton = Eugene Edward (Reverend) Ruska her second Marraige to (George Charlton)
Children- Donna, Eddie, Glennis, Kerry, Lafe, Angela, Lola.
Eddie Ruska = Denise McDonald
Children- Michelle, Leanne, Renae, Shannon Ruska
Please note that this linage refers directly to Welcome to Country Speaker Shannon Ruska. There are over 500 decendents still living in Mianjin (Brisbane)
The traditional owners of Brisbane have maintained to hold on to their heritage although the colonization began rapidly from 1842. Over 300 convicts were brought to the region and some being the worst in the World. Enduring the changes the Turrbal and Yuggera people were treated to harsh conditions as they become a people 'Lost in their own land'. Restrictions to their own Native hunting grounds, water supplies and then the introduction of new diseases, massacres, poisonings and nearly destroyed the original people in early Morton Bay Settlement (Brisbane). In fact a song called 'Moreton Bay' can be found on YouTube to give a convicts account of treatment in the area. It was luck for the daughter of Kerwallie aka King Sandy of Brisbane that she was able to marry a Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island natives where more fortunate circumstances seen a safe haven for their children.
Although Sarah passed her days at Elonora Park, Wynnum in 14th March 1907, the same place where her father King Sandy came to to pass on his days in 1900, It was reveled that by 1904 Thomas and Charlie her sons built a house for her in Myora Mission , North Stradbroke Island as her then husband Billy 65 yrs was too feeble to work according to the Myora records.
Elder Aunty Kerry Charlton write up in Wynnum Historical Society-
INTRODUCING DIINABA - SARAH MORETON by Elder Aunty Kerry Charlton
http://www.wmhs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017_June.pdf
- to see full version click on link above
As children our mother Dulcie Moreton was a live-in cook at the Point Lookout Hotel and we lived with grandparents Alfred and Lavinia Moreton (nee Newfong) going to Dunwich School until the late ‘60s. Home was Goori way full of stories about our history, cultures, language, family, community, kinship, genealogies, laws and protocols. Long walks over well-worn bush tracks was more learning and regular visits to Myora reiterated the hardships for Goories under the “Act” aimed at severing our old ways. This strong Goori identity and spirituality grew our cultural integrity and inner strength. Life at One Mile, no electricity, no pumped water or ‘mod cons’ gave the space for ‘our old ones’ to bless us by connecting us to their ‘old ones’ instilling our spirit of place to now share with others. The recent Sarah’s Rocks article tells of the author’s experiences in his early childhood with an elderly Aboriginal woman named Sarah Moreton. As a family and community researcher, I’m interested in sharing more stories about Sarah and other ‘old ones’, their culture and time, through the Goori lens. Sarah with de ole banjo at Wynnum, 19001 The above photograph originally titled Sarah playing the banjo was taken by Phil Agnew at Wynnum in 19002 and appeared in two newspapers in 1900 and 19013 . The lady is Sarah Moreton, my great great grandmother, a well-known ancestor and wife of my great, great grandfather Dandruban also known as Charlie Drunple/Moreton.4 Sarah’s English name continues to be passed down in each generation of our big family. Sarah’s language name was Dinaba, also spelt Jineba5 , which in her mother’s lingo means sister, young woman or female6 . Dinaba is one of those referred to as ‘the old ones’ who were born during the first decades of European arrival and penal colony in Moreton Bay. 7 Her mother’s tribe was Ngunda, also known as Ngunda-gal, Nunagal and Nunukul, of the Undambi peoples of Kabi Kabi country on the Sunshine Coast.8 Dinaba’s parents were Kerwallie, the renowned King Sandy, and Naewin, also called Sarah, who were from Yuggera and Kabi Kabi country respectively.9 Dinaba conversed in her parents’ languages and dialects and other lingoes of south east Queensland region. These were in turn taught to all her children and they too became sought after for language translations as were Dinaba and her father.10 According to information on Dinaba’s death record she was born about 1840 although an exact birthplace is not recorded. In those days births usually occurred on the father’s country but _____________________________ 1Agnew, P, C. J. Pound Collection Album, 1890-1900, Heritage Collection, JOL, State Library of Queensland 2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/198658815 3The Queenslander, “De Old Banjo”, p. 11. 1901 4Moreton family history and CPH, Moreton Familial Report, Dept.of Communities,2012 5Birch, G: Transcript of the Diary of 1873, John Oxley Library, State Library Queensland 6 Fesl, E: personal communication, 1993 7 Parry-Okedan, U. E. the Story of Bribie Passage, The Queenslander, Thurs. 16th June 1932 8Community and Personal Histories: Moreton Familial Report, Dept. of Communities, 2012, family oral history 9CPH, Moreton Familial Report, Dept.of Communities,2012 and Moreton family history. 10Family oral history and linguistic recordings by Universities between the 1940s and 1963 Issue 93 ABN 49 071 835 845 ISSN 1835-8500 June 2017 5 sometimes it did happen on the mother’s. According to Goori customary kinship law children belonged to the father’s tribe and language group and followed their mother’s totem group.11 Goori is our word for Aboriginal person. In my early growing up years I never heard the English word Aborigine, only Goori was used. Every language group has their own term. The term Goori is used across some parts of coastal south east Queensland and Bandjalang country in northern to central New South Wales which translates into the English word Aborigine.12 A journalist who interviewed Dinaba in 1905 described her as “… one who had gazed across the lapping waters of Wynnum as a baby from her mother’s shoulder bag” which indicates birth on her father’s country.13 Traditional birthing sites were closely guarded places in the numerous residential communities dotted along Warrarr, the Brisbane River.14 Bulimba, or its Goori name Toogalawa, has been recorded as one, as was Woolloongabba and the site of the Brisbane GPO.15 Dinaba’s birth occurred at a time of widening European incursion across the territory affecting access to sites traditionally used.16 Historical accounts describe the vibrant lifestyles visible along the river, its mouth and surrounding shorelines. Traditionally communities were sectioned into areas for living and sleeping, communal use, recreation, burial, ceremonial and birthing. Birthing sites had to have the space, privacy, nearby sources of water and nutrition, soft barks and cottons necessary for birthing mothers and babies. Wetlands and mangroves were home to high protein foods to strengthen new mothers and paperbark trees.17 Over time, proximity to emerging new settler industries brought opportunities for trade and some economy with the new colonial and settler families. In 1873, the sites of Lytton and Wynnum were among the campsites favoured by ‘Bay’ Gooris, many of whom had relocated in earlier decades as refugees of resistance wars, widespread diseases and displacement. Once the colony opened up to free settlers massive land clearing decimated home sites, agriculture and food sources which pushed tribes to seek refuge in more remote spots and the nearby islands.18 The Wynnum ‘blacks camp’ regularly frequented by Dinaba and her family19 offered refuge and social and cultural connection. Kerwallie’s life ended at Wynnum in 190020 and the camp continued well into 1940, three decades after Dinaba’s death in 1907. Though it is difficult to pinpoint Dinaba’s place of birth, she lived and worked for many years around Moreton Bay and other coastal places on Y uggera and Kabi Kabi country. Dinaba and her first husband and her parents were part of a group of men and their wives and families who worked for Tom Petrie’s timber industry around the Pine River and south coast region.21 Traditionally, some movement across each other’s countries was common for particular purposes but within the parameter of strict laws and protocols. Gatherings for festivals, trade, celebrations, ceremonies and marriages occurred and strengthened kinship systems, renewed relationships, widened alliances and inter-boundary diplomacy. Goori involvement in Tom Petrie’s initiatives contributed essential local knowledge and skills to his fledgling industries. He was highly regarded for his insightful attitude and treatment of them. Being a ‘Petrie’ man brought some protection during the years of frontier conflicts. Tom was committed to Aboriginal amelioration and agitated the Government to set up the first mission in Queensland on Bribie Island which started in 1877 but was closed two years later. A second one was started on another part of Bribie in 1890 but was transferred to Myora around 1892.22 __________________________ 11Pers. Comm Moreton family Elders, McKenzie in Winterbotham, L.P. Gaiarbau’s Story of the Jinibara Tribe of South East Queensland and it’s neighbours 12Pers. Comm. Moreton Elders, pers. Comm. D. Williams 1990s 13The Queenslander 14Pers. Comm. Moreton Family Elders 15Ballard, K. Brisbane the Beginning, published by Kath Ballard 2007 16Pers. Comm, “ 17Pers. Comm. “ 18FAIRA, Beyond the Act, FAIRA and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Legal Service (Qld) Ltd and FAIRA Ltd, Brisbane 19Moreton, T. Correspondence dated 4.10.1904, COL/280 20Petrie, C Reminiscences of Early Queensland 21Petrie, C,C. Tom Petries Reminiscences of Early Queensland, Brisbane, Watson, Ferguson, 1904 22Parry-Okedan, U. E. the Story of Bribie Passage, The Queenslander, Thurs. 16th June, 1932 Issue 93 ABN 49 071 835 845 ISSN 1835-8500 June 2017 6 In preparing for the upcoming visit of Prince Albert to Brisbane in 1868, Andrew Petrie was approached to bring his Goori workers to Brisbane to perform for the occasion. Dinaba and Dandruban were among up to sixty who took part in the elaborate celebrations to welcome the visiting Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, and photographs of the large group of performers show Sarah wearing a highly decorated hairpiece full of feathers, brush sprays and flowers.23 . Sarah circa 187024 Sarah, 186825 Dandruban was a Goobenpul – Yuggera man of Stradbroke Island and mainland Y uggera territory.26 He most probably worked with William Duncan, the sub-collector of Customs for Moreton Bay who successfully employed local Goori people for domestic chores and boat crew. Another self-made businessman was Johnathon Cassim, a ticket of leave convict from Maritius, who only employed Goori labour at his boarding houses initially at Kangaroo Point and later at Cleveland.27 Dinaba and Dandruban’s eldest son Mookin, also Charlie Moreton, was born at Amity Point on Stradbroke Island and became a highly esteemed warrior who went on to become a sporting celebrity among other achievements. He learnt much from his Elders and particularly from his Uncle Billy Cassim, the skilled choreographer of corroboorees made famous in Thomas Welsby’s writings.28 According to Goori custom high regard for someone was shown by adopting their name. Billy’s friendship with William Duncan and Johnathon Cassim led to his additional names, William Johnathon Alexander Cassim Esquire. Mookin related to a later writer and Noogie man Paul Tripcony that his Uncle’s correct name was Nuarjoo.29 High mortality of Aborigines in that era led to Sarah acquiring her second husband Y illooran whose European name was William Moreton. Commonly known as Y ellow Billy, his father was a wellknown non-Aboriginal pioneering man.30 Dinaba and Yillooran are known to have had at least four children together who were Emily, Thomas, Willy and Mary Jane.31 Yillooran had a first wife with whom he had two daughters Annie and Nelly Moreton. By the time Phil Agnew took his photo in 1900, Dinaba was a grandmother residing between Wynnum and Myora along with two of her surviving brood and Mookin was at Deebing Creek mission. Phil was the highly regarded Postmaster General of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum and his family were well known for their benevolence activities with inmates and others. Interestingly, twenty years later Phil photographed a group at the St. Marks Anglican Church at Dunwich in which my grandmother, Lavinia Moreton, appears in her confirmation outfits, an occasion at which the Bishop was also in attendance.32 Another connection came for Phil and Dinaba when they both had sons with leprosy detained on Peel Island and where Nan (Lavinia) would work years later in a domestic role. _______________________ 23Cohen, K et al, Lost Brisbane and Surrounding Areas 1860 – 1960, The Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 2014. 24Bevan studio, Brisbane 25Daniel Marquis Studio, Brisbane. Kerkhove, R Paper on Brisbane Aboriginal campsites 26Moreton, A, Pers. Communication. Index Card: IDC/M368 Charlie Moreton 27Tynan, P J: Johnny Cassim, Colonial Entrepreneur 1814 – 1884,p. 47, Church Archivist’s Press, 2005 28Welsby, T. Vol 2 p. 123 29Tripcony, P. Writings of Paul Tripcony 30Tindale Genealogy Sheet no: 91 31Birch, G: Transcript of the Diary of 1873, John Oxley Library, State Library Queensland 32Durbidge, E. Covacevich, North Stradbroke Island, Stradbroke Island Management Organisation, Amity Point, Queensland, 1981 Issue 93 ABN 49 071 835 845 ISSN 1835-8500 June 2017 7 Dinaba was about sixty years old when the photo was snapped and it became a most cherished possession for her.33 The well- known image of Dinaba holding a banjo has caused many to wonder about her.34 I regard this photograph as a special gift left for us by her and Phil. It is a lasting legacy that allows us to understand some of her personality and pleasure of being the star of this moment in time. No matter how many times I view the photo it always lifts my spirit as I warm to her energy, slight smile and direct contemplative stare. One can imagine the thought and effort put into her choice of fashion and the image she wished to portray – a look that would long outlive her but somehow remain perennial. I love that it captured the evolved Diinaba, a woman of maturity, holding herself with dignity, unafraid to cloak herself in such a bold dress, finished with matching head and neck scarf, the banjo, all gives insight into who she was. The dress may have been a used cast off item or gained from her labours or in exchange for fresh seafoods, opossum rugs, dilly bags made of coarse grass or reeds, spears, boomerangs, etc a common way to gain items like tobacco and old clothes, especially coloured prints.35 However sourced, this was a dress to catch the eye adorning someone who enjoyed leaving a vivid impression upon her audience. Dinaba’s relaxed pose portrays a friendly trust in the photographer. Her frame and physical bearing points to a long life of daily physical activity, collecting and hunting traditional foods, walking the major transport across her Kabi Kabi and Y uggera ‘countries’ and also as a performer, dancer, songwoman on Stradbroke Island or mainland. Born with bare feet, Dinaba lived and died with bare feet and the glimpse of her right bare foot poking out from under hemline of her dress shows wear and tear of age. Bare feet alerted her of movement on the ground – food sources, safety, danger, vibrations warned of approaching people, horses, coaches or animals in the surrounding environment. Those bare feet would have had amazing stories to tell too about a life that experienced much change. As a musician, song-woman and dancer, the banjo was a new and curious technology shaped like a drum with a handle that produced sounds very different to the music Dinaba had known from babyhood. It complimented her possum fur drums and instruments crafted from nature’s offerings to echo gurgling creeks, roaring waves, clicking cicadas, rustling leaves, bird trills and animal sounds. It’s not surprising that Dinaba had an artisan’s interest in playing this instrument from another culture with its different sounds. I believe that song, music and movement was an enduring essence in her life which kept her Goori spirit strong, nurtured her connection to country and fanned her ancient memories alive. In our language and cultural tradition there is ‘yamba’ which means one’s spirit place - the place where one is born and to which one returns in old age, when death is drawing near, so as to be buried there at ones ‘yamba’. This is why Goories are drawn to be back on their ‘country’ later in life or nearing death - to be buried in their ‘spirit home’. The area is guarded by totem creatures waiting to greet their charges at the gates of birth and death. Following her death at Myora in 1907, in line with her traditional customs, Dinaba’s body was secreted away and transported off Stradbroke Island and prepared for burial. A report described the sighting at Bulimba of a large flotilla of craft following Sarah Moreton’s boat transporting her for burial at her final resting place – at her ‘yamba’. ________________________ 33Queensland Figaro, Thursday 14th March 1907, p. 18 34Walker, C, Aboriginal Musicians, Contrappasso#3, Deadly Woman blues in the Loop, 2014 35Francis, A: Then and Now, Chapman and Hill, London, Pers. Comm Moreton Elders 1960s+
PARENTS of One child - Sarah Sandy/Moreton (b. circa 1845)
Sarah Sandy/Moreton = Charlie Dandrubah aka Charlie Drumpel (her first Marraige he was Cooparoo, Coobenpil, Gorenpil Aboriginal Clan stretched from Brisbane South to Dunwich)
Children- Charlie Mookin Moreton (born 1871)
Thomas Moreton -Born in Bulimba
Sarah Sandy/Moreton = Billy Moreton (Moreton Island Native)
Children - Janie Moreton Sunflower (1878)
Billy Moreton (went to NZ)
Charlie Mookin Moreton = Daisy Muminda (b. circa. 1880s Ipswich Region)
Children = Henry, Eddie, Alfie, Levinya, Charlie
Alfie (Grampy) Moreton = Levinya Newfong
Children- Charlie, Donny, Dulcie, Mable Coghill, Shirley Moreton, Joan Moreton, Dennis Moreton, Irene Egert
Dulcie Moreton = Eugene Edward (Reverend) Ruska her second Marraige to (George Charlton)
Children- Donna, Eddie, Glennis, Kerry, Lafe, Angela, Lola.
Eddie Ruska = Denise McDonald
Children- Michelle, Leanne, Renae, Shannon Ruska
Please note that this linage refers directly to Welcome to Country Speaker Shannon Ruska. There are over 500 decendents still living in Mianjin (Brisbane)
The traditional owners of Brisbane have maintained to hold on to their heritage although the colonization began rapidly from 1842. Over 300 convicts were brought to the region and some being the worst in the World. Enduring the changes the Turrbal and Yuggera people were treated to harsh conditions as they become a people 'Lost in their own land'. Restrictions to their own Native hunting grounds, water supplies and then the introduction of new diseases, massacres, poisonings and nearly destroyed the original people in early Morton Bay Settlement (Brisbane). In fact a song called 'Moreton Bay' can be found on YouTube to give a convicts account of treatment in the area. It was luck for the daughter of Kerwallie aka King Sandy of Brisbane that she was able to marry a Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island natives where more fortunate circumstances seen a safe haven for their children.
Although Sarah passed her days at Elonora Park, Wynnum in 14th March 1907, the same place where her father King Sandy came to to pass on his days in 1900, It was reveled that by 1904 Thomas and Charlie her sons built a house for her in Myora Mission , North Stradbroke Island as her then husband Billy 65 yrs was too feeble to work according to the Myora records.
Elder Aunty Kerry Charlton write up in Wynnum Historical Society-
INTRODUCING DIINABA - SARAH MORETON by Elder Aunty Kerry Charlton
http://www.wmhs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017_June.pdf
- to see full version click on link above
As children our mother Dulcie Moreton was a live-in cook at the Point Lookout Hotel and we lived with grandparents Alfred and Lavinia Moreton (nee Newfong) going to Dunwich School until the late ‘60s. Home was Goori way full of stories about our history, cultures, language, family, community, kinship, genealogies, laws and protocols. Long walks over well-worn bush tracks was more learning and regular visits to Myora reiterated the hardships for Goories under the “Act” aimed at severing our old ways. This strong Goori identity and spirituality grew our cultural integrity and inner strength. Life at One Mile, no electricity, no pumped water or ‘mod cons’ gave the space for ‘our old ones’ to bless us by connecting us to their ‘old ones’ instilling our spirit of place to now share with others. The recent Sarah’s Rocks article tells of the author’s experiences in his early childhood with an elderly Aboriginal woman named Sarah Moreton. As a family and community researcher, I’m interested in sharing more stories about Sarah and other ‘old ones’, their culture and time, through the Goori lens. Sarah with de ole banjo at Wynnum, 19001 The above photograph originally titled Sarah playing the banjo was taken by Phil Agnew at Wynnum in 19002 and appeared in two newspapers in 1900 and 19013 . The lady is Sarah Moreton, my great great grandmother, a well-known ancestor and wife of my great, great grandfather Dandruban also known as Charlie Drunple/Moreton.4 Sarah’s English name continues to be passed down in each generation of our big family. Sarah’s language name was Dinaba, also spelt Jineba5 , which in her mother’s lingo means sister, young woman or female6 . Dinaba is one of those referred to as ‘the old ones’ who were born during the first decades of European arrival and penal colony in Moreton Bay. 7 Her mother’s tribe was Ngunda, also known as Ngunda-gal, Nunagal and Nunukul, of the Undambi peoples of Kabi Kabi country on the Sunshine Coast.8 Dinaba’s parents were Kerwallie, the renowned King Sandy, and Naewin, also called Sarah, who were from Yuggera and Kabi Kabi country respectively.9 Dinaba conversed in her parents’ languages and dialects and other lingoes of south east Queensland region. These were in turn taught to all her children and they too became sought after for language translations as were Dinaba and her father.10 According to information on Dinaba’s death record she was born about 1840 although an exact birthplace is not recorded. In those days births usually occurred on the father’s country but _____________________________ 1Agnew, P, C. J. Pound Collection Album, 1890-1900, Heritage Collection, JOL, State Library of Queensland 2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/198658815 3The Queenslander, “De Old Banjo”, p. 11. 1901 4Moreton family history and CPH, Moreton Familial Report, Dept.of Communities,2012 5Birch, G: Transcript of the Diary of 1873, John Oxley Library, State Library Queensland 6 Fesl, E: personal communication, 1993 7 Parry-Okedan, U. E. the Story of Bribie Passage, The Queenslander, Thurs. 16th June 1932 8Community and Personal Histories: Moreton Familial Report, Dept. of Communities, 2012, family oral history 9CPH, Moreton Familial Report, Dept.of Communities,2012 and Moreton family history. 10Family oral history and linguistic recordings by Universities between the 1940s and 1963 Issue 93 ABN 49 071 835 845 ISSN 1835-8500 June 2017 5 sometimes it did happen on the mother’s. According to Goori customary kinship law children belonged to the father’s tribe and language group and followed their mother’s totem group.11 Goori is our word for Aboriginal person. In my early growing up years I never heard the English word Aborigine, only Goori was used. Every language group has their own term. The term Goori is used across some parts of coastal south east Queensland and Bandjalang country in northern to central New South Wales which translates into the English word Aborigine.12 A journalist who interviewed Dinaba in 1905 described her as “… one who had gazed across the lapping waters of Wynnum as a baby from her mother’s shoulder bag” which indicates birth on her father’s country.13 Traditional birthing sites were closely guarded places in the numerous residential communities dotted along Warrarr, the Brisbane River.14 Bulimba, or its Goori name Toogalawa, has been recorded as one, as was Woolloongabba and the site of the Brisbane GPO.15 Dinaba’s birth occurred at a time of widening European incursion across the territory affecting access to sites traditionally used.16 Historical accounts describe the vibrant lifestyles visible along the river, its mouth and surrounding shorelines. Traditionally communities were sectioned into areas for living and sleeping, communal use, recreation, burial, ceremonial and birthing. Birthing sites had to have the space, privacy, nearby sources of water and nutrition, soft barks and cottons necessary for birthing mothers and babies. Wetlands and mangroves were home to high protein foods to strengthen new mothers and paperbark trees.17 Over time, proximity to emerging new settler industries brought opportunities for trade and some economy with the new colonial and settler families. In 1873, the sites of Lytton and Wynnum were among the campsites favoured by ‘Bay’ Gooris, many of whom had relocated in earlier decades as refugees of resistance wars, widespread diseases and displacement. Once the colony opened up to free settlers massive land clearing decimated home sites, agriculture and food sources which pushed tribes to seek refuge in more remote spots and the nearby islands.18 The Wynnum ‘blacks camp’ regularly frequented by Dinaba and her family19 offered refuge and social and cultural connection. Kerwallie’s life ended at Wynnum in 190020 and the camp continued well into 1940, three decades after Dinaba’s death in 1907. Though it is difficult to pinpoint Dinaba’s place of birth, she lived and worked for many years around Moreton Bay and other coastal places on Y uggera and Kabi Kabi country. Dinaba and her first husband and her parents were part of a group of men and their wives and families who worked for Tom Petrie’s timber industry around the Pine River and south coast region.21 Traditionally, some movement across each other’s countries was common for particular purposes but within the parameter of strict laws and protocols. Gatherings for festivals, trade, celebrations, ceremonies and marriages occurred and strengthened kinship systems, renewed relationships, widened alliances and inter-boundary diplomacy. Goori involvement in Tom Petrie’s initiatives contributed essential local knowledge and skills to his fledgling industries. He was highly regarded for his insightful attitude and treatment of them. Being a ‘Petrie’ man brought some protection during the years of frontier conflicts. Tom was committed to Aboriginal amelioration and agitated the Government to set up the first mission in Queensland on Bribie Island which started in 1877 but was closed two years later. A second one was started on another part of Bribie in 1890 but was transferred to Myora around 1892.22 __________________________ 11Pers. Comm Moreton family Elders, McKenzie in Winterbotham, L.P. Gaiarbau’s Story of the Jinibara Tribe of South East Queensland and it’s neighbours 12Pers. Comm. Moreton Elders, pers. Comm. D. Williams 1990s 13The Queenslander 14Pers. Comm. Moreton Family Elders 15Ballard, K. Brisbane the Beginning, published by Kath Ballard 2007 16Pers. Comm, “ 17Pers. Comm. “ 18FAIRA, Beyond the Act, FAIRA and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Legal Service (Qld) Ltd and FAIRA Ltd, Brisbane 19Moreton, T. Correspondence dated 4.10.1904, COL/280 20Petrie, C Reminiscences of Early Queensland 21Petrie, C,C. Tom Petries Reminiscences of Early Queensland, Brisbane, Watson, Ferguson, 1904 22Parry-Okedan, U. E. the Story of Bribie Passage, The Queenslander, Thurs. 16th June, 1932 Issue 93 ABN 49 071 835 845 ISSN 1835-8500 June 2017 6 In preparing for the upcoming visit of Prince Albert to Brisbane in 1868, Andrew Petrie was approached to bring his Goori workers to Brisbane to perform for the occasion. Dinaba and Dandruban were among up to sixty who took part in the elaborate celebrations to welcome the visiting Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, and photographs of the large group of performers show Sarah wearing a highly decorated hairpiece full of feathers, brush sprays and flowers.23 . Sarah circa 187024 Sarah, 186825 Dandruban was a Goobenpul – Yuggera man of Stradbroke Island and mainland Y uggera territory.26 He most probably worked with William Duncan, the sub-collector of Customs for Moreton Bay who successfully employed local Goori people for domestic chores and boat crew. Another self-made businessman was Johnathon Cassim, a ticket of leave convict from Maritius, who only employed Goori labour at his boarding houses initially at Kangaroo Point and later at Cleveland.27 Dinaba and Dandruban’s eldest son Mookin, also Charlie Moreton, was born at Amity Point on Stradbroke Island and became a highly esteemed warrior who went on to become a sporting celebrity among other achievements. He learnt much from his Elders and particularly from his Uncle Billy Cassim, the skilled choreographer of corroboorees made famous in Thomas Welsby’s writings.28 According to Goori custom high regard for someone was shown by adopting their name. Billy’s friendship with William Duncan and Johnathon Cassim led to his additional names, William Johnathon Alexander Cassim Esquire. Mookin related to a later writer and Noogie man Paul Tripcony that his Uncle’s correct name was Nuarjoo.29 High mortality of Aborigines in that era led to Sarah acquiring her second husband Y illooran whose European name was William Moreton. Commonly known as Y ellow Billy, his father was a wellknown non-Aboriginal pioneering man.30 Dinaba and Yillooran are known to have had at least four children together who were Emily, Thomas, Willy and Mary Jane.31 Yillooran had a first wife with whom he had two daughters Annie and Nelly Moreton. By the time Phil Agnew took his photo in 1900, Dinaba was a grandmother residing between Wynnum and Myora along with two of her surviving brood and Mookin was at Deebing Creek mission. Phil was the highly regarded Postmaster General of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum and his family were well known for their benevolence activities with inmates and others. Interestingly, twenty years later Phil photographed a group at the St. Marks Anglican Church at Dunwich in which my grandmother, Lavinia Moreton, appears in her confirmation outfits, an occasion at which the Bishop was also in attendance.32 Another connection came for Phil and Dinaba when they both had sons with leprosy detained on Peel Island and where Nan (Lavinia) would work years later in a domestic role. _______________________ 23Cohen, K et al, Lost Brisbane and Surrounding Areas 1860 – 1960, The Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 2014. 24Bevan studio, Brisbane 25Daniel Marquis Studio, Brisbane. Kerkhove, R Paper on Brisbane Aboriginal campsites 26Moreton, A, Pers. Communication. Index Card: IDC/M368 Charlie Moreton 27Tynan, P J: Johnny Cassim, Colonial Entrepreneur 1814 – 1884,p. 47, Church Archivist’s Press, 2005 28Welsby, T. Vol 2 p. 123 29Tripcony, P. Writings of Paul Tripcony 30Tindale Genealogy Sheet no: 91 31Birch, G: Transcript of the Diary of 1873, John Oxley Library, State Library Queensland 32Durbidge, E. Covacevich, North Stradbroke Island, Stradbroke Island Management Organisation, Amity Point, Queensland, 1981 Issue 93 ABN 49 071 835 845 ISSN 1835-8500 June 2017 7 Dinaba was about sixty years old when the photo was snapped and it became a most cherished possession for her.33 The well- known image of Dinaba holding a banjo has caused many to wonder about her.34 I regard this photograph as a special gift left for us by her and Phil. It is a lasting legacy that allows us to understand some of her personality and pleasure of being the star of this moment in time. No matter how many times I view the photo it always lifts my spirit as I warm to her energy, slight smile and direct contemplative stare. One can imagine the thought and effort put into her choice of fashion and the image she wished to portray – a look that would long outlive her but somehow remain perennial. I love that it captured the evolved Diinaba, a woman of maturity, holding herself with dignity, unafraid to cloak herself in such a bold dress, finished with matching head and neck scarf, the banjo, all gives insight into who she was. The dress may have been a used cast off item or gained from her labours or in exchange for fresh seafoods, opossum rugs, dilly bags made of coarse grass or reeds, spears, boomerangs, etc a common way to gain items like tobacco and old clothes, especially coloured prints.35 However sourced, this was a dress to catch the eye adorning someone who enjoyed leaving a vivid impression upon her audience. Dinaba’s relaxed pose portrays a friendly trust in the photographer. Her frame and physical bearing points to a long life of daily physical activity, collecting and hunting traditional foods, walking the major transport across her Kabi Kabi and Y uggera ‘countries’ and also as a performer, dancer, songwoman on Stradbroke Island or mainland. Born with bare feet, Dinaba lived and died with bare feet and the glimpse of her right bare foot poking out from under hemline of her dress shows wear and tear of age. Bare feet alerted her of movement on the ground – food sources, safety, danger, vibrations warned of approaching people, horses, coaches or animals in the surrounding environment. Those bare feet would have had amazing stories to tell too about a life that experienced much change. As a musician, song-woman and dancer, the banjo was a new and curious technology shaped like a drum with a handle that produced sounds very different to the music Dinaba had known from babyhood. It complimented her possum fur drums and instruments crafted from nature’s offerings to echo gurgling creeks, roaring waves, clicking cicadas, rustling leaves, bird trills and animal sounds. It’s not surprising that Dinaba had an artisan’s interest in playing this instrument from another culture with its different sounds. I believe that song, music and movement was an enduring essence in her life which kept her Goori spirit strong, nurtured her connection to country and fanned her ancient memories alive. In our language and cultural tradition there is ‘yamba’ which means one’s spirit place - the place where one is born and to which one returns in old age, when death is drawing near, so as to be buried there at ones ‘yamba’. This is why Goories are drawn to be back on their ‘country’ later in life or nearing death - to be buried in their ‘spirit home’. The area is guarded by totem creatures waiting to greet their charges at the gates of birth and death. Following her death at Myora in 1907, in line with her traditional customs, Dinaba’s body was secreted away and transported off Stradbroke Island and prepared for burial. A report described the sighting at Bulimba of a large flotilla of craft following Sarah Moreton’s boat transporting her for burial at her final resting place – at her ‘yamba’. ________________________ 33Queensland Figaro, Thursday 14th March 1907, p. 18 34Walker, C, Aboriginal Musicians, Contrappasso#3, Deadly Woman blues in the Loop, 2014 35Francis, A: Then and Now, Chapman and Hill, London, Pers. Comm Moreton Elders 1960s+