The Wombeetch Puyuun indigenous man, known to local white settlers as Camperdown George, appeared in a courtroom southwest of Victoria in 1877.
The charge against him, according to the Hampden Guardian newspaper, was “to be noisy and unpleasant … to have received, from some reckless people, an intoxicating liquor.”
Justice of the Peace Peter McArthur told Wombeetch that he should move to Framlingham, the “aboriginal station” about 40 miles away that was home to the vast majority of surviving First Nations people. of the district.
Aboriginal and island readers of the Torres Strait are advised that this article contains images of people who have died.
But Wombeetch had nothing of it; after all, many thought he was the last member of the Leehoorah Gundidj clan who still lived freely in the ancestral lands of the Djargurd Wurrung village around present-day Camperdown.
Wombeetch Putyuun was the last of the Leehoorah Gundidj. This photo was taken in 1879. (Supplied by: Camperdown and District Historical Society)
“The old man simply shook his head and, remarking that this was ‘his country’, offered to charge six pence as a share of the rent to be paid by the whites in general, and the magistrate in particular.” , the Hampden Guardian reported.
Stories like this are what help make Wombeetch Puyuun an important indigenous figure in southwest Victoria and are part of a push for Heritage Victoria to recognize a monument erected in his honor, in tragic but moving circumstances, about 140 years ago. years.
The monument is different from any other in Australia for two key reasons; recognizes the massacre of the natives at a time when they were still happening, and celebrates a rare friendship between a white settler and a First Nations person.
A proud warrior
Wombeetch was about 20 years old when white settlers arrived in 1839 in the area now known as Camperdown, where the Djargurd Wurrung had lived for tens of thousands of years.
Bob Lambell, a vital member of Camperdown and District Historical Society, said the white settlers came to “rich swamp hunting ground.” [with] a lot of play “where Wombeetch and his people had lived” a good lifestyle for thousands of countless years. “
Bob Lambell in the middle of an exhibition in honor of the indigenous peoples of the region. (ABC South West Victoria: Matt Neal)
“Within 40 years of the arrival of Europeans [the Aboriginal people were] it’s all gone from here, ”Lambell explained, citing a combination of massacres, dispossession and illness.
Those who did not die were transferred to Aboriginal missions at Framlingham, about 40 km west of Camperdown, or at Buntingdale at Birregurra, about 70 km east.
“But the only thing about Wombeetch Puyuun is that throughout his life he refused to move from his country,” Lambell explained.
The Wombeetch Puyuun Reconciliation Garden in Camperdown, located near where Wombeetch used to live. (ABC South West Victoria: Matt Neal)
As the town of Camperdown grew around him, Wombeetch continued to live in a traditional bark hut called mia mia near the present site of a garden in his honor.
Wombeetch was often seen walking the streets with his dogs, and the locals were known as “Camperdown George.”
Wombeetch Puyuun, photographed in the country in 1878. (Supplied by: Camperdown & District Historical Society)
Vicki Couzens, who is a descendant of the Leehoorah Gundidj clan, says Wombeetch Puyuun is an “iconic” figure.
“He’s one of our heroes,” he said.
“There are great photos of him: he is a very proud and strong-looking man and a warrior.
“For me, he defends that sovereignty and citizenship in our own lands, and he kept it and stayed there until he died.”
A beautiful friendship
James Dawson and his wife John moved from Scotland to Australia in 1840, starting a dairy farm in Warrandyte, in the Yarra Valley.
Dawson immediately stood out among the other settlers showing “enormous respect for the aborigines,” Lambell said.
James Dawson, photographed in 1878, was horrified to learn of his friend’s death. (Provided by: Camperdown & District Historical Society)
His daughter Isabella was born in 1842 and grew up with indigenous children, mastering their languages, while Dawson advocated the use of Aboriginal place names and used local language names for their properties. , which were often seen as a refuge for First Nations. people.
In 1868, the Dawson family moved to Camperdown, where James met Wombeetch, and the two became close friends.
John Clarke, a Kirrae Whurrong man who works with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, says it is through Wombeetch’s “very good friend James Dawson” that we know what an “extraordinary individual” Wombeetch was.
“[Wombeetch] He was an astrologer and poet, and a great possessor of knowledge about local landscapes and the biology and environment around him, ”Clarke said.
“[He was] a great champion and defender of himself and his own people. “
While Wombeetch himself was extraordinary, his friendship with Dawson was perhaps even more so.
Wombeetch Puyuun’s first known portrait: “Camperdown George of the Timboon Tribe.” (Provided by: Camperdown & District Historical Society)
“This friendship was built at a time when there were a lot of conflicts,” Clarke explained.
“A war was being waged in southwest Victoria: it was a frontier of violence, occupation, and as indigenous peoples in the area, we were not just letting ourselves be overcome.
“[Their friendship is] It was considered rare because the aborigines in their day considered themselves a burden and, you know, subhuman.
“If they had any kind of productive use, in the eyes of landowners and squatters, it would have been [as] domestic work, by contract, if not slavery.
“So it was unique in that sense, where both James Dawson and his daughter Isabella … recognized the humanity of Indigenous peoples and really recognized the knowledge they had about place, identity and culture.”
An invaluable resource
At Camperdown, Dawson and Isabella continued the work they had begun years before, while living north of Port Fairy, to record the language, stories, and customs of the natives of southwest Victoria.
The Dawsons published their work under the name James Dawson in 1881 in the book The Australian Aborigines: The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.
It was the first book of its kind and was created thanks to the trust and respect the Dawsons had fostered with the local natives, including Wombeetch Puyuun.
Isabella Dawson, photographed in 1875, listening to local indigenous peoples. (Provided by: Camperdown & District Historical Society)
In the book’s preface, Dawson writes, “In this work great care has been taken not to indicate anything about the word of a white person; and, in obtaining information from the aborigines, they have been avoided in the as far as possible suggestive or conducive questions. “
Clarke said the work the Dawsons did was incredibly important.
“They captured and recorded a lot of language that was forbidden to speak at the time,” he said.
“Because of the work he did capturing stories and language … now we have some today.
“We can’t even guess what has been taken from us as a society.”
An original copy of the 1881 book by James and Isabella Dawson (left) along with a 1981 reprint. (ABC South West Victoria: Matt Neal)
Ms. Couzens described the book as an incredible resource that recorded what would otherwise have been lost.
“We don’t have fluent speakers in the Gunditjmara nation,” Ms Couzens said.
“Those of us who have a good knowledge of the language still can’t speak with conversational fluency.
“Our older people knew what they were doing, let it be written down, because they could see what was going on.
“[The Dawsons’ book] and that amount of work they did directly with our people … is absolutely invaluable. “
Dawson was finally appointed “local guardian of the aborigines” in 1876, but the preface to his book shows how anachronistic Dawson’s views were, how aware he was of the sad impact of colonialism, and how badly his comrades viewed him. settlers the local natives. people:
Bob Lambell with the book by James and Isabella Dawson. (ABC South West Victoria: Matt Neal)
“People who see only the miserable remains to be found around the white man’s grog shop may be inclined to doubt it, but if these doubters put themselves in close communication with the aborigines, away from the means of intoxication, and were Listen to their naive conversation, their humor and wit, and their expressions of honor and affection for one another, those who are willing to consider them inhuman would be forced to admit that, in general, intelligence, common sense, integrity, and the In the absence of anything repulsive in their conduct, are at least equal, if not superior, to the general current of white men. “
“A universal favorite”
Wombeetch Puyuun died of bronchitis on February 26, 1883, and the Camperdown Chronicle marked his death with a typical compliment of the time:
“[Camperdown George was] a universal favorite, ”he wrote.
“He had a kind nature and did not possess any of the worst qualities of his race.
“The old man has refused to be moved to Framlingham, preferring to walk the streets of the city with his two dogs.”
Wombeetch was buried in an unmarked grave on a piece of swampy land reserved for the natives outside the consecrated grounds of Camperdown Cemetery.
Dawson returned to Scotland at the time of Wombeetch’s death and as soon as he learned of his friend’s death, he returned to Camperdown.
Upon his return, Dawson “protested that Wombeetch was not buried in the cemetery,” Clarke said.
“He had no traction in that protest, so he dug up Wombeetch’s remains and buried them in the cemetery without permission …