comingofthelight

In 1871 on 1 July representatives from the London Missionary Society arrived on Erub Island (Darnley Island) accompanied by South Sea Islander evangelists and teachers. Clan Elder and Warrior, Dabad greeted them on their arrival. Ready to defend his land and people Dabad walked to the water’s edge when the Rev Samuel McFarlane dropped to his knees and presented The Bible to Dabad. Dabad accepted the gift, interpreted as the ‘Light’, introducing Christianity to the Torres Strait Islands. The people of the Torres Strait Islands adopted the Christian rituals and ceremonies and continued to uphold their connection to the land, sea and sky, practicing their traditional customs, and cultural identity referred to as ‘Ailan Kastom.’ Each year on 1 July, ‘The Coming of the Light’ or ‘Keriba Lagaw Buiya’ in traditional language is a day of celebration, performance, oral tradition and reverence. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/coming-light-celebrating-150-year...

Some Aboriginal people work for the settlers. They are dressed in European clothes, fed European food, and live in camps near the homestead. They play a vital role in the development of the Queensland pastoral industry. The owners of Booubyjan had a good relationship with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station. They commissioned FW Whitehouse to paint the portrait of Cobbo, which was hung on the homestead. Source: cherbourgmemory.org/booubyja-cobbo-at-booubyjan-station-1...

‘On the Albert – 1893 – A day out with tribe and King – with Hon. C. Lambert’. Group, including Cyril Lambert (standing at rear), Polly Boyd nursing her daughter Milly, Jimmy Boyd, Sarah Clarke, Jackey Jackey, Billy Gallen, and Kipper Tommy Andrews. Albert River, 1893. Photograph by Will Stark. Who was Jackey Jackey? The man that is well documented in several photographs wearing the breastplate inscribed ‘Jackey Jackey – King of the Logan and Pimpama’ lived in the region of south-east Queensland near where the town of Beenleigh now stands on the lower Logan River. While a record identifying his birth has yet to be found, we estimate from his appearance in photographs in the years just prior to his death, as well as when his daughter Emily was born around 1853, 17 that he was born around 1820. He lived in the region from before the first European settlers arrived in the Beenleigh district in the 1860s until his death in around 1900. Source: press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n9914/pdf/01_aird_...