torresstraitislander

‘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_...

Taroom Aboriginal Settlement is a heritage-listed Aboriginal reserve at Bundulla, Taroom, Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 May 2011.[1] It is also known as Taroom Aboriginal Reserve and Taroom Aboriginal Mission. It was established as a government-operated reserve on a site on the Dawson River, east of the township of Taroom in 1911. The settlement was established under the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, which enabled direct government control over the lives of Aboriginal people in Queensland, including forced removals to designated reserves. Under the direction of a superintendent, the settlement housed Aboriginal people from different language groups and regions of Queensland, who lived within a highly regulated and tightly controlled institutional environment until its closure in 1927. By segregating Aboriginal people from the rest of the community, the removals process was highly effective in fulfilling the government's objectives of increased control and regulation of the state's Aboriginals, enforced on settlements through a range of administrative and disciplinary measures. While humanitarian concerns were used as a justification for removal by advocates of the reserve system, Aboriginal people were forcibly removed for a wider range of reasons including illness; lack of employability or refusal to work; old age; as punishment; and after a jail sentence had been served.[20] While many groups had already been moved off their traditional land and were residing in fringe camps at settlements and stations, the removals program further severed many Queensland Aboriginals' capacity to maintain connections to country and traditional customary practices. Social and family networks were also profoundly altered, with children taken from their parents, wives from husbands and families split up and sent to different reserves. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taroom_Aboriginal_Settlement

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...