1 The late-stage Lemkinian extermination of the Kabi People Ray Gibbons 2 Abstract Queensland Aboriginals suffered a rolling genocide across multiple phases from invasion to deportation and repression, group by group, area by area. We deconstruct this fractal-like process in a companion volume. 1 For now, we will briefly focus on one particular language group (the Kabi of the Sunshine Coast) for one particular phase of Lemkinian repression (deportation and detention to Barambah). We find that there are disturbing similarities between genocidal aetiology and morbidity for Barambah (Kabi) and Wybalenna (Palawa). We are led to the conclusion that the Queensland Government might have learned from the humanitarian disaster of Wybalenna, but instead chose to replicate the Tasmanian process and its genocidal mechanics. Publishing history First published 2019 Front-cover A native of the Kabi tribe, Maryborough, Queensland From Rev. J. Mathew’s book Two representative tribes of Queensland . . .". London, 1910. See Ray Gibbons (2015), Deconstructing Colonial Myths the massacre at Murdering Creek The image can also be found at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Two_Representative_Tribes_of_Queenslan d_-_A_Native_of_the_Kabi_Tribe.jpg 1 Ray Gibbons (2019), Deconstructing Queensland Genocide (in draft). This document include a massacre database. 3 Contents The late-stage extermination of the Kabi People ............................................................................................. 4 Introduction to Kabi country: a stolen homeland ............................................................................................ 7 The Population of the Kabi: pre- invasion to ‘living under the Act’ ................................................................. 20 Mary Valley .................................................................................................................................................. 21 Noosa Heads ................................................................................................................................................ 21 Cooloola/ Fraser Island ................................................................................................................................ 22 Maryborough/ Mount Bauple ...................................................................................................................... 23 Nambour ...................................................................................................................................................... 24 Manumbar ................................................................................................................................................... 24 Mungar – the last corroboree ...................................................................................................................... 24 The Politics of Kabi Genocide: Invasion and Depopulation ............................................................................ 25 1840 – 1900: Queensland Pastoralism and Aboriginal Genocide ................................................................ 26 1840 – 1860: Cooloola Shire ........................................................................................................................ 30 1860 – 1897: Queensland Government ‘Dispersal’ policy ............................................................................ 31 1890: Tewantin ............................................................................................................................................ 33 1898 – 1903: Meston ................................................................................................................................... 34 1915: Forced relocation of remaining Kabi survivors .................................................................................. 36 1897 – 1971: ‘Living under the Act’ ............................................................................................................. 38 2016: Kabi population recovery ................................................................................................................... 40 Barambah detention centre: part of Queensland’s gulag system ................................................................. 41 Barambah summary .................................................................................................................................... 42 Barambah removals ..................................................................................................................................... 63 Barambah comparison between removals and deaths in any one five-year period: 1905 - 1939 ............... 67 Barambah comparison between cumulative removals and cumulative deaths for the period: 1905 - 1939 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 68 Pearson correlation index between cumulative removals and cumulative deaths for the period: 1905 - 1939 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 69 Barambah mortality statistics ..................................................................................................................... 75 Originating regions for Barambah removals: 1908 – 1936 ......................................................................... 85 Barambah genocidal mortality statistics: 1905 to 1939 .............................................................................. 86 Barambah epidemic disease outbreaks: 1905 – 1939 ................................................................................. 90 Comparative Wybalenna genocidal mortality statistics .............................................................................. 93 Contemporary Indigenous genocidal mortality and morbidity statistics ................................................... 102 Deconstructive Analysis: Chief Protector of Aboriginals - Role and agency ............................................... 108 Queensla nd ‘removals’ by Aboriginal ‘Protector’ and period .................................................................... 115 Barambah Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 118 Comparative dispossessory pattern: the Kabi of the Wide Bay/ Burnett/ Caboolture; and the people of southwest Queensland ....................................................................................................................................... 121 4 Figures Figure 1 Kabi country ............................................................................................................................ 11 Figure 2 Kabi Country – the Sunshine Coast from Redcliffe to Mooloola ............................................ 12 Figure 3 Kabi Country - the Sunshine Coast from Mooloola to Noosa, and part of Cooloola .............. 13 Figure 4 Kabi Country - central Fraser Island ........................................................................................ 14 Figure 5 Kabi country - northern Fraser Island ..................................................................................... 15 Figure 6 Kabi country - Conondale Range and environs ...................................................................... 16 Figure 7 Kabi country - the Gympie district .......................................................................................... 17 Figure 8 Kabi country - the Maryborough district ................................................................................ 18 Figure 9 Kabi country – the Manumbar district .................................................................................... 19 Figure 10 Early Pastoral Occupation of Queensland 1840 - 1866 ........................................................ 28 Figure 11 Hospital and store buildings at Barambah Aboriginal Settlement, 1911 ............................. 43 Figure 12 Barambah comparison of removals: 1905 – 1939 ............................................................... 65 Figure 13 Comparison between actual Barambah removals and deaths: 1905 – 1939 (five-year data bundles) ................................................................................................................................................ 67 Figure 14 Comparison between Barambah cumulative removals and cumulative deaths: 1905 - 1939 .............................................................................................................................................................. 68 Figure 15 Pearson correlation plot: Barambah cumulative removals against cumulative deaths: 1905 - 1939 .................................................................................................................................................... 70 Figure 16 Pearson correlation plot of each variable. X: cumulative removals; y: cumulative deaths . 71 Figure 17 Barambah demographic data 1905 – 1939 .......................................................................... 80 Figure 18 Barambah infant mortality 1906 - 1938................................................................................ 80 Figure 19 Barambah Mortality statistics, 1910 - 1936 .......................................................................... 82 Figure 20 Rations being issued to Barambah inmates, 1907 ................................................................ 84 Figure 21 Originating regions for Barambah removals: 1908 - 1936 .................................................... 85 Figure 22 Barambah normalized mortality statistics: 1905 – 1939 ...................................................... 86 Figure 23 Barambah actual annualized birth and death statistics 1905 – 1939 ................................... 87 Figure 24 Barambah cumulative birth and death statistics by year 1905 - 1939 ................................. 88 Figure 25 Barambah mortality statistics ............................................................................................... 89 Figure 26 Barambah disease epidemics: 1905 - 1939 .......................................................................... 91 Figure 27 Barambah disease aetiology and ranking, 1910 - 1936 ........................................................ 92 Figure 28 Total recorded deaths from Acute Respiratory Disease (ARD) and other causes at Wybalenna: 1833 – 1846 ...................................................................................................................... 93 Figure 29 British introduced diseases in Tasmania ............................................................................... 99 Figure 30 Palawa deaths by age range (1835 to 1876) ....................................................................... 100 Figure 31 Cumulative number of recorded Tasmanian clashes by year: 1824 - 1831........................ 101 Figure 32 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mortality and morbidity statistics, 2011 - 2013....... 104 5 Figure 33 Leading broad causes of death, by Indigenous status, 2008 – 2012 (per cent) .................. 105 Figure 34 Life expectancy at birth, by sex and Indigenous status, 2005 – 2007 and 2010 - 2012 ..... 106 Figure 35 Reports on Aboriginal detention centres............................................................................ 114 Figure 36 Number of Aboriginal 'removals' in Queensland, by Protector and period ..................... 115 Figure 37 Queensland Chief Protector of Aboriginals, 1897 - 1942 ................................................... 118 6 Preface The late-stage extermination of the surviving Kabi people - while under Government ‘protection’ – from what is now called the Queensland Sunshine Coast is necessarily associated with the Government ’ s establishment of an Aboriginal detention facility at Barambah u nder the provisions of the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld) , and subsequent Aboriginal protection acts Barambah near Murgon in traditional Waka Waka territory operated as an internment camp for Aboriginals who were rounded up from southeast Queensland, including the Kabi. Barambah was gazetted as a Salvation Army Aboriginal mission from 1900 when it was handed over to the Queensland Government in 1905 before being renamed Cherbourg in 1931. 2 During this period, Barambah was little more than a punitive death camp, bearing many of the genocidal characteristics of Wybalenna on Flinders Island where surviving Palawa were detained and died between 1834 and 1847. 3 They died from neglect, from the lethal conditions of life, just as they would on Barambah. There are many who will argue that both facilities – Wybalenna and Barambah - were set up for the welfare and protection of remnant Aboriginal populations who had survived the ‘ dispersal ’ process, and that the extraordinarily high proportional death rates were an unintended consequence of humanitarian concerns. This document will show otherwise. 2 See, for example: https://www.qld.gov.au/atsi/cultural-awareness-heritage-arts/community- histories/community-histories-c-d/community-histories-cherbourg 3 See, for example: https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/W/Wybalenna.htm 7 The late-stage Lemkinian extermination of the Kabi People Queensland Aboriginals suffered a rolling genocide across multiple phases from invasion to deportation and repression, group by group, area by area. We deconstruct this fractal-like process in a companion volume. 4 For now, we will briefly focus on one particular language group (the Kabi of the Sunshine Coast) for one particular phase of Lemkinian repression (deportation and detention to Barambah). We find that there are disturbing similarities between genocidal aetiology and morbidity for Barambah (Kabi) and Wybalenna (Palawa). We are led to the conclusion that the Queensland Government might – and should - have learned from the humanitarian disaster of Wybalenna, but instead chose to replicate the Tasmanian process and its genocidal mechanics. Introduction to Kabi country: a stolen homeland We now know little of the range and reach of Aboriginal groups, including that of the Kabi speaking people, they were destroyed so quickly. In general, ethnographers dispassionately equate a ‘ people ’ in a certain area with a language group. That is, a language group may comprise several different but co-located groups of people within a geographic area, all sharing the same language. In 1887, Mathew includes within Kabi territory: [...] the Man umbar Run in the southwest corner of the Burnett District, the country watered by the Amamoor and Koondangoor Creeks, tributaries of the Mary River, and the Imbil Station. 5 In 1910, Mathew further writes: 6 The territory of the Kabi coincided approximately with the basin of the Mary River but extended along the coast beyond that basin both to the north and south. Its coast- line extended from near the 27 th parallel northward to about the mouth of the 4 Ray Gibbons (2019), Deconstructing Queensland Genocide (in draft). This document include a massacre database. 5 John Mathew (1887), Mary River and the Bunya Bunya Country: 152 https://ia601406.us.archive.org/16/items/australianracei02currgoog/australianracei02currgoog.pdf ; EM Curr (1886- 1887), The Australian Race, volume 3: 152 – 209 https://archive.org/details/cu31924026093827 6 In this territorial description, Mathew is referring to the Mary Valley Kabi group whose language had been adopted within a much wider area. Or perhaps, those people in the Mary Valley should have been given a different name that was not implicitly ambiguous. John Mathew (1910), Two Representative Tribes of Queensland : 66 – 68 http://www.gubbigubbi.com/two_representative_tribes_of_queensland_john_mathews.pdf Norman Tindale made use of Mathew’s w ork: http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/kabikabi.htm https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230054338/view http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tribalmap/ 8 Burrum River, a distance of some 175 miles; 7 measured across the land, the distance from point to point would be about 130 miles. 8 The maximum width, measured westward from Double Island Point, is 85 miles. 9 In addition to the mainland, there was Fraser or Great Sandy Island, about 85 miles long with an average breadth of 12 miles, so that the Kabi country altogether had an area of about 8,200 square miles. 10 Compare this territorial boundary with that of Tindale: Inland from Maryborough; north to Childers and Hervey Bay; south to near head of Mary River and Cooroy; west to Burnett and Coast Ranges and Kilkivan; at Gympie; not originally on Fraser Island although Curr (1886) mentions them as there. Mathews (1910) refers to fifteen local groups or hordes shared between his two language areas, Kabi and Wakka, excluding his Patyala, which are the Batjala of Fraser Island, a separate tribe. Kabikabi country is essentially a rain forest environment with open areas cleared by firing the scrub. Dry forest country of their neighbors was called ['naran ’ ], literally 'outside.' The Hervey Bay folk under the hordelike name Dundubara behaved much like a separate tribe, Dundura was seemingly the tribal form of their name. Members of this tribe were disturbed by the arrival of strangers of many surrounding tribes in the years of the ripening of bunya pine seeds. 11 John Steele includes, within the Kabi group: Sunshine Coast (Undanbi and Nalbo people); Cooloola (Dulingbara); Fraser Island (Dulingbara, Badjala and Ngulungbara); Conondale (Dallambara); Mary Valley (Kabi); Maryborough District (Badjala and Dowarbara); and Manumbar District. He writes that: 12 The Kabi language group lies along the coast from Redcliffe to Fraser Island and in the Mary River catchment area. [...] 7 ca. 282 kms 8 ca. 209 kms 9 ca. 137 kms 10 ca. 21,238 square kms. By comparison, the area of T asmania’s main island is about 64,5109 km 2 11 http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/kabikabi.htm https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230054338/view 12 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River : 160 – 162. 9 The first written account of a Kabi language was made by the Reverend William Ridley in 1855 when he interviewed the ex-convict James Davis in Brisbane. Davis had, as an escapee from Brisbane Town, lived with the Aboriginals in the Wide Bay and Burnett districts from 1829 to 1842; he had been adopted by the Ginginara clan of the Burnett and had received the “moolgarrah” scars. In publishing this language in 1856, Ridley gave its name as Dippil, and he stated that it was spoken by “the aborigines around Durunduran, on the north side of Moreton Bay, and thence towards Wide Bay and the Burnett distric t.” 13 The Reverend John Mathew collected an extensive Kabi vocabulary near Yabba, on the ranges between the Mary and Burnett catchment areas between 1865 and 1881. His work, first published in 1886, established the language name as Kabi instead of Dippil. 14 Since then the Mary Valley has been considered the home of “classic” Kabi. Other vocabularies from various districts within the Kabi territory have been recorded. A comparison of the vocabularies leads to the conclusion that a uniform language was spoken along the coast from Redcliffe to Fraser Island, and this is corroborated by William Mackenzie, who spoke many dialects of the region. The Dallambara, on the Conondale and Blackall Ranges at the head of the Stanley and Mary Rivers, had a language intermediate between Kabi and the Dungidau language to the south, but is generally classified with the Kabi group. 15 In 2014, a Sunshine Coast Council study concluded that the Kabi language area extended in the south to the Caboolture River: Research throughout the twentieth century has concluded that the inhabitants of the Sunshine Coast were members of the Kabi language group (Wells 2003, Steele 1984, Watson 1946, Mathew 1910) (refer Figure 11.3a). 13 Ibid, citing HS Russell, The Genesis of Queensland : 274, 278, 284; W Ridley, Kamilaroi, Dippil and Turrubul 14 Ibid, citing EM Curr (1886 – 1887), The Australian Race , volume 3: 152 – 209 https://archive.org/details/cu31924026093827 15 Citing LP Winterbotham (1955), Vocabularies in Dalla, Wakka Wakka and Dungi Dau 10 Thus, the Kabi language area is known as the area along the coast around the Burrum, Mary, Noosa, Maroochy, Mooloolah and Caboolture Rivers and out to Maryborough, and included the area from Gympie out to west of Kilkivan (Tainton 1976:16). A persistent theme in ethno-historical accounts is a distinction between coastal and inland people. For example, Winterbotham (1957:8-9) states that Gaiarbau (a Jinibara man who knew of and interacted with Kabi Kabi people) informed him that: ‘the coastal tribes collectively called themselves Bugarnuba, but that to him they were known as Mwoirnewar, or salt water people. This term is applied to the Gabi Gabi, Undumbi, and Dulingbara’ 16 16 Sunshine Coast Council, B11 Cultural Heritage, Chapter B11 - Indigenous cultural heritage and native title 18Sep14.pdf : 537 http://eisdocs.dsdip.qld.gov.au/Sunshine%20Coast%20Airport%20Expansion/EIS/Volume%20B%20chapters/C hapter%20B11%20-%20Indigenous%20cultural%20heritage%20and%20native%20title%2018Sep14.pdf 11 Figure 1 Kabi country 17 17 John Mathew (1910), Two Representative Tribes of Queensland : 66 – 68 http://www.gubbigubbi.com/two_representative_tribes_of_queensland_john_mathews.pdf 12 Figure 2 Kabi Country – the Sunshine Coast from Redcliffe to Mooloola 18 18 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River: 161 13 Figure 3 Kabi Country - the Sunshine Coast from Mooloola to Noosa, and part of Cooloola 19 19 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River: 176 Lake Weyba, the area of our Murdering Creek case study, is in the middle of the map. 14 Figure 4 Kabi Country - central Fraser Island 20 20 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River: 188 15 Figure 5 Kabi country - northern Fraser Island 21 21 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River : 198 16 Figure 6 Kabi country - Conondale Range and environs 22 22 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River: 207 17 Figure 7 Kabi country - the Gympie district 23 23 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River: 222 18 Figure 8 Kabi country - the Maryborough district 24 24 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River: 228 19 Figure 9 Kabi country – the Manumbar district 25 25 JG Steele (1984), Aboriginal Pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond River : 238 20 The Population of the Kabi: pre- invasion to ‘living under the Act’ We will use the name Kabi for the associated language group, not the sub-group in the Mary Valley, not unless there is a qualified reference, say: Mary Valley Kabi. Pre-contact Kabi population estimates are difficult to assess because, within about 50 years from first white contact, almost all the Kabi people ‘disappeared’. We will rely on firsthand accounts of the Kabi population size by area during various times in the post-contact period when the genocidal process was well underway. We know little of the Kabi population size before the arrival of British ‘ settlers ’ There were perhaps many thousands, of which a reported one hundred and twenty were located in the Noosa Heads area and possibly across to present day Eumundi. To arrive at population estimates by area, we will rely on anecdotal evidence at different times. Settlers were generally disinterested in understanding the people they were dispossessing, the Government more so. For modelling purposes, we will use a pre-contact Kabi population estimate of 4000 to 7000 people spread across the entire geographic area of their range, according to Mathew ’s limited ethnography, wit h 5000 a ‘rule of thumb’ , which makes it comparable to the Tasmanian Palawa population pre-contact. ‘Settler’ is widely u sed in works of Australian history; but invader is more appropriate. The meaning scope of the word ‘invasion’ can range from benign, to displacive to predatory to genocidal to apocalyptic. In Australia, the Anglo-invasion veered sharply to genocidal. For some areas such as the Mary Valley, the Aboriginal presence was almost completely removed and has yet to recover in even a small way. In 2006, the Peter Beattie led Queensland Government proposed a Traveston Crossing dam to hold 150 gigalitres at its planned completion in 2035. Mary Valley residents set up an action group to complain about being displaced. I could not help noticing the irony; I’m sure the original settlers had no such qualms about displacing the local Kabi. I mentioned the hypocrisy to a historian friend at Mount Wolvi, but she looked at me incredulously. The Traveston plan, although fiercely defended by Anna Bligh, was rejected by Federal Minister Garrett in 2009. The Mary Valley Kabi had no such reprieve, nor any Aboriginal group across Queensland as pastoralists advanced their Government-supported homicidal interests, a racist scorched earth policy where the Indigenous population was denied any land rights whatsoever.