Musquito
Musquito (also called Mosquito , Musquetta , Bush Muschetta or Muskito , * 1780 in Sydney Cove , † February 25, 1825 in Hobart , Tasmania ) was an Aboriginal of the Eora who forcibly opposed British colonization and also hired out as an Aboriginal tracker .
Surname
The name Musquito was given to him by the Sydney Gazette when they named him Bush Muschetta . Muschetta was an old pronunciation for mosquito . Bush was placed in front of Musqito to distinguish him from another Aboriginal named Musquito, who was then living in the Sydney area and who was killed in 1806.
Life
Little is known about Musquito's early life; his date of birth is based on an estimate. He was tall and strong, known to be intelligent, and spoke very good English. According to one report, he is said to have been very well versed in handling axes.
In 1805, Musquito was involved in raids on European settlers in the Hawkesbury and Georges River area . The Aborigines resisted the land grab by the British settlers, who threatened their livelihoods. After he was captured, he was deported to Norfolk Island for the murder of an Aboriginal woman , where he spent eight years. In January 1813 he came by ship to Dalrymple (now Launceston ), Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania) because the settlement of Norfolk Island and the penal colony were abandoned.
At first he worked with the local authorities as a tracker to catch bushranger . He was offered that he could return to Sydney. He refused. Musquito later joined the Tam Mob Aboriginal clan who lived on Great Oyster Bay . With this clan he robbed sheep and cattle in years from November 1823 to 1824. He is also said to have attacked settlers on the east coast of Tasmania together with blackjack and to have been involved in the killings of whites who had kidnapped women from their clan. Through his experience in Sydney, he mastered martial attack techniques and, as the leader of the clan, acted tactically in attacks.
In August 1824 he was captured after being wounded and sentenced to death by hanging by the Supreme Court in Hobart in December, like Black Jack , who was also caught . The sentence was carried out in Hobart on February 25, 1825. According to Christine Wise, there was no evidence for the verdict, it was a farce. While Musquito was fluent in English, Black Jack was unable to follow the indictment due to poor language skills. There was no interpreter and indigenous witnesses were not recognized in the trial because they could not testify as non-Christians. Furthermore, no defense attorney was appointed.
Before his execution, Musquito made the famous Australian statement to his executioner Bisdee: Hanging no good for blackfellow . Brisdee asked back: Why not as good for black fellow as for white fellow, if he kills a man? Musquito: Very good for white fellow, for he used to it . After Perry, Musquito pointed out that the British have no right to kill indigenous Aborigines for their actions and that this would lead to further escalation. During the time of Tasmania's colonization, in which thousands of Tasmanians were killed, there was no prosecution by the British judiciary for this genocide. After the hanging of Aborigines in 1825 and 1826, violence between Aboriginal and white people continued to rise. George Augustus Robinson , who was appointed Chief Protector of Aborigines Tasmania by the British colonial government in 1830 , criticized the deportation policy practiced at that time using the example of Musquito: “Musketee [meaning Musquito] murdered several in Sydney and was sent here to be out of the way . What a policy. "( German :" Musquito murdered some in Sydney and was transported here to get him out of the way there. What a policy. ")
reception
The meaning of musquito is interpreted differently by historians, whereby most of them classify him as a resistance fighter against British colonization, but also as a bus ranger. For Naomi Perry, for example, along with three other executed Aborigines in 1825 and 1826, it is significant for the emergence of the Black War in Tasmania , as a result of which the Tasmanians were exterminated. Keith Windschuttle takes a different position, which is quite controversial. He interprets him as a simple outlaw because he pursued his own interests outside of his tribe.
Artist's impression
Two paintings by Lin Onus owned by the Aborigines Advancement League of Victoria . However, these are not historical representations, but paintings by an Aboriginal artist living today. The artist compares Musquito with the important Indian chiefs Sitting Bull and Geronimo .
Individual evidence
- ^ Australiancrimes.com : Musquito: Swings The Hatchet , April 10, 1822, in English, accessed October 16, 2012
- ↑ a b c kooriweb.org (PDF; 156 kB): David Lowe: Forgotten Rebels. Black Australians Who Fought Back , p. 11, January 1994, in English, accessed October 17, 2012
- ↑ adb.anu.edu.au : Naomi Parry: Musquito (1780–1825) , in English, accessed October 15, 2012
- ↑ Christine Wise: Black Rebel, Rebels and Radicals , ed. by Eric Fry, pp. 1–7, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney 983 Online excerpts from nma.gov.au (PDF; 1.1 MB)
- ↑ Krystin Harman: Aboriginal Convicts: Australian, Khoisan, and Maori Exiles , UNSW Press 2012, ISBN 1742233236 , in English. Online on google books
- ↑ a b epress.anu.edu.au : Naomi Perry: Hanging no good for blackfellow. Looking into the live of Musquito , accessed October 16, 2012
- ↑ Keith Windschuttle: The Fabrication of Aboriginal History , pp. 67-71, Macleay Press, Sydney 2002, cited above. n. Online excerpts at nma.gov.au (PDF; 1.1 MB), in English, accessed on October 16, 2012
- ↑ nma.gov.au (PDF; 1.1 MB): National Museum of Australia: Outlawed , in English, accessed on October 16, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Musquito |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mosquito; Musquetta; Bush Muschetta; Muskito |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Aborigines and fighters against British colonization |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1780 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sydney Cove , Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 25, 1825 |
| Place of death | Hobart , Tasmania |