Cooman

Cooman was a Gweagal man identified by some of his descendants as the warrior who was shot and wounded by James Cook's landing party at Kamay (Botany Bay) in 1770. He was previously unnamed in historical documents, and his identity has been disputed within the local Aboriginal community. Little is known of Cooman's life apart from his possible involvement in this incident.

Life alt=Drawing of two Aboriginal men waving spears at a boatload of British sailors led by Captain Cook. Little is documented of Cooman's life. He is mainly known through the oral histories of some of his descendants who state that Cooman was the older of the two Gweagal men who opposed the landing of James Cook and his crew at Kamay (later named Botany Bay) in 1770. Cook's party attempted to communicate their desire for water and threw gifts of beads and nails ashore. The two Aboriginal men continued to oppose the landing and Cook fired a warning shot. The older warrior responded by throwing a rock, and Cook shot him in the leg with small shot. The crew then landed, and the Gweagal men threw two spears before Cook shot at them again and they retreated. The crew took their spears and shield and Cook found several children in nearby huts, and left some beads with them. The shield taken is now known as the Gweagal shield.

Disputed identity alt=Two Gweagal men with body painting, one holding a spear and one holding a shield. The name of Cooman as the warrior shot by Cook has been disputed. In 2020, Noeleen Timbery of the Gujaga Foundation stated there were a "number of more feasible candidates present within the oral histories kept by Aboriginal families belonging to the area". Academic Maria Nugent, writing with Gaye Sculthorpe of the British Museum, states that there is "no consensus" that Cooman was one of the warriors. However, many sources, primarily drawing from Biddy Giles, Keith Vincent Smith, and Rodney Kelly, refer to Cooman as the man shot and wounded in the leg by Cook.

The identification of Cooman as the name of the wounded warrior stems from an 1840s oral history told by Biddy Giles which was subsequently recorded. Biddy stated that Cooman was the grandfather of her husband, also called Cooman, who was often described as ‘the last of the Georges River Tribe’. However, there were several documented Coomans in Sydney, and it is not clear who Biddy's husband was. Maria Nugent calls Smith's identification of Cooman as the Gweagal spearman on this basis "a mere assertion" based on "inconclusive evidence" and "a questionable interpretative leap."

Legacy Cooman fathered a lineage spanning at least six generations. His descendants Theresa Ardler and Rodney Kelly have campaigned for the return of a shield from the British Museum which later analysis has shown is likely not the shield collected by Cook's party from Botany Bay.

In August 2016, as part of Kelly's campaign, a motion passed the New South Wales Legislative Council acknowledging the Gweagal people as the “rightful owners” of the shield and spears and identifying Cooman as the man who was shot by Cook's party. In October 2016, a similar motion was adopted by the Australian Senate, identifying Cooman as the man shot by Cook.

Theresa Ardler, a descendant of Cooman, is one of the Dharawal community working with libraries, museums and linguists to tell the story of Cook's landing from an Aboriginal perspective in an attempt to correct misrepresentations of the encounter. It is unclear if this Cooman is the grandfather of a later Cooman ('King Kooma'), an Aboriginal man who lived in the Liverpool region and who the local Aboriginal Cooman surname comes from.