Jandamarra

Jandamarra or Tjandamurra ( 1873–1 April 1897), known to British settlers as Pigeon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Bunuba people who led one of many organised armed insurrections against the British colonisation of Australia. Initially employed as a tracker for the police, he became a fugitive when he was forced to capture his own people. He led a three-year campaign against police and British settlers, achieving legendary status for his hit and run tactics and his abilities to hide and disappear. Jandamarra was eventually killed by another tracker at Tunnel Creek on 1 April 1897. His body was buried by his family at the Napier Range, where it was placed inside a boab tree. Jandamarra's life has been the subject of two novels, Ion Idriess's Outlaws of the Leopold and Mudrooroo's Long Live Sandawarra (1972), a non-fiction account based on oral tradition, Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance, and a stage play.

Biography

Birth and youth The Bunuba land was positioned in the southern part of the Kimberley region in the far north of the state of Western Australia, and stretched from the town of Fitzroy Crossing to the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges; it included the Napier and Oscar Ranges.

From a young age, Jandamarra learned to ride horses, speak English fluently, shear sheep and use guns on William Lukin's station at Lennard River, and was regarded as the area's best Aboriginal stockman. Lukin dubbed him "Pigeon" because he was small and ran fast.

Aboriginal people were spearing the settlers' stock, an effective form of resistance. Eventually, Jandamarra was ordered to track down and take captive a group of Bunuba men at Lillimooloora Station. There, fellow tribesman Ellemarra and the other captives, who included relatives of Jandamarra, said that he had obligations to his people, having escaped traditional punishment. They also told him about a new policeman who had been killing Aboriginal people, and encroaching British settlers. Jandamarra chose to shoot and kill Richardson while he slept, releasing his 16 prisoners.

For the next three years, Jandamarra led a guerrilla war against police and British settlers. His hit and run tactics and his vanishing tricks became almost mythical. In one famous incident, a police patrol followed him to his hideout at the entrance to Tunnel Creek in the Napier Range, only for Jandamarra to mysteriously disappear, through the system of tunnels in the mountains.

Jandamarra was held in awe by other Aboriginal people, who believed he was immortal, his body simply a physical manifestation of a spirit that resided in a water soak near Tunnel Creek. It was believed that only an Aboriginal person with similar mystical powers could kill him. Police chasing Jandamarra were also in awe at his ability to cross the rugged ranges with no effect on his bare feet, despite their boots being cut to shreds by the sharp rocks. In the next couple of years the gang raided the police and a white homestead. Mudrooroo's novel, in counterpart to Idriess's, was written for an Indigenous audience to bring to their attention a hero of their own and cuts between the story of Jandamarra (called Sandawarra) and the contemporary story of young urbanised Sandy and his friends who are inspired by Jandamarra.

The story of Jandamarra, put down in writing by Howard Pedersen, was the subject of the 1996 Western Australian Premier's Book Award-winning history, Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance (1995).

A play titled Jandamarra was produced by the Black Swan Theatre Company in 2008.

Jandamarra's story is told in episode 5 of the 2008 TV series First Australians.

Paul Kelly's song "Pidgeon/Jandamarra" is written from the perspective of a fictional police officer hunting down Jandamarra. In 2010, singer/songwriter Neil Higgins wrote and recorded "Jandamarra's War", a song that reflects the brutality and harsh treatment of the Bunuba people in the region. This song was released in late 2016 as part of a full album.

Jandamarra's War, a documentary about his life, was made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Indigenous independent production company Wawili Pitjas in 2011.

In 2014, Bunuba Cultural Enterprises worked with Steve Hawke and Paul Stanhope to create Jandamarra - Sing for the Country; Ngalanyba Muwayi.u, a cantata in three parts based on the stage play. It premiered at the Sydney Opera House on July 16, 17 and 18 2014 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Gondwana Choirs, the Yilimbirri Ensemble, and several Bunuba actors. It was performed again on 18 October 2019 with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

A fictionalised Jandamarra is a minor character in Lucas Hanson's 2023 novel Manistee Blood.

The ruins of the Lillimulura Police Station are a few kilometres south of Windjana Gorge on the road to Tunnel Creek. Both Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek are popular tourist attractions.