Kikatapula

Kikatapula ( – 13 May 1832) was a leading Indigenous figure during the British invasion and colonisation of Van Diemen's Land, later known as Tasmania. Also called Kickerterpoller or Black Tom Birch, he spent part of his youth living with the colonists, learning English and being baptised as a Christian. During the 1820s, he withdrew from British ways, and became a feared and formidable leader of Indigenous resistance during the early stages of the Black War.

He was eventually caught and jailed and, with limited options, he agreed to act as a guide for a roving party of armed colonists to capture other Aboriginal Tasmanians or Palawa as they are also known. Kikatapula was then ordered to accompany George Augustus Robinson on his 'friendly mission' to round up the remaining Indigenous people and exile them to Flinders Island. After the successful removal of the most notable Palawa (including himself), Kikatapula died guiding Robinson during a later expedition in 1832.

Early life Kikatapula was born around the year 1800 into the Paytirami clan of the Oyster Bay people from Eastern Tasmania. As a young child, he witnessed the arrival of the first European sailing vessel his clan had seen. It anchored off Maria Island, with his people running away from it, not knowing what it could be.

British sealers arrived in the region soon after, rapidly obtaining a reputation for brutality and the kidnapping of young Palawa women and girls to be used as their sex slaves. Some of Kikatapula's female kin were abducted in this manner, and his clan destroyed the sealers' furs and huts in revenge.

Capture and release Kikatapula considered his people who had died at the hands of the British as martyrs and was determined that it was his patriotic duty to inflict injury upon the white man.

Kikatapula was placed in Richmond Gaol, where Governor Arthur came to visit him. Probably because Kikatapula spoke English quite well and had been baptised making him eligible to give evidence under oath at court, Arthur was reluctant to charge him with any crime. If Kikatapula was placed on trial, he would give sworn statements of the widespread killings of Aboriginal people by the colonists which would embarrass and in turn bring legal charges against those in authority. Arthur therefore, to the ire of the colonial press, released Kikatapula without charge in January 1827. Robinson helped Kikatapula to become conciliated with British rule and when Governor Arthur suggested that Kikatapula become a mediator between the remaining Palawa and the colonists, Kikatapula agreed. Arthur then installed the former resistance leader in the role of a guide to one of the 'roving parties' tasked with capturing his former comrades.

With Mannalargenna's aid, the mission found Umarrah and his associates in late August and finally toward the end of the year, they located the last hold-outs of the Oyster Bay / Big River people just north of Lake Echo in the central highlands. This group of only 16 people which included the resistance leaders Tongerlongeter and Montpelliatta was all that was left of a population that numbered over a thousand only a few decades previously.

Last expedition and death After a brief return to Hobart with their captives, Kikatapula and the forty other Palawa were hastily shipped off to Flinders Island for their enforced exile. The Black War was over and Van Diemen's Land had been almost completely ethnically cleansed of its Indigenous population.

Kikatapula, however, soon rejoined with Robinson in Launceston to undertake a further expedition back to the northwest of Tasmania to gather the few remaining Palawa there and take them to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island. Robinson was to be paid £1,000 for this. Kikatapula, for all his work for the government over the last few years had been promised a boat, but he never saw it.

In April 1832, they set out from Launceston but Kikatapula soon fell ill. He continued on, but his condition worsened through April and in May Robinson had to leave him at Emu Bay. Around 13 May, Kikatapula died and was buried at the back of the Van Diemen's Land Company store. His was the first Christian burial at what is now Burnie. His unmarked grave is located in the park between West Beach and North Terrace at the top end of Wilson Street.