Mahroot

Mahroot (c.1795 – 31 January 1850), also known as Boatswain Maroot or Merute, was an Indigenous Australian man of the Gamaygal people from the northern shore of Botany Bay near what is now the city of Sydney. He is known for being a pioneer Indigenous ocean-going sailor and was one of the last speakers of the Kamaygal dialect. Mahroot was also the first Australian Aboriginal person to make a civil case lawsuit, in which he was successful in his claim.

Early life Mahroot was born around the year 1795 into the Kamaygal clan of the Dharruuk iiwarraa (people) who resided on the north shore of Botany Bay from the mouth of the Cooks River east to what is now known as the Sydney suburb of La Perouse.

Crewman on whaling and sealing ships From around the age of 14, Mahroot joined the crews of various whaling and seal hunting vessels that operated out of Sydney harbour. He later described this work as dirty and hard. From 1809 until the late 1830s, Mahroot crewed on approximately six voyages which went as far as New Zealand, and most of which lasted around a year.

Before going on board a whaling voyage in 1820, Mahroot's portrait was sketched by a visiting Russian artist named Pavel Mikhailov.

Mahroot's leasehold was located near Bunnerong Creek Only one Indigenous person was interviewed by the committee and that was Mahroot. Mahroot outlined how in the fifty or so years since white colonists came to his country, his clan had been reduced from around 400 people to only four. The committee documented how the aggressive mode of the colonists taking possession of the land led to a vast loss of life of the native population through violence, neglect and enforced prostitution leading to rampant sexual diseases and infertility.

In 2016, a street and a reserve in a new precinct of the suburb of Botany were named after Mahroot.