Wandi Wandi

Wandi Wandi (c.1850 – 25 July 1893), also known as Wandy Wandy, was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader and outlaw of the Iwaidja group of people from the Northern Territory of Australia.

He led a successful mutiny of kidnapped pearl divers against blackbirders in the Torres Strait, and later killed a British colonist on Croker Island in revenge for the shooting death of one of his kinsmen.

Wandi Wandi also led a gang who, in 1892, killed six Macassan fisherman in what has been termed the Malay Bay massacre.

He was hanged in 1893, becoming the second person to be legally executed in the Northern Territory.

While in jail, Wandi Wandi produced a number of drawings which became significant examples of colonial period Indigenous Australian art.

Early life Not much is known of Wandi Wandi's origin except that he was member of the Iwaidja people whose home country was around the Mountnorris Bay area of the Cobourg Peninsula. He was also known to frequent nearby Port Essington and Croker Island. He was probably born around 1850.

Blackbirded to the Torres Strait In October 1877, Wandi Wandi was one of around twenty young Iwaidja men and women who were deceived by Captain Francis Cadell to board his ship at Mountnorris Bay on the pretext of obtaining employment by gathering trepang for him in the local waters. Instead, Cadell blackbirded Wandi Wandi and his companions, forcibly taking them hundreds of kilometres away to the Torres Strait where they worked as his pearl diving slaves.

Mutiny and return to homeland By July 1878, the Iwaidja men and women had been enslaved as pearl divers on the Flying Scud at Badu for more than six months. Having enough of this treatment, Wandi Wandi decided to lead an uprising and take control of the ship. At an opportune time, he killed Price with a tomahawk, while the other Iwaidja overpowered and killed the three other members of Price's crew. Wandi Wandi and the others then dumped the corpses on Badu Island and sailed the Flying Scud the thousand or so kilometres back to their homeland on the Cobourg Peninsula.

The police were soon alerted to the killing and Inspector Paul Foelsche was tasked with capturing Wandi Wandi. Foelsche was on good terms with most of the Iwaidja and he was able to convince a respected elder named Mildirn to get Wandi Wandi to give himself up. Eventually, months later in 1880, Wandi Wandi approached Robinson's encampment at Port Essington, where he was handcuffed and taken to Port Darwin as a prisoner.

Incarceration and recognition as an artist

Wandi Wandi served his sentence at Fannie Bay Gaol where he was regarded as an intelligent yet quiet prisoner. Along with other Indigenous inmates like Billiamook, Wandi Wandi was encouraged by the prison superintendent, John George Knight, to produce traditional Aboriginal drawings with supplied European art utensils. Wandi Wandi created a number of drawings for Knight which became part of an important collection of colonial Aboriginal Australian art. He was highly regarded by Father Donald MacKillop, but left only after a few weeks to return to his home country on the Cobourg Peninsula.

By this time, violent and ruthless buffalo shooters such as Joe Cooper had become established in Iwaidja country, and soon after arriving back in his homeland, Wandi Wandi was accused of planning to kill Cooper. Wandi Wandi was therefore viewed as a danger to colonial interests in the region, with a local newspaper calling for "a well-directed bullet" to "steady him".

Malay Bay massacre In May 1892, Wandi Wandi and several of his Iwaidja kinsmen happened to be at Cape Brodgen (also known as Mandool) where they came across a wrecked proa that belonged to six Aru Islander fishermen. The Aru Islanders were armed with guns, revolvers, knives and bows and arrows. According to Wandi Wandi, the Aru Islanders shot at them and threatened to cut their hands off. The Iwaidja were subsequently assigned to act as porters for the Islanders and to guide them to the customs station located around 80 kilometres to the west.

The Iwaidja men carried the Islanders' boxes and started to guide them. At a lagoon near Malay Bay, they decided upon a plan to disarm the fishermen and kill them. Wandi Wandi acted first with dexterity and strength by taking the knife and revolver from the captain of the Islanders, as well as disarming him of his bow and arrows. A man named Capoondur then hit the captain on the head with a wooden club, killing him instantly. Minaedge, Angareeda, Marakite and Goolargno then killed the other Aru Islanders with clubs and a tomahawk. Arrambion and Mangarippy then made sure they were dead by spearing and clubbing the bodies.

Wandi Wandi was hanged to death on 25 July 1893. His body was then buried at the site of the execution. He was hanged in front of his countrymen and the gallows were left standing as "a warning to the natives". He is also regarded as an important Aboriginal artist of the colonial period.