Pemulwuy

Resistance leader

• Born: ca. 1750
• Birthplace: Near Georges River, Australia
• Died: ca. 2 June 1802
• Place of death: New South Wales, Australia

Also known as: Bembilwuyam; Bimblewove; Bumbleway; Pemulwhy; Pemulwoy; Pimbloy

Significance: The Eora warrior Pemulwuy led several raids against the first British colonists who settled in what became New South Wales, Australia. Although largely forgotten for centuries, his story of resistance is now part of the annals of Australian history.

Background

Resitance leader. Pemulwuy, also known as Bembilwuyam, was born sometime around 1750 in the Botany Bay area of eastern Australia. He was believed to be a member of the Bidjigal clan of the Eora people, whose territory included large swaths of land surrounding the bay. He was considered a “clever man,” which some interpret as a healer or spiritual man. That status was indicated by his clubbed foot and a “blemish” on his left eye, both of which his people viewed as signs of his special abilities; a contemporary of Pemulwuy suggested that Pemulwuy’s left foot may have been intentionally injured (not turned inward at birth as in the medical condition clubfoot).

According to oral tradition, Pemulwuy could carry three to four kangaroos on one arm and heal smallpox, a disease that decimated Aboriginal populations not long after the British arrived on their shores.

Resistance

In late January 1788, a convoy of ships, later known as the First Fleet, arrived in what would become known as Botany Bay in Australia. The eleven ships carried British prisoners, sailors, their families, and supplies meant to establish a penal colony in what they termed New Holland (later renamed New South Wales). The Aboriginal people who witnessed their coming, including Pemulwuy, did so with great apprehension.

Tensions between the Eora people of the region and the English colonizers were almost immediate. The Eora saw the English as a threat, and the English saw the land as theirs and theirs alone. They did not respect the sophisticated set of laws and traditions that ruled the Eora. That included hunting practices.

On December 10, 1790, Governor Arthur Phillip’s gamekeeper, a convict named John McIntyre, took a hunting party out to replenish the colonists’ meat supply, breaking Eora hunting laws and traditions. McIntyre had a reputation for violence against Aboriginal people, who consequently despised him. Pemulwuy, along with other warriors, led a raid against the hunting party, during which he speared and mortally wounded McIntyre. In response, Phillip sent out a fifty-soldier detachment to hunt down the warriors and bring back their heads, although the soldiers were unsuccessful.

British expansion into Eora traditional lands was quick. In response, Pemulwuy led a series of at least a half-dozen raids in an effort to push back farming developments, burning buildings and taking crops and other supplies. The first occurred at a settlement called Prospect in May 1792.

Soon, the British farmers and the Eora were engaged in a struggle where each party would retaliate against raids by the other. Pemulwuy’s life almost ended at the Battle of Parramatta in March 1797 after he led one hundred warriors into the settlement at Toongabbie. Soldiers killed at least five of Pemulwuy’s people near Parramatta,seriously injuring Pemulwuy with buckshot to the head and body. The settlers took him to a hospital and tended to his wounds, intending to hang him. Eventually, Pemulwuy healed and escaped. In fact, he was captured and wounded many times but repeatedly survived and escaped, bolstering his reputation as a “clever man,” one with supernatural powers. The charismatic leader not only mustered local Aboriginal people into the fight but also reportedly inspired some White convicts to follow him.

In May 1801, the incoming governor, Philip Gidley King, declared that colonists could shoot any Indigenous people found near Parramatta, Georges River, and Prospect on sight. Later that year, he issued a reward for Pemulwuy, dead or alive: freedom for prisoners, a pardon for freed prisoners, a year’s convict labor for landed settlers, or twenty gallons of liquor and two “suits of slops,” or loose-fitting clothing, for anyone else. By that time, Pemulwuy was famous and easily recognizable by his distinctive features.

It took only a year for someone to collect the bounty. Pemulwuy was fatally shot on or just before June 2, 1802, although who killed him remains a mystery. His head was severed from his body, preserved, and sent to botanist and naturalist Sir Joseph Banks in London, England, for study. An accompanying note from Governor King read, “Although a terrible pest to the colony, he was a brave and independent character.”

The call to return Pemulwuy’s head to his ancestral home grew louder in the 2010s. However, neither the Royal College of Surgeons nor the Natural History Museum in the United Kingdom, two places where his head was rumored to be, have a record of it.

There is one surviving image that might be of Pemulwuy. It shows a muscular man in a canoe, bent toward the water, with his arm upraised. The engraving Pimbloy: Native of New Holland in a Canoe of That Country was made in 1804 by Samuel John Neele, who copied it from James Grant’s portrait Pimbloy (date unknown).

Impact

For about two centuries, Pemulwuy was largely written out of Australia’s history. Beginning in the 1980s, Australia increasingly recognized its past mistreatment of Aboriginal people, and Pemulwuy resurfaced. He inspired a novel in 1987 and a dramatic performance in 2012. His story is proof that the Aboriginal people resisted British colonization rather than simply submitting to it, which was a common belief until the twentieth century. In 2018 his story became part of the New South Wales curriculum for secondary school students.

Pemulwuy is mentioned on a plaque commemorating Aboriginal and early colonial history erected in La Perouse, Sydney. In 2015 the National Museum of Australia installed a permanent plaque in the floor of the museum honoring Pemulwuy specifically. It was part of their Defining Moments in Australian History project.

Personal Life

Pemulwuy is said to have been the father of Tjedboro (also known as Tedbury or Tidbury), another resistance fighter who continued attacks on White farmers into the nineteenth century and was killed around 1810.

Bibliography

“Defining Moments: Pemulwuy.” National Museum Australia, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/pemulwuy. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.

Dunn, Amelia. “Pemulwuy: The Aboriginal Man Who Waged a Resistance on the British.” SBS News, 23 Jan. 2021, www.sbs.com.au/news/pemulwuy-the-aboriginal-man-who-waged-a-resistance-on-the-british. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.

“First Fleet Ships.” Sydney Living Museums, sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/first-fleet-ships. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.

McAllister, Jai, and Alexis Moran. “The Life of Aboriginal Pemulwuy, a Figure of Resistance.” ABC News, 30 Apr. 2020, www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-01/the-story-of-aboriginal-resistance-warrior-pemulwuy/12202782. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.

“On This Day: Pemulwuy Is Killed.” Australian Geographic, 1 June 2017, www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2017/06/on-this-day-pemulwuy-is-killed. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.