Aboriginal Sydney
Aboriginal people were an active and visible part of Sydney almost from the beginning. Until the 1840s women fished in the harbour from bark canoes and groups of Aboriginal people continued to live in the Domain and on the north shore in `gunyahs made from bushes'. In the 1820s Judge Barron Field regarded Aboriginal people as the town's 'gossips', who knew everyone and their business, and spoke to everyone with an air of 'friendliness and equality'. Many, like the leader Bungaree, his wife Cora Gooseberry and Warrah Warrah (William Worrall), were well known and established lifelong friendships with townsfolk.
Sydney town first occupied Gadigal land, but the growing colony continued to take more and more traditional lands. Introduced diseases, especially a smallpox epidemic in 1789, took a terrible toll. Governor Macquarie's 1816 Proclamation sought to 'civilise' Aboriginal people, offering them protection and inducements of land grants to abandon their distinctive way of life.
Yet Aboriginal people from many places regrouped and made their place in urban Sydney. Culturally resilient, they shunned servitude, along with European clothing and housing. They continued to practise Aboriginal law and held great contests at the north end of Hyde Park as late as the 1820s.
Sydney town first occupied Gadigal land, but the growing colony continued to take more and more traditional lands. Introduced diseases, especially a smallpox epidemic in 1789, took a terrible toll. Governor Macquarie's 1816 Proclamation sought to 'civilise' Aboriginal people, offering them protection and inducements of land grants to abandon their distinctive way of life.
Yet Aboriginal people from many places regrouped and made their place in urban Sydney. Culturally resilient, they shunned servitude, along with European clothing and housing. They continued to practise Aboriginal law and held great contests at the north end of Hyde Park as late as the 1820s.