JandamarraNative Tracker and Guerrilla leader

Traitor or WarriorThe black Ned Kelly

A tragic hero caught between two worlds

Early Life

• Born in in 1873, (died 1 April 1897)• a Bunuba man, southern part of the Kimberley region • Lived a tribal life to age 11 when he went to live on

Lennard Station • became a strong horseman, a crack shot and a competent

English speaker. • returned to traditional life.

• caught for sheep stealing, jail in Derby.

Native tracker with the WA police• After Derby friends with Richardson.• They join the police force in the 1890s Policeman and native tracker. • Divided loyalties • Jandamarra's uncle captured, Jandamarra freed him.• later Jandamarra helped to capture a large group of his people,

including his uncle. Held at Lillimilura Police Post. Jandamarra's tribal loyalties came first. He gunned down Richardson, stole a number of guns and set the prisoners free.

Guerrilla war/ Banuba war• On 10 November 1894, Jandamarra’s band attack five

white men. Two were killed. • first time guns used • outrage in Derby and Broome. • a posse of 30 attack Jandamarra and his followers in

Windjana. Jandamarra wounded but escapes.• Police attack Aboriginal camps, many killed, suspicion

that they had ties to Jandamarra's band. • For three years, Jandamarra led a guerrilla war, hit and

run tactics and his vanishing tricks became mythical. One time police follow him to his hideout, but he disappears mysteriously.

Capture and death

• Jandamarra's war lasts 3 years• police recruited Micki , a remarkable Aboriginal tracker, not

a Bunuba tribesman.• Micki tracked Jandamarra down and shot him to death at

Tunnel Creek on 1 April 1897. • The white troopers cut off Jandamarra's head as proof that

he was dead, was preserved and sent to England .• The head of another Bunuba (labelled Jandamarra) put on

public display in Perth. • His body was buried by his family, placed inside a boab tree.

Beliefs about Jandamarra

Jandamarra was held in awe by other Aboriginal people who believed he was immortal, his body simply a physical manifestation of a spirit that resided in a water soak near Tunnel Creek. It was believed that only an Aborigine with similar mystical powers could kill him. Police chasing Jandamarra were also in awe at his ability to cross the rugged ranges with no effect on his bare feet, despite their boots being cut to shreds by the sharp rocks.

Remembering Jandamarra• There have been two novelsJandamarra's life has been the

subject of two novels, Ion Idriess Outlaws of the Leopold (1952) and Mudrooroo Long Live Sandawarra (1972).

• A history by Howard Pedersen, Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance, which won the Premiers book award.

• A stage play (Jandamarra) was produced by the Black Swan Theatre Company in 2008.

• A documentary about his life from the ABC and Indigenous independent production company

Wawili Pitjas, first screened in May 2011.