Watch Perception’s episode in collaboration with NITV, Recognising Our Previous — how are we acknowledging our shared previous and are we getting it proper? On
One in every of my earliest childhood recollections was the story of a seafaring ancestor.
My grandmother spoke of him proudly.
She instructed us he introduced the primary plough to Victoria on a ship named the Thistle. She additionally talked about early settlers.
My grandmother by no means met her great-grandfather. He died earlier than she was born. However his story lived on in our household mythology.
The Thistle, painted by Jack Louis Koskie Supply: Provided
Historical past by way of music
A few years later whereas I used to be writing a e-book, one other childhood reminiscence returned to me.
One thing my mom usually sang. A music that resonated with the historical past I used to be exploring.
“Do you keep in mind that music, the one about Taranaki?” I requested her.
“After all!” she stated.
An archive picture of Captain James Liddell. Supply: Provided
She laughed and began to sing: “On Taranaki Harbour, the place my great-grandma was born!”
“Taranaki in New Zealand? So it’s not only a music you made up for enjoyable. Your great-grandma was actually born there?” I requested.
“Sure. She was born on board a ship. Her father was a sea captain,” she stated.
“The captain who introduced the primary plough to Victoria?”
“That’s proper,” my mom stated. “However I don’t know very a lot about him.”
The search started
I used to be decided to be taught extra.
Who was this mysterious sea captain who loomed so giant in our household’s historical past?
There have been clues on the web about what was described as ‘the settlement of Portland’.
I additionally discovered data of my ancestor’s actions in numerous archives, together with transport data, manifests of ships cargo, and proof compiled by different researchers.
It turned out my great-great-great-grandfather, our illustrious sea captain, was born in Scotland.
His identify was Captain James Donaldson Liddell.
Katrina and her mom Zant Smith. Supply: Provided
He arrived in NSW at 22 and labored on a cutter buying and selling between Sydney and Newcastle.
He was promoted to officer on a brig buying and selling between Sydney and New Zealand.
He even discovered the Māori language.
When he was in Launceston, he was appointed grasp of the Thistle, a ship commissioned for sealing and buying and selling ventures with the brand new Swan River Colony, Western Australia.
A darkish previous my grandmother did not learn about
On one in all his return journeys to Launceston, in response to his memoranda, he anchored the Thistle at Portland Bay, Victoria, and went ashore.
He had seen the positioning’s potential for a bay whaling station.
However not solely this, he was so impressed with the fertility of the land, he ‘took a sod of Portland soil to Launceston’ to point out the patriarch of the household destined to illegally settle and set up a farm there.
My grandmother was clearly unaware of our ancestor’s function within the theft of Gunditjmara land in Victoria.
Land that was by no means ceded.
Or in regards to the by the whalers and the so-called ‘settlers’.
Like me, I think she would have been shocked and disillusioned to be taught the disturbing fact of our inherited legacy.
Her story had been one in all immense pleasure — a direct household hyperlink with Australia’s nation-building narrative.
She by no means talked about First Nations folks or my great-great-great-grandmother, the Irish convict our illustrious sea captain took as his spouse in Sydney.
One more well-kept secret within the annals of our household’s historical past.
Coming to phrases with a violent previous
Studying that my ancestor had labored within the sealing and whaling industries was deeply regarding.
As a researcher and a author, I used to be effectively conscious of the appalling acts dedicated by sealers and whalers throughout this historic interval, together with the theft and exploitation of Aboriginal women and girls.
As captain of the Thistle, he often dropped gangs of sealers and whaleboats at islands alongside Australia’s southern shoreline, together with Kangaroo Island, the place atrocities had been identified to have been dedicated.
When he known as on the islands, he collected the harvested seal skins, so he should have frolicked on shore. It’s onerous to imagine he was unaware of the crimes being dedicated there.
I felt disgrace however not guilt
There was a drive to seek out out extra, and once I started to look into my household historical past, I skilled vivid desires of being led out of a Victorian home by a gaggle of Indigenous elders.
Researching and analysing my ancestor’s function within the theft of Gunditjmara land in Victoria was confronting but in addition cathartic, I might all the time felt let in direction of the thriller that surrounded my household historical past.
Uncovering it gave me a way of function.
Folks have requested me if I really feel responsible about this disturbing household legacy.
Whereas I don’t really feel personally accountable or responsible for the actions of my great-great-great-grandfather, I do really feel a way of inherited disgrace.
The theft of land that my ancestor helped facilitate led to massacres and frontier warfare, and the continued injustices skilled by First Nations Folks in Victoria.
I don’t need to draw back from the reality.
As a non-Indigenous Australian, I imagine it’s time to face our nation’s colonial previous with sincere and important eyes.
We’ll change into a extra mature and inclusive nation by accepting and acknowledging these tough truths – an Australia we will all be pleased with.
And for extra tales head to , hosted by Kumi Taguchi.
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