Traditional law and indigenous resistance at Moreton Bay 1842-1855

Abstract

This paper revisits the events that brought Dundalli, a leader of the Djindubarri, to the attention of the British culminating in his public execution in January 1855. A recent seminar presented to the Royal Historical Society of Queensland disputed that these Aboriginal-European attacks constituted resistance. This paper will use the evidence presented in various criminal trials at Brisbane to attempt to re-construct Indigenous actions. This behaviour will be compared with anthropological literature on ancestral law and traditional governance in order to re-enact the judicial processes that appear to be in operation among the traditional owners of the Moreton Bay region at the time of first contact. Rather than the routine execution of a criminal murderer, this paper will argue that Dundalli's hanging and the events leading up to it may be characterized as a conflict between two legal systems, British and Indigenous, with both using force and ritual deaths to impose their authority.