"Before colonisation, the Kuuku I'yu Ngaachi was intact, it had its People, it had its Stories, it had its Bloodline"

Impact History

Aboriginal women and child in Lockhart River, Queensland ca. 1930s (Attribute: State Library of Queensland).

The Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju people, as with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People across Australia, have suffered immeasurably as a direct result of the colonial enterprise and associated government policies and practices. From the mid to the late 1800s our people were decimated by frontier violence – first by the gunfire of exploration parties, then by detachments of Native Police. Later we were ravaged by introduced diseases (such as influenza) to which we had no immunity. Gold was discovered at some locations and white miners flooded into central Cape York Peninsula, followed by pastoralists who started cattle stations to supply the miners and new towns like Coen. The discovery of gold on the upper Batavia (now Wenlock) River and establishment of cattle stations on the Northern Kaanju homelands had devastating social, economic and cultural impacts.

Under repressive and discriminatory legislation (notably, the Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897) and official removals policy, our people were taken forcibly from their traditional homelands and moved, often in chains, to such distant locations as Lockhart River Mission on the east coast, Weipa Mission on the west coast and Cowal Creek Mission (now Injinoo) on the tip of Cape York. Many Northern Kaanju people were shifted hundreds of kilometres away to the south to Yarrabah Mission, further to the then ‘penal’ settlement of Palm Island, and several thousand kilometres away to Barambah Mission (now Cherbourg) north-west of Brisbane. Those people who were removed to distant locations (and their descendants) subsequently became the diaspora or ‘stolen generations’.

Register of Removals records note the removal in 1912 of focal Northern Kaanju apical ancestor George Moreton (Snr) from the Batavia (now Wenlock) River to Barambah Mission. Recorded reasons for removal include: ‘Continually “bailing up” and threatening to spear “prospectors”, demanding rations and tobacco. Will not work and gets other boys to steal from miner’s camps for him”. Extracts from digitised copies of letter registers used by the Office of the Protector of Aboriginals note: ‘Recommending that George who is a great trouble to the miners of the Dist. [District}, be removed to Barambah’. Oral history and archival documents record the escape in 1913 of George Moreton (Snr) and another Aboriginal man from Barambah Mission. Over a period of 12 months they walked home to the Batavia (now Wenlock) River and Pascoe River homelands. Archival documents record that George evaded police and ‘went bush’ in the ‘big scrubs’ of Pascoe River country. George Moreton Snr is an apical ancestor for the Moreton/Claudie/Nelson families living at Chuulangun, Coen and Lockhart River today.

Aboriginal women and children, Wenlock River, 1930s (Attribute: State Library of Queensland)

By the mid 1930s, displaced from their homelands, most of the Northern Kaanju population were living in reserves or missions or were being exploited as cheap labour in the cattle industry or by white families in towns such as Coen. However, there were a small number of Northern Kaanju people living a mostly traditional life on their homelands at isolated camps at Chuulangun and Muula, and still others living on the fringes of white camps at the Batavia Goldfields on the Wenlock River. For some Aboriginal people, working in the pastoral industry allowed them to stay connected to country. By the mid 1950s these isolated camps had dwindled with many Northern Kaanju people being removed or coerced to move to the mission at Lockhart River. Archival documents record the removal in 1934 of George Moreton Jnr from Moreton Station in the northern part of his Northern Kaanju homelands to the Lockhart River Mission. Here and at other towns and government settlements Aboriginal people’s lives were controlled under the rubric of assimilation.

Aboriginal woman and men in Lockhart River, Queensland ca. 1930s (Attribute: State Library of Queensland)

There is a rich oral history of this era of removals, oppression and control. Today, some Kaanju people recall stories of their Elders living in camps such as at Sefton Creek and others were young adults or children at the Old Lockhart Mission. Some older kin recall stories told by their Old People who were held at police ‘holding’ camps in the Wenlock area before being forced to walk to Lockhart Mission. It is for this reason that sites such as ‘Clay Hole’ and ‘Choc-O-Block’ police holding camps and Mien and Moreton Telegraph Station are recognised as places of historical and heritage importance to Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju people.

The Old Lockhart River Mission was established in 1924 at Cape Direction on the east coast of Cape York. Here Aboriginal people experienced a number of superintendants over the 45 year life of the mission, each with their own style of management and social control. There is a rich oral history of ‘Mission Time’ with Old people recalling stories of one mission superintendant who enforced the policy that Aboriginal people were not allowed to speak their language or practice their culture. He broke a spear in front of the community to demonstrate that practicing tradition would not be tolerated.

Houses next to the beach at Lockhart Mission Mission 1963 (Attribute: State Library of Queensland).

Despite the control of Aboriginal peoples’ lives and supression of tradition and culture, they continued to practice culture, including participating in initiation ceremonies at the Lockhart Mission. Some Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju people recalled travelling to the mission from cattle stations in the region to ‘go through’ initiation ceremonies. By the 1960s at least one Northern Kaanju man, George Moreton Jnr, a focal forebear for the Moreton/Claudie families, was a key figure in the initiations at Lockhart. Linguist Lamont West recorded initiation ceremonies at Lockhart mission in the early 1960s. Ethnographer Wolfgang Laade visited Lockhart Mission briefly in 1963 and recorded information about the various initiation ceremonies. His published account of this fieldwork includes a discussion of his work with George Moreton and other senior Kaanju men, as well as their ‘sandbeach’ kin.

By the late 1960s to early 1970s there was a decrease in employment on cattle stations which was compounded by the granting of citizenship to Aboriginal people and award wages. Consequently, Kaanju people became centralised in small townships like Coen and at former missions and government  settlements like Lockhart River. This situation remained until the late 1980s with the formation of the Commonwealth Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976 which allowed Aboriginal groups to form corporations to help them achieve their aspirations for their country and people. With the support of Aboriginal corporations and increasing access to traditional lands afforded under Land Rights legislation Traditional custodians starting returning to their homelands in what became known as the ‘outstation’ or homelands movement.