- Dick-a-Dick
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Dick-a-Dick
Dick-a-Dick (traditional name Djungadjinganook or Jumgumjenanuke, but also known as King Richard) (Died 3 September 1870) was an Australian Aboriginal tracker and cricketer, a Wotjobaluk man of the people who spoke the Wergaia language in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia. He was a member of the first Australian cricket team to tour England in 1868.[1]
In 1864 he helped track and rescue three children - Isaac, Jane and Frank Duff - lost in the bush near Natimuk on the edge of the Little Desert for nine days. After the main search was cancelled due to rain obliterating their tracks, the children's father and three Aborigines including Dick-a-Dick successfully tracked and found the children. Dick-a-Dick was lauded a hero and subsequently called King Richard.[2][3] A plaque commemorating the role Dick-a-Dick played in the rescue of the children was placed in Mitre.[4]
Dick-a-Dick was renowned for his skill in traditional weapons including the use of a waddy and shield. On the cricket tour of England he often demonstrated these skills by inviting young men to hit him with a cricket ball thrown from 15 paces. According to reports he was never hit, even when up to three balls were thrown at the same time. He also always won the backwards sprint.[1][5]
After returning from the tour of England as part of the Aboriginal cricket team his health deteriorated and he travelled back to his traditional country and the Ebenezer Mission. He died at the mission on 3 September 1870. Just before his death he confessed his faith in Christianity and was baptised on 30 July 1870.[6]
References
- ^ a b Flanagan, Martin, Jack Kennedy: descendant of Dick-a-Dick, The Age, 30 June 2003. Accessed 27 September 2009
- ^ Richard Broome, pp 151, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, 2005, ISBN 1741145694, ISBN 9781741145694
- ^ Peter Pierce, The country of lost children: an Australian anxiety, Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0521594405
- ^ Monument Australia, "Dick-a-Dick", http://monumentaustralia.org.au/monument_display.php?id=93143&image=0 Accessed 2 July 2011.
- ^ Richard Broome, pp73–74, Aboriginal Australians: black responses to white dominance, 1788–2001, Allen and Unwin, 3rd edition 2001, ISBN 1865087556.
- ^ Ashley Mallett, pp. 166–167 The black lords of summer: the story of the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England and Beyond, University of Queensland Press, 2002, ISBN 0702232629
Categories:- 1870 deaths
- Indigenous Australian cricketers
- Indigenous Australian people
- People from Victoria (Australia)
- Wergaia
- Indigenous peoples of Australia stubs
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