Indigenous Australia

Nikaminik (c. 1813–1849), Aboriginal resistance member and palawa ancestor, also known as Nicermenic and Eugene, was born between 1809 and 1813, probably on or near Robbins Island in north-west Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and was a member of the North-West nation. His clan affiliation would have been with the Parperloihener (Pairrehelehoine) people. He had three brothers: Teetoric (Whetee Coolera, also known as May Day), Pallooruc (Parlueeric), and Drydererwic. Their mother or father was known as Koierneep. He possibly had two other siblings: a sister, Loterbrah, and another brother, Pendewurrewic.

Nikaminik’s name means red-tailed bird. His nickname was ‘no toes’ (Launceston Advertiser 1830, 2), suggesting that he either had a club foot (a congenital condition of unknown origin) or had lost toes in a fire in childhood. This physical characteristic may have slowed him down in the bush and would have made him easy to identify from his tracks alone.

Nothing is known of Nikaminik’s early life. He was first noticed by Europeans when he arrived voluntarily at the headquarters of the Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL Co.) at Circular Head in July or August 1829. The company had been granted two hundred and fifty thousand acres (101,171 ha) in the island’s north-west in 1826 and several of its workers had been involved in a massacre of Aboriginal people at Cape Grim in 1828. Edward Curr, the company’s local director, named him ‘Thursday’ and held him onboard the Friendship ‘for security’ until he learned enough English to understand that ‘we mean no hostility to his tribe’ (quoted in Meston 1958, 52). Curr wrote: ‘Thursday was a great favourite with everyone, a good-hearted intelligent fellow who would laugh, talk, eat and drink the day through, but do no work’ (quoted in Meston 1958, 52). Nikaminik stayed until 8 January 1830. Curr described an amicable parting of ways, expecting or hoping that Nikaminik would go back to his own people as an ambassador for the VDL Co.; however, by 1830 very few of Nikaminik’s people still lived on their own Country.

Englishman George Augustus Robinson was travelling around north-west Tasmania at this time, meeting the few Aboriginal people who were still at liberty on Country and persuading them to accept the purported benefits of Western civilisation. One of his Aboriginal companions was Tunaminawayt (Tunnerminnerwait, also known as Jack or Pevay) from Robbins Island, an old friend and possibly a family member of Nikaminik’s. According to Tunaminawayt and Robinson, Nikaminik spent time in the early 1830s in the company of resistance fighters led by Tarenorerer (Walyer). Little is known of Nikaminik’s role in Walyer’s group apart from his being party to robbing a boat (owned by David Kelly, sealer) and its contents (flour, tobacco etc.) at the Leven River (near present-day Ulverstone), along with Prober and Prupalathina (Probelattener, later Isaac), another member of the North-West nation. There is no direct evidence of any serious violence ever committed by Nikaminik.

In mid-1830 Nikaminik appeared to deliberately put himself in Robinson’s way. On 27 July, Robinson’s coxswain Alexander McKay, who had been travelling around the north-west coastline in a boat, turned up with Nikaminik. On shore with a party of Aboriginal people, Nikaminik had recognised McKay from his VDL Co. sojourn and had volunteered himself to be taken to Robinson. Robinson described him as having come from Walyer, so it appears that he spent about six months as part of her company.

A week later Robinson sent Nikaminik and three other Aboriginal men—Pendowtewer, Linenerrinneker, and Narrucker, all from the North-West nation—to Launceston gaol. McKay believed that Nikaminik had an ‘evil disposition’ (SLNSW Robinson Papers) and Robinson, possibly fearing a mutinous alliance between Nikaminik and Tunaminawayt, decided it would be prudent to send him away. In doing so, he may also have sought to monetise his activities, as he had just learned that the government would pay a bounty for captured Aboriginal people.

The four men were put on board the Friendship on 4 August. Tunaminawayt burst into tears at the departure of his close friend Nikaminik, brother Pendowtewer, and other companions. The boat arrived at Launceston on 10 August. Pendowtewer, Linenerrinneker, and Narrucker immediately absconded, but Nikaminik allowed himself to be locked up in the Launceston gaol. In late August he was taken to the home of Surveyor John Helder Wedge at Leighlands in the northern midlands with two youths, ‘Tommy’ (possibly Nikaminik’s brother Pallooruc) and ‘Jemmie’ (possibly his friend Prupalathina from Walyer’s band), from where he escaped on 5 September.

Nikaminik’s behaviour from mid-1829 until his departure from Leighlands is puzzling. He was never actually captured, but instead presented himself to the VDL Co. headquarters in 1829, staying for five months before departing unhindered; then, after spending about six months with Walyer’s band, he voluntarily joined Robinson’s group; despatched by Robinson to Launceston gaol, he could have escaped along with his three companions, but he did not; yet, sent to Wedge in late August, he absconded within a week.

One explanation for his peculiar behaviour is that he was trying to find his younger brother, Teetoric, who had been captured by Wedge on 1 May 1828. Teetoric had remained at Leighlands, being taught English and trotted out to entertain Wedge’s colonial friends, until he died suddenly of a ‘violent inflammation of the chest’ (Wedge 1830) in early August 1830. Wedge, who seems to have been a collector of Aboriginal children, had seen Tommy and Jemmie at Launceston gaol and had asked for them to be sent to his property; Lieutenant-Governor (Sir) George Arthur acceded to his request. However, the authorities mistakenly sent three youths instead of two: Tommy, Jemmie, and Nikaminik. Wedge noted that the three were anxious to remain together and appeared content, so he asked to keep all three with an appropriate increase in rations. Thus, it appears that Nikaminik somehow managed to get himself sent to where he knew his brother was living. One can only imagine his distress at finding that Teetoric had died just ten days before he arrived.

After absconding from Leighlands, Nikaminik spent some weeks at large but was soon recaptured. According to the Launceston Advertiser, he was caught with members of the ‘Stoney Creek Mob’ (1830, 2), some of whom were believed to have killed a colonist, Mr Gildas, on the west bank of the Tamar, sixteen miles (25.7 km) from Launceston, in October 1830. Nikaminik and two women were arrested in November and returned to Launceston gaol.

Nikaminik was probably among a group of Aboriginal people removed to Gun Carriage (Vansittart) Island by Robinson in April 1831 and later institutionalised at Wybalenna on Flinders Island. There he married Timemedenene (Timerdeen), a Ninene woman from the west coast who died in 1833 or 1834. By 1837, he was partnered with Tanganutara (d. 1858), also known as Sarah, who already had two daughters, Mary Anne and Fanny. She and Nikaminik had a son named Adam (1838–1857).

At Wybalenna Nikaminik was renamed Eugene by Robinson, who had a penchant for applying rococo historical names to his charges. He was required to attend school and religious instruction classes. In 1846 he gave evidence to an inquiry headed by Matthew Friend into the treatment of Aboriginal children at Wybalenna, and to an inquiry into the erratic behaviour of the settlement’s superintendent, Henry Jeanneret. The following year the Aboriginal population of Wybalenna, then fewer than fifty individuals, was moved to an old convict station at Oyster Cove, about eighteen miles (30 km) south of Hobart. The conditions were appalling—the site had been condemned as too injurious to the health of convicts—yet a certain freedom was allowed the new denizens; for some, such as Trukanini (Truganini), it was a return to their own Country. Here Nikaminik lived with Tanganutara and Adam, and Mary Anne lived with her husband Walter George Arthur. Nikaminik died two years after the move, on 27 or 28 May 1849, survived by Tanganutara and Adam. He was buried in the cemetery at Oyster Cove. Fanny married a white man, William Smith, in 1854, and lived nearby, later becoming a well-known singer and midwife. She considered Nikaminik her father and he is remembered as an ancestral figure among her many descendants.

Gaye Sculthorpe is palawa and lives on Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung land. One of her ancestors was the partner of Nikaminik.

Sandra Bowdler is of Scottish, Irish, and English descent. She lives on Whadjak/Witjaari Noongar land and has been carrying out archaeological and historical research in lutrawita (Tasmania) for some fifty years.