Naomi Parry Duncan has uncovered the dramatic and tragic story of one of the better known First Nations resistance warriors of the early colonies. Then she discovered uncanny connections with her own convict ancestors.
A vivid, compelling portrait of the intertwined lives of Aboriginal people and new arrivals in the fledgling colonies.
Musquito was just a boy when a convoy of eleven British ships assembled in the waters of Port Jackson in January 1788. Seventeen years later, he was a warrior fighting for Country west of Sydney, hunted by white colonists.
Exiled, in Van Diemen's Land he joined with local Aboriginal people as they began the resistance that ignited the colonists' Black War. Wrongly accused of being the ringleader, he was executed in 1825.
Musquito is one of the better known First Nations resistance fighters but even while he was alive, his story was shrouded in misinformation and myth. Historian Naomi Parry Duncan has uncovered the real story of this remarkable man. Searching the archives for evidence, she realised the lives of convicts in her family tree intersected with Musquito in disturbing ways.
'A stunning work of history and biography. Be prepared to weep.' Professor Grace Karskens
'Musquito was a truly fascinating character, and this is a wonderfully researched biography with new insights.' Professor John Maynard
'It's hard to think of another work of Australian history that gives such a rich sense of the entanglement of human lives in the early colony - across Country, oceans, and worlds - or of the ongoing echoes of colonial violence.' Dr Delia Falconer
'Parry Duncan deftly interweaves her personal journey with the life and times of Musquito and offers a powerful way forward for writing family history that acknowledges Australia's shadowy colonial past.' Dr Stephen Gapps
