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The Mermaid? Re-envisaging the 1818 exploration of Enderby Island, Murujuga, Western Australia

journal contribution
posted on 2020-04-02, 00:00 authored by Alistair Paterson, Tiffany ShellamTiffany Shellam, Peter Veth, Ken Mulvaney, Ross Anderson, Joe Dortch, Jo McDonald
Archaeological surveys documenting Aboriginal petroglyphs across the Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga) discovered a depiction of a sailing ship on Enderby Island. We argue that this is a depiction of His Majesty’s Cutter (HMC) Mermaid, captained by the British naval officer Phillip Parker King in his survey of Australia’s coastlines between 1817 and 1822. Archaeological evidence and a range of historical sources are used to interpret the image as part of a suite of commemorative mark-making behaviors along the Western Australian coast by King and members of his crew. This engraved ship depiction provides additional insights into cross-cultural encounters documented by King with the Yaburara people of the Dampier Archipelago. As this occurred early in British imperial recording of Australia’s North West coastline, this provides new insights into Yaburara people’s traditional lifeways prior to the significant impacts that followed the colonization of North West Western Australia.

History

Journal

Journal of island and coastal archaeology

Volume

15

Issue

2

Pagination

284 - 304

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Location

Abingdon, Eng.

ISSN

1556-4894

eISSN

1556-1828

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2019, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC