David McKnight - Of Marriage, Violence and Sorcery

First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
McKnight, David, 1935 -

Of marriage, violence and sorcery : the quest for power in

northern Queensland. - (Anthropology and cultural history

in Asia and the Indo-Pacific)

1. Aboriginal Australians - Australia - Mornington Island

(Qld.) - Social life and customs 2. Aboriginal Australians -

Marriage customs and rites - Australia - Mornington Island

(Qld.) 3. Violence - Australia - Mornington Island (Qld.)

4. Witchcraft - Australia - Mornington Island (Qld.) 5. Magic

- Australia - Mornington Island (Qld.)

I. Title

305.89915

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKnight, David, 1935-

Of marriage, violence and sorcery: the quest for power in northern Queensland / by

David McKnight.

p. cm. -- (Anthropology and cultural history in Asia and the

Indo-Pacific)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7546-4465-0 (alk. paper)

1. Aboriginal Australians--Social life and customs. 2. Aboriginal Australians--

Marriage customs and rites. 3. Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of--Australia-
Queensland. 4. Ethnic conflict--Australia--Queensland. 5. Witchcraft--Australia-
Queensland. 6. Queensland--History. 7. Queensland--Ethnic relations. 8. Queensland-
Social life and customs. I. Title. II. Series.

DU124.S64M35 2005

305.899150943

2004027012

ISBN 9780754644651 (hbk)

Transferred to Digital Printing 2014

This is the fourth volume of a series on the Mornington Islanders a community of Australian Aborigines in northern Queensland. The first volume, People, Countries, and the Rainbow Serpent: Systems of Classification among the Lardil of Mornington Island, is part of the Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics under the general editorship of William Bright (McKnight 1999). The second volume, From Hunting to Drinking: the devastating effects of alcohol on an Australian Aboriginal community, investigates why the Mornington Islanders consume so much alcohol, the social and physical consequences of doing so, and what can be done to alleviate the situation (McKnight 2002). The third volume, Going the Whitemans Way: Kinship and Marriage among Australian Aborigines investigates the period in the late 1960s when young people wanted to go the Whitemans way and marry for love, while the elders were unsuccessfully doing their best to uphold the traditional marriage Laws (McKnight 2004). This present volume of what I like to think of as my Mornington Island quartet (which may yet become a quintet with a volume provisionally titled A Photographic History of the Wellesley Islanders) investigates how marriage, violence, and sorcery in mens quest for power are interrelated and in doing so reviews case histories which occurred before and after a Presbyterian Mission was established in 1914.

For each theme I am particularly indebted to certain Mornington Islanders more than others and in many instances their efforts to instruct me about their world include all three themes and more. I was taught (and taught is the appropriate word) much about kinship and marriage by Gully and Cora Peters, Old Sandy, Prince and Muriel Escott, Charlie Marmies, Lindsey Roughsey, Kate Williams, Ethel Adams, Venie Charles, Wurunbulbul, Bambara and Gladys Goodman, Stanley Chong, Kenneth Jacob (Kulthangarr), and Gertie Scholes. About fighting and violent affrays, I am indebted to Fred Jarrarr, Lindsey and Dick Roughsey, Ruska Toby, Don Robertson, Scotty and Pompey Wilson, Henry Peters, Warabajiwuru, Frances Banbadji, and Edna Adams. I learned a great deal about sorcery from Warabajiwuru, Larry Lanley, Prince Escott, Kelly Banbadji, Kenny Roughsey, Don Robertson, Kate Williams, and Ethel Adams.

Over the years as the elders have passed away I have turned to younger Mornington Islanders for instruction which proved rewarding. In particular I should like to acknowledge my indebtedness to Kenneth Jacob, Juliana Jacob (nee Roughsey), Cyril Moon, Ian James, Evelyn James (nee Peters), Andrew Marmies, Nelson Gavenor, Timothy Roughsey, and Robyrta Felton. Of special interest is Kenneth Jacob (Kulthangarr) who alas died in his late 50s in 2003. In his youth he worked on the cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Despite his absence from Mornington he was well versed in traditional matters much more so than anyone else of his generation. Strangely enough, his knowledge (even in genealogical matters) was comparable to that of a junior elder in the late 1960s. The fact that he acquired so much knowledge and understanding of traditional matters indicates that the intellectual poverty of so many of his contemporaries was not inevitable. He never misused his knowledge. Least it be thought that I valued him solely for his knowledge I hasten to say that he was a very enjoyable companion whose company, along with other members of his family, I invariably found relaxing. I shall always miss him as will other Mornington Islanders.