Billingee (also Billinggi or Billing-gi) was an Aboriginal man from Jajjala, near

Broome, Western Australia Broome, also known as Rubibi by the Yawuru, Yawuru people, is a coastal Pearl hunting, pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The town recorded a population of 14,6 ...

. He was a significant cultural intermediary active during the early twentieth century. During the early twentieth century Billingee worked with Daisy Bates to record materials in the Ngumbarl language. In collaboration with Bates, he also created a book of drawings illustrating cultural practices of the people of the Broome region. This book (which was given to the

Governor of Western Australia The governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of the monarch, King Charles III. As with the other governors of the Australian states, the governor of Western Australia performs constitutional, ceremonial and commun ...

in 1907) may be the earliest account of an Aboriginal man from the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts in t ...

to depict his cultural heritage through the use of 'European' art media.Cynthia Coyne, '"Bye and Bye when all the Natives have gone': Daisy Bates and Billingee", in ''Uncommon Ground: White Women and Aboriginal History,'' ed. Anna Cole, Victoria Haskins and

Fiona Paisley Fiona Kerr Paisley (born 1958) is a Scottish-born Australian cultural historian at Griffith University. Her research and writing focuses on Australian Indigenous, feminist and transnational history. Paisley was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 19 ...

(Aboriginal Studies Press, 2005

/ref> Cynthia Coyne argues that Billingee would have intended these drawings to be "an assertion of his culture". Billingee's drawing book was later acquired by the

State Library of Western Australia The State Library of Western Australia is a research, education, reference and public lending library located in the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. It is a portfolio agency of the Western Australia Department of Local Gover ...

References

History of Indigenous Australians Australian Aboriginal artists Australian non-fiction writers Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{ia-lang-stub