The Bwgcolman (pronounced "Bwookamun") is the self-assigned name for the

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

who were deported from many areas of the

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

mainland, and confined in resettlement on

Great Palm Island Great Palm Island, usually known as Palm Island, is the largest island in the Palm Island, Queensland, Palm Islands group off North Queensland, Northern Queensland, Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal community, the ...

after the establishment of an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...

there in 1918, the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement, and their descendants today. The name has also sometimes been applied to the island itself.

Name

Bwgcolman means "many tribes – one people", or "one people from many groups". The word originates from one of the languages of the many among the relocated people, who decided to unite under this name. Created to give a collective identity to the 46 groups who found themselves frequently in conflict because of their disparate linguistic and cultural backgrounds, one source says that the term was devised by the Manbarra elder Dick Palm Island. It is a collective name adopted for the many Palm Islander peoples who, as distinct from the

Manbarra The Manbarra, otherwise known as the Wulgurukaba, are Aboriginal Australian people, and the traditional custodians of the Palm Islands, Magnetic Island, and an area of mainland Queensland to the west of Townsville. The Manbarra people were for ...

(who were there before the reserve was established, but had been moved onto the mainland by the Queensland Government in the 1890s), were subject to coercive displacement from a wide-ranging number of Aboriginal communities on the mainland. Bwgcolman is also used as a descriptive term in recent claims for

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of ab ...

, where the Bwcgolman are described as the "historical people", while the

are (arguably) the

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

(although this has not been determined by law, and the Bwcgolman "historical people" have an

Indigenous land use agreement Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title right ...

with the government). The name has also sometimes been applied to the Island itself.

People

The original inhabitants of Palm Island are the Manbarra people.

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

from throughout Queensland (Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...

people) were resettled on Palm Island by the Queensland Chief

Protector of Aborigines The Australian colonies in the nineteenth century created offices involved in managing the affairs of Indigenous people in their jurisdictions. The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role beca ...

under provisions of the

Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 The ''Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897'' (Qld), was an Act of the Parliament of Queensland. It was the first instrument of separate legal control over Aboriginal peoples, and was more restrictive than any co ...

(Queensland). The traditional background of these people is often not known, although individuals trace descent from some 43 different tribal groups. The people were deported from many areas of the Queensland mainland, as well as the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...

, and confined in to the Aboriginal reserve on Great Palm Island in 1918, known as the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement.

2018 centenary

In 2018, a series of official public events were held to mark the Palm Island Centenary, being 100 years since the first Aboriginal people were moved to the reserve, creating the Bwcolman people. The occasion was a time of mourning for many descendants of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

created by the forced removals.

Notes

Citations

Sources

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