Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance

Teacher Resource

Publisher's synopsis

The true story of the Aboriginal resistance fighter, Jandamarra, whose legend is etched into the Australian landscape. Set in the Kimberley outback during the late nineteenth century, the last stage of Australia’s invasion is played out in the lands of the Bunuba people. Leases are marked across Aboriginal country and, amidst the chaos and turmoil, extraordinary and sometimes contradictory relationships develop. A powerful collaboration between a non-Indigenous historian and the Indigenous custodians of the Jandamarra story.

WINNER – 1996 WA Premier’s Book of the Year Award and Historical & Critical Studies category

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Banjo Woorunmurra

Born in 1915 at Fairfield Station in the Kimberley region of WA, Banjo Woorunmurra was the senior custodian of the Jandamarra story and a living repository of much of his people’s history. Retiring from his working life as stockman, he became the Chairman of the Pandanus Park Community in 1979. Banjo told stories with a sense of poetry that connected the past with the living present, challenging the foundations of our understanding of Australian history.

Howard Pedersen

Howard Pedersen was a university student when he first sourced material for his thesis on the Bunuba resistance fighter, Jandamarra. He has since worked with a range of Aboriginal organisations and government departments.