Site Name | Gan Gan (1) |
Aboriginal Place Name | Gangan |
Language Group | Yolngu – Dhalwangu and Gumatj people |
Present State/Territory | NT |
Colony/State/Territory at the time | NT |
Police District | Darwin |
Latitude | -13.046 |
Longitude | 135.944 |
Date | Between 1 Jan 1911 and 31 Dec 1913 |
Attack Time | Day |
Victims | Aboriginal People |
Victim Descriptions | |
Victims Killed | 30 |
Victims Killed Notes | More than 30 men, women and children. |
Attackers | Colonisers |
Attacker Descriptions | Mounted Police |
Attackers Killed | 0 |
Attackers Killed Notes | |
Transport | Horse |
Motive | Reprisal |
Weapons Used | Firearm(s) |
Narrative | See also Gan Gan #2. A police tracker's female relative (from the Roper River region) happened upon a men's ceremony and was killed. This was a reprisal by police after the tracker told police where the Yolngu people were. Two survived. Galarrwuy Yunupingu said: "At Gan Gan these men on horseback performed their duties and killed an entire clan group – men, women and children. They shot them out and killed them in any way they could so that they could take the land. These men on horseback then rode to Birany Birany and killed many of our Yarrwidi Gumatj, the saltwater people who cared for the great ceremonies at Birany Birany. There are few places in our lives as sacred as Gan Gan – from its fresh waters all things come – and Birany Birany." |
Sources | Yunupingu, G July 2016; NAA, Uncommon Lives, Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/uncommon-lives/dhakiyarr-wirrpanda/people.aspx; Warren Snowdon MHR, 2016 https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2016-11-23.156.2; Gumana, B biography (https://www.aboriginal-bark-paintings.com/birrikidji-gumana/); Rothwell, N 2007. (Sources PDF) |
Corroboration Rating | *** |