| Narrative | Early colonist Captain Charles Fremantle wrote of an account in the Swan Valley after over 40 of Peter Brown's sheep were taken by local Noongar people in what they clearly considered an act of reciprocity and exchange of food. Local Noongar approached the farm shouting ‘Kangaroo, Kangaroo!’ suggesting exchange of sheep for the kangaroo the colonists had killed (Fremantle cited in Carter, p 78). Another account by Jane Dodd adds more the story: ‘the sequel’ to the taking of Kangaroo 'is too awful to contemplate’ she wrote. ‘They were followed and the soldiers and others fell in with them about midnight (it was supposed their number exceeded two hundred men, women and children) seated around several large fires, at which were roasting about ten sheep; the followers all fired into the midst of the thickest groups, killing some and wounding many….' (Carter, 2005, p 80). |
