I met recently with elders of the D’harawal Traditional
Descendants and Knowledgeholders Council, Frances Bodkin and Gavin Andrews.
We were chatting about Berenice, who both were very close to,
and I mentioned her belief that many of the attacks on sheep in the early days
of white settlement were by young adult Dingoes separated from their pack
because of indiscriminate slaughter.
Because the Dingo pack is like a family, young Dingoes are
taught and disciplined by the older members. When these teachers are absent,
particularly the alpha male and female a young Dingo can go rogue.
Gavin pointed out that it was the same with his people.
White man’s diseases caused the deaths of the oldest members of the community
as well as the young and the weak. With the loss of their teachers and disciplinarians
the young bucks went rogue.
Another parallel was the loss of land. White settlers
accused Aboriginal people of stealing crops and livestock resulting in mass
slaughter and incidents like the Massacre in Appin (NSW). The white settlers
had in fact taken over what was Aboriginal land, their food basket.
As settlement moved inland taking its sheep and cattle so
these people took over land where Dingoes roamed resulting in the slaughter of
Dingoes when they were caught attacking flocks.
In 1978 Berenice wrote a paper titled “The Australian Native
Dog, The Dingo (Canis Familiaris Dingo): Moves to Develop its National
Identity*. In it she asks several pertinent questions:
Why has it taken so long to stop and think; to
question the wild claims of those who accuse the Dingo of such mighty feats as
travelling 50 miles to kill 300 sheep, then returning to sleep it off; to state
it takes a pack of domestic dogs to kill one Dingo; that Dingoes threatened the
lives of settlers: Then claim the Dingo is a coward!!!!! If the Dingo was such a rapacious killer, how
come Captain Cook wasn’t met by an island of killer dogs? If the Dingo was capable of such feats of ferocity
and stock killing, how come in 1788 when six head of cattle were lost form the
first settlement, they were found some seven years later at Cowpastures near
C
amden, the original six having increased to 61. (By 1801 the original herd had
grown to 300 head – by 1811, known as the ‘wild cattle’, their numbers were
estimated at around 4,000). How come it was a prosperous business for
bushrangers to hide stolen cattle in isolated valleys where the cattle thrived
– and increased?
Those very same questions could be asked in relation to the
Aboriginal people.
* I have used Berenice’s title for her paper however it
should be noted that in 2015 it was confirmed that the Dingo is not a dog; it
is, in fact, now its own species, Canis Dingo.
Pamela King (Ferrari)
