Bwgcolman


The Bwgcolman is the name recently given to the Aboriginal Australians who were deported from many areas of the Queensland mainland, and confined in resettlement on Great Palm Island after the establishment of an Aboriginal reserve there in 1918. The name has also sometimes been applied to the Island itself.

Name

Bwgcolman, meaning "Palm Island" in Manbarra, is a collective name adopted for the many Palm Islanders peoples who, as distinct from the Manbarra, were subject to coercive displacement from a wide-ranging number of Aboriginal communities on the mainland. It is a descriptive term used in recent claims for native title. The term was devised by the Manbarra elder Dick Palm Island in order to give a collective identity to the 46 groups who found themselves frequently in conflict because of their disparate linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

People

The original inhabitants of Palm Island are the Manbarra people. Indigenous Australians from throughout Queensland were resettled on Palm Island by the Queensland Chief Protector of Aborigines under provisions of The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. The traditional background of these people is often not known, although individuals trace descent from some 43 different tribal groups.

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