Straitsmen and Straits Women

Day told me that they sometimes made a voyage to the main land and had in this way provided themselves with women – whether by purchase or violence he did not say.
(‘Some early recollections’ by B.T. Finniss Transcript of original manuscript in The Borrow Collection, Flinders University Library)

See also: References for Straitsmen and Straits Women
               My WikiTree Page for Straitsmen and Straits Women

Well, it didn't take long for me to go somewhat off course. That's how it is with Genealogy; one person leads to another, and next thing you know you're in another place hundreds of miles from where you started. I wanted to know more about the sealers' women of Kangaroo Island; they were people, they had families, they had stories and also descendants living today. But their very existence has been brushed aside in favour of the story of the colonial "Utopia" South Australia was meant to be. I couldn't let this rest. It was so totally unlike the history I'd been taught in school.

The so-called Straitsmen ranged between Bass Strait, Kangaroo Island, and King George Sound, accompanied by the indigenous women they had abducted or persuaded to go with them, and their children. Sometimes, when the wildlife was plentiful, they spent years in one place before moving on. What this meant for the women was that they were displaced from their own people and country, sometimes permanently. Sometimes there was no one to speak their own language with. They were forced into work, hunting animals on a scale that must surely have offended their culture. If they didn't comply they were beaten. Amid all this, they raised children fathered by their masters.

Palawa women (from Tasmania) were preferred because of their superior skills at hunting and trapping. They dived for shellfish, caught Mutton Birds, collected eggs, trapped kangaroo and wallaby, hunted and skinned seals, filled sacks of salt and crewed boats, prepared food and sewed warm fur garments for the men.

Maybe you've come to this page because you're decended from one of these women. Welcome. I would love to talk to you and maybe we can share some information. Please introduce yourself in the comments section below.