Book Review:
A call for coexistence
Sent Forth A Dove
by James Henderson
reviewed by Joan Williams

Speaking at the launching of his book, Sent Forth A Dove, on the 
voyage of the Dutch ship Duyfken and the landing in 1606 on Cape 
York Peninsula, James Henderson said it was clear that the Aboriginal 
people of the time had held out the hand of coexistence.

A week before, to the sound of didgeridoo and the cheering of thousands, 
the replica of the Duyfken or Little Dove, the tiny 400-year 
old Dutch ship was launched by the wife of the WA Premier.

When the replica's keel was laid by Prince Willem-Alexander of the 
Netherlands in January 1997, it signalled the start of a two-year 
construction project to make real a dream that would take thousands of 
hours of skilled work and the use of 70 tons of timber.

So there was great interest in the next event, when Fremantle Mayor Richard 
Utting stood on deck of the little ship to launch the book about the 
voyage, Sent Forth A Dove by distinguished author and maritime 
researcher James Henderson, who has also written the fascinating story of 
the Dutch ship Tryall, wrecked on the West Australian coast in 1622, 
and Marooned, a vivid account of a Dutch ship's crew abandoned off 
our coast in 1658.

Sent Forth A Dove rediscovers a more important part of Australian 
history — a compelling account of the Duyfken's landfall in 1606, 
when Captain Willem Jansz looked on bush-lined mouth of Pennefather River, 
Cape York Peninsula, and agreed with his uppersteersman that it should be 
entered on the chart as "Nova Guinea".

The author believes — and provides compelling evidence — that Jansz was 
the first European to reach Australia. (Eat your heart out, Captain Cook, 
you were 182 years too late!)

It was appropriate that the sound of the didgeridoo echoed over the boat 
harbour at the launching of the Little Dove, if not at the launching 
of the book.

Theory corroborated

Henderson's hands-on approach took him eventually to the far north of the 
western side of the Cape York Peninsula to interview Clive and Francis 
Yunkaporta, elders of Cape Keerveer, who retold the Aboriginal oral history 
of the Duyfken's visit and asked Henderson "to tell the true story 
for all Australians".

The book is dedicated to these Yunkaporta brothers.

Tracing the voyage of the intrepid Captain Jansz, Henderson found that he 
himself had also embarked on a voyage of discovery.

He traced the path of the Little Dove along Cape York by boat and 
plane and foot — even recruited HMAS Flinders to give him a lift on 
a difficult part of the coast.

He had already researched the background of Dutch voyages of the time, the 
expansion of Dutch colonies, commanders eager to load much larger ships 
than the "yacht" Duyfken with spices, take and defend their cargo 
with guns, and go further and further trying to discover new sources of 
those highly valuable commodities.

This was the purpose of the Duyfken's voyage, and the Little 
Dove reinforced possible peaceful acquisition with guns — ten cannon 
and soldiers to fire them.

The author's search to find the Yunkaporta brothers was long and arduous. 
But the detailed Aboriginal evidence was finally given to him from stories 
passed down orally through generations.

Clive Yunkaporta told him that the old people and the friends would be 
arriving soon — apparently the traditional smoke signals had followed the 
writer's party from Aurukun.

Francis Yunkaporta said he would reveal his traditional version of the 
Dutch landings of 1606 and the people would join in. That was the proper 
way.

The story of the Dutch visit in 1606 as told by Aboriginal people is 
convincing. They described the ships as big logs with devils on them. More 
than one boat came ashore. The Aboriginals wanted to find out why they had 
come.

"The warriors hid and watched them from the bush. The strangers got them to 
dig a well for them. The well took many days to dig. During that time, the 
warriors imagined the Dutch people came from the sky.

"They showed the warriors how to smoke tobacco. One man said that it was 
good, that the smoke which came out of their mouth was a spirit from their 
body or one spirit from the past.

"One day the warriors were greatly upset because the Dutch people were 
misbehaving..." Apparently a couple of Aboriginal girls had been taken to 
the ship by the sailors.

Next morning Francis, who was descended from the warrior leader, again took 
up the story of the encounter at Keerweer.

"The warriors came back and while the Dutch were working at the bottom of 
the well, they jumped in on to the men below and beat them. This was 
Aboriginal law.

"There was much fighting between the Dutch and the warriors. The Dutch shot 
many Aboriginal people along the river and in the bush land. Also, the 
warriors speared some Dutchmen and made the Dutch go back to their ship."

The author also went back to corroborative versions collected 20 years 
earlier by the South Australian anthropologist Dr Peter Sutton.

He was thus able to open a new page in Australian history and provide a 
sound basis for proper recognition of the Aboriginal presence when the 
Duyfken reached Cape York Peninsula in 1606.

Henderson's own journey in rediscovering the voyage of the Duyfken 
led to more than its significance to Australian history on the East coast 
the story of Jansz visiting North West Cape in WA in 1618.

It led to the dream of building the replica and his association with the 
committee that oversaw the project for the two years it took to completion.

A fascinating story that is important today, not only for the intense 
research on the Duyfken's role, but in further acknowledgement of 
the role of the original inhabitants.

* * *

Sent Forth A Dove by James Henderson. Published by University of 
Western Australia Press. RRP $34.95 (soft cover).