Most of the convicts who arrived with the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788 were British,but it’s recorded that at least 10 men of African descent were also on board,and as Chingaipe’s film reveals,some of these men played pivotal roles in Australia’s historical landscape – and have tens of thousands of descendants.
Chingaipe meets several descendants of one of these men,John Randall,thought to have been a slave who had fought with the British. His name is recorded in the first fleet archive,but his life is largely a mystery beyond a few references;one of his distant relatives says there was talk of an older family member “having a touch of the boot polish”,but little beyond that. Previous generations were loathe to acknowledge any African heritage,and less so official histories.
It is known,though,that Randall eventually married an Irish woman and became patriarch to one of Australia’s first multicultural families.
John ‘Black’ Caesar not only instilled a spirit of resistance,he was essentially our first bushranger.
Then there’s John “Black” Caesar,another former slave who escaped into the Australian bush and survived stealing provisions and raiding Indigenous camps. Caesar’s escape was reportedly followed by some 50,000 attempts by convicts to run away;he not only instilled a spirit of resistance,he was essentially our first bushranger. The ultimate underdog,our first rebel,escaping capture four times before his death – the very attributes we celebrate in the Ned Kelly mythology.
Chingaipe also relates the story of Billy Blue,a Jamaican convict who,once a free settler,started Sydney’s first ferry service,effectively connecting both sides of the harbour. Blue at least has several landmarks named after him,and a handful of portraits,but again,how many people would know his incredible story?