View source for Makassan contact with Australia

{{Short description|Historical intergroup relations}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=October 2012}}
{{cleanup lang|date=September 2024}}
[[File:Makassan locations.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|right|Locations mentioned in this article:<br/>
{{bulleted list |item_style=line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom:0.5em |Largest red dot: [[Makassar]] |Other red dots (left to right): [[Rote Island|Rote]], [[Timor]], and [[Aru Islands|Aru]]|Three yellow dots: [[Kimberley (Western Australia)|Kimberley]]|Single yellow dot: [[Arnhem Land]]}}]]
[[File:macassan prau.jpg|thumb|right|A type of Makassan [[proa|perahu]], the [[patorani]]]]
[[Makassar people]] from the region of [[Sulawesi]] in  [[Indonesia]] began visiting the coast of [[Northern Australia]] sometime around the middle of the 18th century, first in the [[Kimberley (Western Australia)|Kimberley region]], and some decades later in [[Arnhem Land]].{{sfn|Macknight|2011|p=134}}{{sfn|Russell|2004}}<ref name=Country>{{cite web|title=Biodiversity values on selected Kimberley Islands, Australia|author=T. Vigilante|year=2013|publisher=[[Western Australian Museum]]|display-authors=etal |url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/WAM_Supp81_Internals%20pp145-181.pdf|access-date=2 August 2021}}</ref> They were men who collected and processed ''trepang'' (also known as [[sea cucumber]]), a marine invertebrate [[Sea cucumber as food|prized for its culinary]] value generally and for its supposed medicinal properties in [[China|Chinese]] markets. The term [[Makassar people|Makassan]] (or Macassan) is generally used to apply to all the [[trepanging|trepangers]] who came to Australia.

==Fishing and processing of trepang==
{{main|Sea cucumber|Sea cucumber as food}}
{{multiple image|width=150|align=left|image1=Holothuria edulis 85227572.jpg|class1=bg-transparent|image2=Reef4070 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg|class2=bg-transparent|footer=Edible sea cucumber (''[[Holothuria edulis]]'') in the [[Lembeh Strait]], Indonesia (left) and the [[Coral Sea]], Australia (right)}}
The creature and the food product are commonly known in English as sea cucumber, ''bêche-de-mer'' in [[French language|French]], ''[[gamat]]'' in [[Malay language|Malay]], while [[Makassarese language|Makassarese]] has 12 terms covering 16 different species.{{sfn|Choo|2004|p=57}}{{sfn|Tuwo|2004|p=52}} One of the Makassar terms, for trepang, ''taripaŋ'', entered the [[Australian Aboriginal languages|Aboriginal languages]] of the [[Cobourg Peninsula]], as ''tharriba'' in [[Marrku language|Marrku]], as ''jarripang'' in [[Maung language|Mawng]] or otherwise as ''darriba.''{{sfn|Evans|2016|p=39}}

''Trepang'' live on the sea floor and are exposed at low tide. Fishing was traditionally done by hand, spearing, diving or dredging. The catch was placed in boiling water before being dried and smoked, to preserve the ''trepang'' for the journey back to Makassar and other South East Asian markets. ''Trepang'' is still valued by Chinese communities for its jelly-like texture, its flavour-enhancing properties, and as a stimulant and [[aphrodisiac]].{{sfn|Máñez|Ferse|2010}} [[Matthew Flinders]] made a contemporary record of how trepang was processed when he met [[Pobasso]], a chief of a Makassan fleet in February 1803.{{sfn|Flinders|1814|pp=229–232}}

==Voyage to ''Marege''' and ''Kayu Jawa''==
[[Trepanging]] fleets began to visit the northern coasts of Australia from [[Makassar]] in southern [[Sulawesi]], Indonesia, from at least 1720 and possibly earlier. Campbell Macknight's classic study of the Makassan trepang industry accepts the start of the industry as about 1720, with the earliest recorded trepang voyage made in 1751.{{sfn|Macknight|1976b}} But Regina Ganter of [[Griffith University]] notes that a Sulawesi historian suggests a commencement date for the industry of about 1640.{{sfn|Ganter|2008|pp=1–14}} Ganter also notes that for some anthropologists, the extensive influence of the trepang industry on the [[Yolngu]] people suggests a longer period of contact. Arnhem Land [[Aboriginal rock art]], recorded by [[Archaeology|archaeologists]] in 2008, appears to provide further evidence of Makassan contact in the mid-1600s.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} Based on [[radiocarbon dating]] for apparent [[Proa|''prau'']] (boat) designs in Aboriginal rock art, some scholars have proposed contact from as early as the 1500s.{{sfn|Rogers|2014}} A Makassarese legend suggested that the first cargo of Australian trepang were brought to Makassar by leaders who had previously escaped the [[Treaty of Bongaya|Dutch conquest]] of the [[Sultanate of Gowa]].{{sfn|Macknight|2011|p=133}}

[[File:Model of Makassan perahu (sailboat), Islamic Museum of Australia.jpg|thumb|right|Model of Makassan perahu, [[Islamic Museum of Australia]]]]
At the height of the trepang industry, the Makassan ranged thousands of kilometres along Australia's northern coasts, arriving with the north-west monsoon each December. Makassan ''perahu'' or ''praus'' could carry a crew of thirty members, and Macknight estimated the total number of trepangers arriving each year as about one thousand.{{sfn|Macknight|1976b|p=29}} The Makassan crews established themselves at various semi-permanent locations on the coast, to boil and dry the trepang before the return voyage home, four months later, to sell their cargo to Chinese merchants.{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|pp=22–66}} ''Marege''' was the Makassan name for Arnhem land (meaning "Wild Country"), from the [[Cobourg Peninsula]] to [[Groote Eylandt]] in the [[Gulf of Carpentaria]]. ''Kayu Jawa'' was the name for the fishing grounds in the [[Kimberley region of Western Australia]], from Napier Broome Bay to [[Cape Leveque]]. Other important fishing areas included [[West Papua (region)|West Papua]], [[Sumbawa]], [[Timor]], and [[Selayar Island|Selayar]].{{sfn|Máñez|Ferse|2010}}

[[Matthew Flinders]], in his circumnavigation of Australia in 1803, met a Makassan trepang fleet near present-day [[Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory|Nhulunbuy]]. He communicated at length with a Makassan captain, [[Pobasso]], through his cook, who was also a Malay, and learned of the extent of the trade from this encounter.{{sfn|Flinders|1814|pp=229–232}} Ganter writes that there were at most "1,000 Macassans" compared to the almost "7,000 British nestled into Sydney Cove and Newcastle".<ref name="Ganter2">Ganter, R. (2005) "Turn the Map upside down," in ''Griffith Review,'' Edition 9, 2005. "Up North: Myths, Threats and Enchantment." Griffith University.</ref> French explorer [[Nicholas Baudin]] also encountered twenty-six large ''perahu'' off the northern coast of Western Australia in the same year.{{sfn|Russell|2004|pp=6–7}}

The British settlements of [[Fort Dundas]] and [[Fort Wellington, Australia|Fort Wellington]] were established as a result of [[Phillip Parker King|Phillip Parker King's]] contact with Makassan trepangers in 1821.<ref name="Ganter2" />

[[Using Daeng Rangka]], the last Makassan trepanger to visit Australia, lived well into the twentieth century, and the history of his voyages are well documented. He first made the voyage to northern Australia as a young man. He suffered dismasting and several shipwrecks, and had generally positive but occasionally conflicting relationships with Indigenous Australians. He was the first trepanger to pay the [[Government of South Australia|South Australian government]] (at the time the jurisdiction that administered the [[Northern Territory]]) for a trepanging licence in 1883, an impost that made the trade less viable.{{sfn|Macknight|1976a}} The trade continued to dwindle toward the end of the 19th century, due to the imposition of customs duties and licence fees and probably compounded by overfishing.{{sfn|Máñez|Ferse|2010}} Rangka commanded the last Makassar ''perahu'', which left Arnhem Land in 1907.

==Physical evidence of Makassan contact==
[[File:Macassan stone arrangement.jpg|thumb|right|Makassan stone arrangement near [[Yirrkala, Northern Territory]]]]
There is significant evidence of contact with Makassan fishers in examples of [[Indigenous Australian rock art]] and [[bark painting]] of northern Australia, with the Makassan ''perahu'' a prominent feature.{{sfn|Taçon|May|Fallon|Travers|2010}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Woodford |first=J. |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=20 September 2008 |title=The Rock Art That Redraws Our History |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-rock-art-that-redraws-our-history/2008/09/19/1221331206960.html |access-date=6 April 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920040854/http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-rock-art-that-redraws-our-history/2008/09/19/1221331206960.html |archive-date=20 September 2008}}</ref>

===Northern Territory===
Archaeological remains of Makassar processing plants from the 18th and 19th centuries are still at [[Port Essington]], Anuru Bay, and [[Groote Eylandt]], along with stands of the [[tamarind]] trees introduced by the Makassan. Macknight and others note that excavations and development in these areas have revealed pieces of metal, broken pottery and glass, coins, fish-hooks and broken [[clay]] pipes related to this trade.{{sfn|Macknight|1976b|pp=78–81}} Macknight notes that much of the ceramic material found suggests a nineteenth-century date.{{efn|At the same time he has warned against accepting radiocarbon dates from trepang processing fireplaces. These apparently give an anomalous date of 800 years before present.{{sfn|Macknight|1986|p=70}} }}

In January 2012, a [[swivel gun]] found two years before at [[Dundee Beach, Northern Territory|Dundee Beach]] near [[Darwin, Northern Territory|Darwin]] was widely reported by web news sources and the Australian press to be of Portuguese origin.<ref>See for example, {{cite web |work=Australian Geographic |date=10 January 2012 |title=Darwin boy's find could rewrite history |url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/darwin-boys-find-could-re-write-history-portuguese-gun.htm |access-date=2013-09-16 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112153402/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/darwin-boys-find-could-re-write-history-portuguese-gun.htm}}</ref> However initial analysis by the [[Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory]] in 2012 indicated that it is of [[Southeast Asia]]n origin,<ref>{{cite web |last=La Canna |first=X. |work=The Telegraph |date=31 March 2012 |title=Cannon probably not 500 years old after all |url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/cannon-probably-not-500-years-old-after-all/story-e6freuyi-1226314594791 |access-date=6 April 2012}}</ref> likely from Makassar. There is nothing in its chemical composition, style, or form that matches Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book|last=Clark|first=Paul|year=2013 |title=Dundee Beach Swivel Gun: Provenance Report|url=https://www.pastmasters.net/uploads/2/6/7/5/26751978/dundee_swivel_gun_provenance__rpt_final.pdf |publisher=Northern Territory Government Department of Arts and Museums}}</ref> The museum holds seven guns of South East Asian manufacture in its collections.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Davie |first=D. |magazine=Quarterly Newsletter of the Arms Collectors Association of the Northern Territory |title=Malay Cannons |volume=V |issue=2 |date=June 2009 |url=http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/MalayCannons.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317103303/http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/MalayCannons.html |archive-date=17 March 2012 |access-date=6 April 2012}}</ref> Another swivel gun of South East Asian manufacture, found in Darwin in 1908, is held by the [[South Australian Museum]], and is also possibly of Makassan origin.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Jateff |first=E. |title=An oddity in South Australia: An Indonesian imitation swivel gun? |magazine=Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology Newsletter |volume=30 |issue=1 |url=http://www.aima.iinet.net.au/publications/newsletters/docs/NLv30n1y11.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320124356/http://www.aima.iinet.net.au/publications/newsletters/docs/NLv30n1y11.pdf |archive-date=20 March 2012 |access-date=6 April 2012 |url-status=dead |date=March 2011}}</ref>

The [[Wurrwurrwuy stone arrangements]] at [[Yirrkala]], which are listed as heritage monuments, depict aspects of Makassan trepanging, including details of the vessels' internal structures.<ref name="ahd-106088">{{cite AHD|106088|Wurrwurrwuy|fn=7/04/004/0008|access-date=13 October 2018}}</ref>

===Western Australia===
In 1916, two bronze [[cannon]]s were found on [[Carronade Island|a small island]] in Napier Broome Bay, on the northern coast of [[Western Australia]]. Scientists at the [[Western Australian Museum]] in [[Fremantle, Western Australia|Fremantle]] have made a detailed analysis and have determined that these weapons are [[swivel gun]]s and almost certainly of late 18th century [[Makassar|Makassan]], rather than European, origin.<ref>{{cite report |last=Green |first=J. N. |title=The Carronade Island Guns and South East Asian Gun Founding |place=Fremantle, Western Australia |publisher=Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum |date=2006 |id=No.215 |access-date=6 April 2012 |url-status=dead |url=http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/No.%20215%20Carronade%20Is%20Gun_1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203012040/http://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/No.%20215%20Carronade%20Is%20Gun_1.pdf |archive-date=3 December 2013}}</ref> Flinders' account confirms that the Makassans he met were personally armed and their perahus carried small cannons.{{sfn|Flinders|1814|pp=229–232}}

In 2021, archaeological excavations are taking place on the island of [[Niiwalarra]] (Sir Graham Moore Island), off the Kimberley coast, for the first time since Ian Crawford did his research in the 1960s. The archaeologists are being assisted by some of the [[traditional owners]] of the island, the [[Kwini people]].  Evidence of pottery and other artefacts from the new excavations are being complemented by the [[oral tradition|oral histories]] of the Kwini people, yielding evidence of Makassan fishers and traders on the island. A number of [[hearth]]s are a record of where the trepang was cooked on the beach in large iron pots, with activity especially picking up around 1800.<ref name="Parke 2021">{{cite web | last=Parke | first=Erin | title=New study reveals history of Aboriginal trade with foreign visitors before British settlement  | website=ABC News| publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] | date=18 July 2021 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-18/new-study-aboriginal-trade-before-british-settlement/100290300 | access-date=2 August 2021}}</ref>

=== Indonesia ===
There are written and oral accounts of Aboriginal people moving to the island with Asian fishermen, some dating back as far as the 1600s. In early 2023, photographs featuring Aboriginal Australian people which had been taken in Makassar in the 1870s were discovered. Yolngu [[Aboriginal elder| elders]] identified the subjects of the photos as Yolngu people from the Arnhem Land area. The discovery sparked an international search for descendants of these people, in the hope of being able to do [[DNA testing]] to shed more light on migration from northern Australia to [[South East Asia]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-02-10 |title=Proof of mystery colony of Aboriginal Australians and Indonesians found in an Italian library |first= Erin |last=Parke|language=en-AU |work=[[ABC News (Australia)]] |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-11/mystery-community-of-aboriginal-and-indonesian-families/101901188 |access-date=2023-02-11}}</ref>

==Effect on Indigenous people of Australia==
[[File:Beeswax female over white Macassan perahu - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|right|A female figure outlined in beeswax over painting of a white Makassan prau]]
The Makassar contact with [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal people]] had a significant effect on the latter's culture, and likely there were also cross-cultural influences. Ganter writes "the cultural imprint on the [[Yolngu]] people of this contact is everywhere: in their language, in their art, in their stories, in their cuisine".<ref name="Ganter2" /> According to anthropologist John Bradley from [[Monash University]], the contact between the two groups was a success: "They traded together. It was fair – there was no racial judgement, no race policy".{{sfn|Rogers|2014}} Even into the early 21st century, the shared history between the two peoples is still celebrated by Aboriginal communities in northern Australia as a period of mutual trust and respect.{{sfn|Rogers|2014}}

However, anthropologist Ian McIntosh has speculated that the initial effects of contact with the Makassan fishermen resulted in "turmoil"{{sfn|McIntosh| 1996j|pp=65–67}} with the extent of [[Islam]]ic influence being noteworthy.{{sfn|McIntosh| 1996j|p=76}} In another paper McIntosh says, "strife, poverty and domination&nbsp;... is a previously unrecorded legacy of contact between Aborigines and Indonesians".{{sfn|McIntosh|1996|p=138}} He also claims that the Makassan appear to have been welcomed initially; however, relations deteriorated when, "aborigines began to feel they were being exploited&nbsp;... leading to violence on both sides".{{sfn|McIntosh|1997|pp=81–82}}{{clarify|date=July 2020}}

===Trade and migration===
[[File:Orang Mereghi, Australiani del Nord (3).png|thumb|A group of Aboriginal Australians in Makassar, 1873.]]
Studies by anthropologists have found traditions that indicate the Makassans negotiated with local people on the Australian continent for the right to fish certain waters. The exchange also involved the trade of cloth, [[tobacco]], metal axes and knives, [[rice]], and gin. The Yolngu of Arnhem Land also traded turtle-shell, pearls and cypress pine, and some were employed as trepangers.<ref>May, S.K., McKinnon, J.F., Raupp, J.T.(2009) ''The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.'' "Boats on Bark: an Analysis of Groote Eylandt Aboriginal Bark-Paintings featuring Macassan Praus from the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Northern Territory, Australia." Retrieved on 6 April 2012</ref> While there is ample evidence of peaceful contact, some contact was hostile. Using Daeng Rangka described at least one violent confrontation with Aborigines,{{sfn|Macknight|1976a}} while Flinders recorded being advised by the Makassan to "beware of the natives".{{sfn|Flinders|1814|pp=229–232}}

Some of the rock art and bark paintings appear to confirm that some Aboriginal workers willingly accompanied the Makassans back to their homeland of [[South Sulawesi]] across the [[Arafura Sea]]. Women were also occasional items of exchange according to Denise Russell, but their views and experiences have not been recorded.{{sfn|Russell|2004|p=15}} Italian botanist [[Odoardo Beccari]], during a stay in Makassar in 1873, took photographs of Aboriginal Australians in the city.<ref>{{cite news |title=Apa Hubungan antara Makassar-Aborigin? |url=https://www.dw.com/id/merefleksikan-sejarah-koneksi-makassar-aborigin/a-59448444 |access-date=4 November 2024 |work=dw.com |date=13 November 2021 |language=id}}</ref> Beccari remarked that Aboriginal Australians were "not uncommon" in Makassar.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carey |first1=Jane |last2=Lydon |first2=Jane |title=Indigenous Networks: Mobility, Connections and Exchange |date=27 June 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-65932-7 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdbpAwAAQBAJ&dq=odoardo+beccari+aborigines+makassar&pg=PA140 |language=en}}</ref> A 1895 account noted an Aboriginal man in [[Blue Mud Bay]] with some knowledge of English who claimed to have travelled with the Makassans to [[Singapore]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Macknight |first1=C.C. |title=Journal of a Voyage Around Arnhem Land in 1875 |journal=Aboriginal History |date=1981 |volume=5 |issue=1/2 |page=141  |url=https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p71311/pdf/article081.pdf |issn=0314-8769}}</ref> After visiting [[Groote Eylandt]] in the early 1930s, anthropologist [[Donald Thomson]] speculated that the traditional seclusion of women from strange men and their use of portable bark screens in this region "may have been a result of contact with Macassans".<ref>Donald Thomson, Compiled and edited by Nicolas Peterson (2003): ''Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land.'' p. 110. Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing, Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-522-85205-9}}</ref>

===Health===
{{Islam in Australia}}
[[Smallpox]] may have been introduced to northern Australia in the 1820s via Makassan contact.{{sfn|Macknight|1986}} This remains unproven as [[First Fleet#Smallpox|First Fleet smallpox]] was already recorded as spreading across Australia from Sydney Cove.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Warren |first=Christopher |date=2014 |title=Smallpox at Sydney Cove – who, when, why? |journal=Journal of Australian Studies |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=68–86 |doi=10.1080/14443058.2013.849750|s2cid=143644513 }}</ref> The prevalence of the hereditary [[Machado–Joseph disease]] in the [[Groote Eylandt]] community has been attributed to outside contact. Recent genetic studies showed that the Groote Eylandt families with MJD shared a [[Y-DNA haplogroup]] with some families of Taiwanese, Indian, and Japanese ancestry.<ref name="martinsetal2014">{{cite journal |author1= Martins, Sandra |author2=Bing-Wen Soong |name-list-style=amp |year=2012 |title=Mutational Origin of Machado-Joseph Disease in the Australian Aboriginal Communities of Groote Eylandt and Yirrkala |journal=Archives of Neurology |volume=69 |issue=6 |pages=746–751  |doi=10.1001/archneurol.2011.2504 |pmid=22351852 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Economic===
Some Yolngu communities of [[Arnhem Land]] appear to have transitioned their economies from being largely land-based to largely sea-based, following the introduction of Makassar technologies such as [[Aboriginal dugout canoe|dug-out canoes]], which were highly prized. These seaworthy boats, unlike the traditional Yolngu bark canoes, allowed the people to fish the ocean for [[dugong]]s and [[sea turtle]]s.{{sfn|Ganter|2008}} Macknight notes that both the dug-out canoe and shovel-nosed spear found in Arnhem Land were based on Macassarese prototypes.{{sfn|Macknight|1986}} Yolngu communities also learned ironworking techniques from the Makassarese, which allowed for the manufacture of the canoes and spears.{{sfn|Clark|May|2013|p=214}}

===Language===
A Makassan [[pidgin]] became a [[lingua franca]] along the north coast, not just between Makassan and Aboriginal people, but also as a language of trade among different Aboriginal groups, who were brought into greater contact with each other by the seafaring Makassar culture. Words from the [[Makassarese language]] (related to [[Javanese language|Javanese]] and [[Malay language|Malay]]<!--"Indonesia" as an idea and entity did not exist until the 1920s, so the term "[[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]" would be incorrect in this context.-->) can still be found in Aboriginal language varieties of the north coast. Examples include ''rupiah'' (money), ''jama'' (work), and ''balanda'' (white person). The latter was adopted into the Makassar language via the Malay term ''orang belanda'' (referring to [[Dutch person]]).<ref name="walkerzorc1981">{{cite journal |last1= Walker |first1=Alan |last2=Zorc |first2=R. David |name-list-style=amp |year=1981 |title=Austronesian Loanwords in Yolngu-Matha of Northeast Arnhem Land |journal=Aboriginal History |volume=5 |pages=109–134  }}</ref>

In 2012, a huge painting by [[Gulumbu Yunupingu]] titled ''Garrurru (Sail)'' was installed at the [[Australian National University]]'s Hedley Bull Centre for World Politics.<ref>{{cite web | last=Streak | first=Diana | title=Artist's long journey to see her works on display | website=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | date=29 March 2012 | url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/act/artists-long-journey-to-see-her-works-on-display-20120329-1w1ej.html | access-date=10 April 2023}}</ref>  The word ''garrurru'' is the [[Yolngu language|Yolngu]] word for "[[sail]]", and derives from the Makassan word for [[sailcloth]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Artwork paints a picture of Australia's ancient links to Asia | website=ANU College of Asia & the Pacific | date=14 February 2014  | url=https://asiapacificweek.anu.edu.au/news-events/all-stories/artwork-paints-picture-australias-ancient-links-asia | access-date=10 April 2023}}</ref>

===Religion===
Drawing on the work of Ian Mcintosh (2000), Regina Ganter and Peta Stephenson suggest that aspects of [[Islam in Australia|Islam]] were creatively adapted by the Yolngu. Muslim references still survive in certain ceremonies and Dreaming stories in the early 21st century.{{sfn|Ganter|2008|p=2}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|pp=31–34}} Stephenson speculates that the Makassans may have been the first visitors to bring [[Islam in Australia|Islam]] to [[Australia]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stephenson |first=P. |date=2004 |title=Islam in Indigenous Australia: Historic Relic or Contemporary Reality |journal=Politics and Culture |volume=2004 |issue=4 |url=http://www.politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/islam-in-indigenous-australia-historic-relic-or-c-3/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721214913/http://www.politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/islam-in-indigenous-australia-historic-relic-or-c-3/ |archive-date=21 July 2011 |access-date=6 April 2012 |publication-date=10 August 2010}}</ref>{{better source|date=May 2013}}

According to anthropologist John Bradley from Monash University, "If you go to north-east Arnhem Land there is [a trace of Islam] in song, it is there in painting, it is there in dance, it is there in funeral rituals. It is patently obvious that there are borrowed items. With linguistic analysis as well, you're hearing hymns to [[Allah]], or at least certain prayers to Allah".{{efn|"...&nbsp;a figure called Walitha'walitha, which is worshipped by a clan of the Yolngu people on [[Elcho Island]], off the northern coast of Arnhem Land. The name derives from the Arabic phrase ''{{'}}[[Subhanahu wa ta'ala|Allah ta'ala]]','' meaning 'God, the exalted'. Walitha'walitha is closely associated with funeral rituals, which can include other Islamic elements like facing west during prayers – roughly the direction of [[Mecca]] – and ritual prostration reminiscent of the Muslim [[Sujud|sujood]]. 'I think it would be hugely oversimplifying to suggest that this figure is Allah as the "one true God",' says [[Howard Morphy]], an anthropologist at Australian National University. It's more the case of the Yolngu people adopting an Allah-like figure into their cosmology, he suggests."{{sfn|Rogers|2014}} }}

==Current situation==
Though prevented from fishing across Arnhem Land, other Indonesian fishermen have continued to fish up and down the west coast, in what are now Australian waters. This continues a practice of several hundred years, before such territories were declared – and some use traditional boats their grandparents owned. The current Australian government considers such fishing illegal by its rules. Since the 1970s, if the fishermen are caught by authorities, their boats are burned and the fishermen are deported to Indonesia. Most Indonesian fishing in Australian waters now occurs around what Australia termed "[[Ashmore Reef]]" (known in Indonesia as ''Pulau Pasir'') and the nearby islands.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stacey |first=N. |year=2007 |title=Boats to Burn, Bajo Fishing Activity in the Australian Fishing Zone |publisher=ANU E-Press, Australian National University |doi=10.22459/BB.06.2007 |doi-access=free |place=Canberra |isbn=978-1-920942-95-3 }}</ref>

Makassan contact history has been promoted by Yolngu communities as a source of cultural pride, and by [[Islam in Australia|Australian Muslims]] to demonstrate a long-term history of presence in the country.{{sfn|Clark|May|2013|p=64}} In 1988, the prau ''Hati Marege'' ("Heart of Marege") made a voyage from Makassar to Arnhem Land coinciding with the [[Australian Bicentenary]], captained by [[Using Daeng Rangka]]'s great-grandson and received in [[Elcho Island]] by the local Galiwin'ku community. Following the voyage, a series of mutual visits occurred between Makassar and Arnhem Land's Aboriginal communities, with a number of artistic performances in the ensuing years.{{sfn|Clark|May|2013|pp=62–63}} 

Relations with Makassans were cited as part of a native title claim to exclusive sea rights surrounding [[Croker Island]], and the [[High Court of Australia]] partially granted the claimants' requests, providing the communities with non-exclusive sea rights in 2001. The judgment relied on disputed historical findings that Aboriginal communities had not refused entry by Makassans into the waters. A minority dissenting opinion by [[Michael Kirby (judge)|Justice Michael Kirby]] noted that the judgment had posited an obligation to "the poorly armed forebears" and "would always be unfavourable" to the communities.{{sfn|Russell|2004|p=3}}
==See also==
* [[Patorani]] and [[padewakang]], two types of perahu used for trepanging by Makassan
* [[History of Australia before 1901]]
* [[Theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia]]
* [[Baijini]], a legendary people interpreted by some researchers as pre-Makassan visitors to Arnhem Land.{{sfn|Berndt|2004|p=55}}
* [[Marchinbar Island]], location of a deposit of early coins in Australia
* [[Javanese contact with Australia]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|40em}}
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}}
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{{refend}}

{{fishing history|expanded=villages}}
{{Austronesian ships}}
{{Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory}}

[[Category:Australia–Indonesia relations]]
[[Category:Fishing communities in Australia]]
[[Category:History of Australia before 1788]]
[[Category:History of Indigenous Australians]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Indonesia]]
[[Category:History of Sulawesi]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Australia]]
[[Category:Yolngu]]
[[Category:Islam in Australia]]
[[Category:18th century in Australia]]