Life stories: The Wild Australia Show (1892-1893)

The Wild Australia Show (1892-1893) was a travelling troupe of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that performed in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne from late 1892 until mid-1893. The show comprised 21 men, 5 women, and 1 child. There is considerable variation in the rendering of their names. This reflects the difficulties that colonisers had in hearing Aboriginal pronunciation and voice expression, and the fact that Aboriginal people often carried multiple names and identity labels. Therefore, in most cases, two names are offered here: contemporary linguistically derived spellings followed by the most common spellings of their names at the time of the troupe’s existence. Commonly accepted contemporary spellings of their ancestral or language groups are also provided.