Arabanoo (c. 1759 – 1789)[1] was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Eora forcibly abducted on New Year's Eve 1788 by British colonists who arrived with the First Fleet at Port Jackson.
[2] Life at the British outpost at Port Jackson was difficult in the first years and relations between the Aboriginal people of the Eora clans and the Europeans were poor.
He decided to kidnap an Aboriginal person, as he explained in a letter to Lord Sydney:"It was absolutely necessary that we should attain their language, or teach them ours that the means of redress might be pointed out to them, if they are injured, and to reconcile them by showing the many advantages they would enjoy by mixing with us."
In any case, convicts later launched vigilante attacks on the Aboriginal people near Botany Bay, and smallpox, which had been brought to Sydney by the colonists, caused a devastating epidemic throughout the Eora population.
Arabanoo was utilised by the colonists to look for survivors and was horrified when he approached the campsites which were either devoid of human life or filled with the putrid corpses of his people.
Colonel David Collins said his death was "to the great regret of everyone who had witnessed how little of the savage was found in his manner, and how quickly he was substituting in its place a docile, affable, and truly amiable deportment".