OODEEN, A MALAY INTERPRETER ON AUSTRALIA'S FRONTIER LANDS

Abstract

This article focuses on a 19^th century government interpreter for the Colony of New South Wales, Oodeen, later known as John O'Dean, as an insight into early communication between European Australia and the Indonesian-Malay World. It reviews the subjectivity of the interpreter through his biography and the colonial administration's motivation in engaging him as an intermediary between Europeans and non-Europeans. Particular attention is given to Oodeen's presence at Fort Wellington, a military garrison and trading post on the north coast of Australia established to secure Britain's claim to the north of the continent and to trade with the Indonesian trepang fleets from Makassar.

Notes

¹An edible variety of holothurian: sea cucumber, bêche-de-mer (French), and haˇishēn (Chinese)

²Tony Saldin, Personal correspondence.

³An example can be found in the Brisbane Courier, 9 March 1897, p. 6.

⁴Personal correspondence. See Vinod's Places, August 2009, <http://vinodplaces.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html> accessed 11 November 2011.

⁵Based on the 1828 New South Wales Census and his death certificate.

⁶Death Certificate, John Odean, reg. 00675, NSW Registry of Births, Death and Marriages.

⁷Derived from a list compiled by Kyle Joustra for Ceylon Data Base. Personal correspondence.

⁸Lachlan Macquarie's Journal No. 3: 29 December 1794 – 27 September 1799. ML: A769: 140–91. [CY Reel 299 Frames #458–484].

⁹Lachlan Macquarie's Journal No. 3: 16 February 1796. ML: A769: 140–91.

¹¹Recorded as June 1803 at Oodeen's trial, Ceylon General Orders 1812–1815, The National Archives, UK (henceforth TNA) T64/61.

¹⁰An account by an officer of the regiment can be found in Colburn's United Service Magazine, Part 3, November, 1860.

¹²Trial of Odeen Drum Major Malay Regiment, Ceylon General Orders, 18 May 1815, TNA T64/61.

¹³ibid

¹⁴Oodeen's case was also included in a manual of judicial and military duties as an explanation of the Mutiny Act and Articles of War by Hough and Long (1825).

¹⁵Macquarie had been serving as Governor of New South Wales since 1810.

¹⁶22 February 1804, Journal No. 5. 12 Sept. 1801–14 July 1804. ML A769: 140–191. [CY Reel 299 Frames #458–484].

¹⁷Petition for mitigation of sentence, 5 December 1818, Colonial Secretary Papers, State Records of NSW (henceforth SRNSW) fiche 3189, 4/1856: 202.

¹⁸A ticket of leave allowed Oodeen to hire himself out or be self-employed, though some restrictions were still imposed on his movement.

¹⁹Letters referred to Major Ovens, 1825, Colonial Secretary papers, SRNSW 6014, 4/513: 522

²⁰The Indonesians had travelled and named many areas along of the north coast of Australia, but these names were rarely used on European maps.

²¹NSW Colonial Secretary, Returns of the Colony, 1828. SRNSW, 4/257: 96–97.

²²Captain Smyth, 20 March 1828, Historical Records of Australia (henceforth HRA) 3.6: 789.

²³Captain Smyth to Colonial Secretary Macleay, 20 March 1828, HRA 3.6: 789.

²⁴Captain Smyth's report to Colonial Secretary Macleay, 18 July 1828, HRA 3.6: 800–5.

²⁵Ibid.

²⁶Captain Hartley, 12 May 1828, HRA 3.6: 717.

²⁷Captain Hartley, 12 May 1828, HRA 3.6: 717.

²⁹Lieutenant Sleeman to Colonial Secretary Macleay, 4 June 1828. HRA 3.6: 799.

²⁸Memorial of William O'Deane to Governor Darling, 14 November 1828. Colonial Secretary Letters, SRNSW 4/2000.

³⁰Eve was able to bring with her a few possessions including bedding, tools, a gun, two boxes of Delph china & glass, and a goat. SRNSW, 4/1703, 7 August 1828.

³¹William O'Deane to Governor Darling, 14 November 1828, Colonial Secretary's Letters, SRNSW no. 4/2000.

³²Captain Barker to Colonial Secretary Macleay, 26 February 1829. HRA 3.6: 824.

³³Letter from Captain Warteen. Colonial Secretary Letters sent to Fort Wellington 1827–29, SRNSW 4/3731.

³⁴Maas would later be hanged for forgery (Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 4 September 1830, pp. 2–3).

³⁵Barker, 24 March 1829 in Mulvaney & Green (1992: 136).

³⁶Barker, 1 April 1829 in Mulvaney & Green (1992: 139).

³⁷Ibid.

⁴¹Barker, 23 March 1829 in Mulvaney & Green (1992: 135).

⁴²Barker, 24 March 1829 in Mulvaney & Green (1992: 137).

³⁸Barker, 25 March 1829 in Mulvaney & Green (1992: 137).

³⁹Ibid.

⁴⁰Ibid.

⁴³From penggawa, a title which in this context could mean an advisor or leader.

⁴⁴‘Lascar’ here refers to merchant seamen from the Indian sub-continent and Sri Lanka, however some also originated from the Malay Archipelago.

⁴⁵18 ships from Batavia were recorded in 1837 with 50 in each of the subsequent years. Ian H. Nicholson Shipping arrivals and departures, Sydney, Volume II, 1826-1840.

⁴⁶ Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 12 March 1836, p.3.

⁴⁷ Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 October 1836.

⁴⁸Other funeral notices state the address as101 Woolloomooloo Street.

⁴⁹ Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May 1860, p. 1.

⁵⁰The Irish, Welsh and Scots also brought their languages with them, though this is often obscured.