Jaara Baby - Identity

Identity

Although it had been buried in accordance with Aboriginal custom, there was some doubt as to the identity of the Jaara baby, primarily because it was buried with both Aboriginal and European artifacts. These included Aboriginal necklaces, an apron and a tool belt, along with European items such as a button, an axe head and a baby's bootie. The items were sprinkled with ochre before they were tied up in a bundle of dried possum skins.

At one point, Gary Foley, who at the time was the curator of the Bunjilaka exhibition at the Melbourne Museum, was approached by a white man from Canberra who claimed that the Jaara baby was an ancestor of his. He claimed that the baby was actually a European child, who had been abducted by Aboriginal tribesmen during the period of frontier violence which decimated Aboriginal populations in Victoria's west during the mid-nineteenth century. Although tests on the Jaara remains were not conclusive, they did reveal that the child was no more than eighteen months old, whereas the abducted white child was three years old.

However, the question of why the baby was buried along with European artifacts is still unanswered. Gary Murray, chairman of the Northwest Region Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Board (and a member of the Dja Dja Wurrung nation), has suggested that the Jaara baby was probably the child of an elder or tribal chief, due to the sheer number and richness of the grave goods. The European items were probably included as a record of the tribe's history at the time, a memorial of conflict with European settlers.