Musquito by Naomi Parry Duncan

Musquito was just a boy when a convoy of eleven British ships assembled in the waters of Port Jackson in January 1788. Seventeen years later, he was a warrior fighting for Country west of Sydney, hunted by white colonists.

Exiled to Van Diemen’s Land he joined with local Aboriginal people as they began the resistance that ignited the colonists’ Black War. Wrongly accused of being the ringleader, he was executed in 1825.

Musquito is one of the best-known First Nations resistance fighters of the early colonies but even while he was alive, his story was shrouded in misinformation and myth. Historian Naomi Parry Duncan has uncovered the real story of this remarkable man. Searching the archives for the smallest fragments of evidence, she realised the lives of convicts in her family tree intersected with Musquito in disturbing ways.

Musquito’s remarkable life offers new insights into how Aboriginal people navigated ways of living alongside the new arrivals.

‘Musquito was a truly fascinating character, and this is a wonderfully researched biography with new insights.’ Professor John Maynard

‘A stunning work of history and biography. Be prepared to weep.’ Professor Grace Karskens

‘It’s hard to think of another work of Australian history that gives such a rich sense of the entanglement of human lives in the early colony-across Country, oceans, and worlds-or of the ongoing echoes of colonial violence.’ Delia Falconer

‘Parry Duncan deftly interweaves her personal journey with the life and times of Musquito and offers a powerful way forward for writing family history that acknowledges Australia’s shadowy colonial past.’ Stephen Gapps

Naomi Parry Duncan has uncovered the dramatic and tragic story of one of the best-known First Nations resistance warriors of the early colonies. Astonishingly, she also discovers her own convict ancestors are entangled in his story.

About the Author: Naomi Parry Duncan is an historian specialising in First Nations history and family history. She grew up in Tasmania and is president of the Professional Historians’ Association NSW and ACT, and an adjunct researcher at the University of Tasmania She is co-author of New South Wales and the Great War, and winner of the 2022 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.

30 Jun 2026
 

Musquito: The real story of a legendary colonial warrior by Naomi Parry Duncan ISBN 9781761067891