Musquito – The Real Story of a Legendary Colonial Warrior | Naomi Parry Duncan | 2026 [NEW – SC]

Naomi Parry Duncan's biography of Musquito — a Bidjigal man from the Sydney region who became one of the most significant First Nations resistance fighters of the early Australian colonies.

Musquito was a young man when the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in 1788. Seventeen years later he was fighting for his Country west of Sydney, pursued by colonists. He was exiled first to Norfolk Island then to Van Diemen's Land, where he joined Palawa people in the resistance that ignited the Black War. Wrongly accused of being the ringleader of the violence, he was executed in Hobart in February 1825 — one of the first Aboriginal people to be tried and hanged by the colonial courts.

Parry Duncan is a professional historian who spent two decades in the archives recovering Musquito's story — and in doing so discovered that her own convict ancestors were entangled with him in disturbing ways. One of them was almost certainly in the roving party that captured Musquito in 1805.

At 320 pages, this is a lyrical and deeply researched biography of a man whose story has long been obscured by misinformation — given new life by a historian with a personal stake in getting it right.

BOOK DETAILS

• Softcover.
• 320 pages.
• Published 2026 by Allen & Unwin.

CONDITION

New.

DELIVERY & IN-STORE PICKUP

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