Read more
Australia, early 1800s
For more than 165 years the disappearance of the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt has remained unsolved. On his second exploration of Australia in April of 1848, in the company of five white men, two Aboriginal guides, seven horses, 20 mules and 50 bullocks, the explorer left the Darling Downs area in southern Queensland bound for Western Australia some 4000 kilometres away across 'virgin' deserts; where our people lived. Shortly afterward, the entire party and all stock vanished without trace.
From those terrifying harsh times for our own people - the Heart-rock people - the following chronicle reveals the tale of that journey through their ancient eyes.
About the author
Pemulwuy Weeatunga is the pen name John M Wenitong chose for the Fethafoot Chronicles series.
Born in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, John is an indigenous Australian man of Kabi Kabi Aboriginal and South-Sea Island origin. His Australian indigenous mob is caretakers of the mainland area from approximately the Fraser to Moreton Islands area of the SE-Queensland coastline.
John's mother - Aunty Lorna Wenitong - started the first Aboriginal Health Program out of Mt Isa in the late 1960s and his younger brother, Mark, one of the first indigenous Doctors in Queensland, is credited with being the mind behind AIDA in Australia.
John, now in his early sixties, has four children aged from their teens to their late thirties, and six wonderful grandchildren. He plays guitar, photographs nature, writes poetry and songs, and occasionally tries to sing.
