Sex, Empire and Sovereignty: Making Australian Sexuality

Abstract

The Gai-mariagal people, whose home lies in the sandstone country stretching along the coastline north of Sydney, have a story concerning sharks and Gubjas. Gubjas are wicked, hairy and smell like excrement. They use their foul odour to overcome any lone Gai-mariagal they encounter, killing the men and raping the women. In one story set in Sydney's Middle Harbour before it filled with water, the Gubjas raid a camp where some girls are learning from their elders 'women's business', exploiting the absence of men to kill the teachers and abduct their three pupils. Eventually, the Gai-mariagal men track down and rescue the girls - bound and pregnant - but the Gubjas find the party as they make their way towards the water. In the ensuing struggle, the Gubjas have powerful spears able to inflict great damage from afar, while the canoes bearing the men and women are upended, casting them into the water. The expanding bellies of the pregnant women explode to release ferocious sharks - harbour whalers - which eat the men and their own mothers. These are the first such whalers - and they have ruled over these waters ever since.