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Warrulan was buried in Warstone Lane Cemetery when he died in October 1855. He was a young factory worker, who had been working at Middlemore Saddles, when he caught a chill which turned into pneumonia. He is buried in a public grave, as would have been expected for a young working class man at the time. However, Warrulan was born a long way from Birmingham – he was an Aboriginal Australian.

Warrulan’s father Tenberry was the leader of the Ngaiawang people, one of the Laklinyeris (tribes) of the Ngarrindjeri nation, who lived near Moorundie on the Murray River in South Australia. He has been a guide and interpreter for the British administrator Edward Eyre and helped him with mapping and trade agreements along the river. Eyre offered to take his son Warrulan to England to be educated, and after visiting the ship which he would travel on, Warrulan’s family agreed to the journey. When Warrulan left Australia in 1844 he was about 10 years old, so at the time of his death he was likely to be around 19-21 years old.

Warrulan and another Aboriginal boy called Pankerin were taken to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1846, and so we have an engraving of what Warrulan looked like at this time from the Illustrated London News. Warrulan was educated at agricultural college, and then did an apprenticeship in Banbury before moving to Birmingham in March 1855.

During the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries Project and Jewellery Quarter Townscape Heritage Project, 3 young co-curators were hired to research and tell Warrulan’s story as part of the 2 Visions 2 Legacies film. Josie Wall contacted the State Aboriginal Heritage Committee in South Australia and got a reply from the chair Mark Koolmatrie, a Ngarrindjeri elder, who readily agreed to zoom meetings with the co-curators to help them understand Warrulan’s life and to record a voiceover for the film. Mark Koolmatrie, who runs Kool Tours, has kept in touch with the team ever since, and when the opportunity to visit the UK, as part of a repatriation trip with University of Oxford arose, he arranged to visit Birmingham too on Saturday 7th October 2023. Representative from many groups who look after Warstone Lane Cemetery and Warrulan were invited to the ceremony including Birmingham City Council Bereavement Services, Friends of Key Hill Cemetery, Jewellery Quarter Research Trust and JQBID. Some of the team who worked on the 2 Visions 2 Legacies project were present, and the film maker returned to film the ceremony.

Warrulan was baptised and found great comfort in his Christian faith while separated from his family, so it’s fitting that his remains stay here in the ruwe (land) of Warstone Lane Cemetery, but after waiting for 167 years, his miwi (spirit) is now able to make the long journey back to the Murray River and be reunited with his family and his ancestors.

Mark began the ceremony by drawing 3 white dots on the foreheads of the attendees which represent Birmingham, Murray River and Kaldowinyeri (Creation/dreaming) which are the 3 places connected to Warrulan. Then he called out to Warrulan, speaking to him in Ngarrindjeri language and using clapsticks to open the ceremony. Rosemary (freshwater), gathered near the Murray River was burned, and used to clear their minds, hearts and miwi (centre of spirit or emotion which is near the stomach) of the participants, and also to gather Warrulan’s spirit during the ceremony. The ashes were collected to travel back to Australia. A second ceremony will be performed at the Murray River to complete the journey and reunite Warrulan with the other ancestors. This ceremony will also be filmed.

Mark gifted the clapsticks used in the ceremony and 3 paintings by an Aboriginal artist to the Jewellery Quarter, the paintings show the landscape, the Kangaroo dreaming and the Possum dreaming. The double boomerang symbols and dots carved onto the clapsticks by Mark’s brother represent togetherness. These will be displayed at the film premiere when the new extended version of the 2 Visions 2 Legacies film is screened.

Below is a gallery of images taken by Phil O’Dell of Jewellery Quarter Research Trust during the ceremony.

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