Debney Peace
In 1889, a 5-day peace ceremony known as the Debney Peace was performed between First Nations People and pastoralists in the Channel Country region. This historic event is important today for Mithaka People as it is a very rare example of a peace treaty, brokered by European settlers in collaboration with First Nations representatives from various areas of Channel Country.
According to historian Tom Griffiths:
"The Debney Peace’ was a formal agreement between pastoralists and First Nations people but it was also designed to keep at bay that third murderous force, the Native Mounted Police. The district leader of the Native Police, Senior Inspector Robert Kyle Little (1841-1889), approved Debney’s consultations with Indigenous leaders in the region, although he died of sunstroke in Birdsville four months before the ceremony took place.
However, his assent to the negotiation was important. It is unlikely that the Inspector wrote down any details of the peace negotiations, for they could have constituted recognition of a state of war. Nor was it in the interests of pastoralists to advertise their willingness to negotiate with the original owners for that could have signalled weakness. To be effective, the Debney Peace needed to be known among First Nations people, a select group of local pastoralists and the leadership of the Native Mounted Police. But otherwise it was not for public report.
This is why knowledge of the event survives only in the early oral history written down by Alice Duncan-Kemp."