Michael Roberts
In step with David Sansoni’s email questioning Victor Melder has categorically challenged my speculative suggestion that NOVA PERIS may possibly have had a grandparent who was a Sri Lankan pearler/trader/seaman in the north-western reaches of Australia .
371732 05: Australian gold medalist Peris-Kneebone autographs the “Nova” watch she designed for Swatch Watches June 27, 2000 in Santa Monica, CA. Peris-Kneebone, the first Olympic torch bearer on Australian soil and a member of the Aboriginal Muran Clan was on hand to discuss her part in the 17,000-mile journey the olympic tourch will make. (Photo by Jason Kirk/Online USA)
While I have passed this issue on to a renowned Genealogist on Sri Lankan families, Kyle Joustra in Melbourne, and while acknowledging the corrections, the reference to Nova’s Filipino heritage promotes further speculations from within the depths of an aging mind.
The Filipino. Tahitian and Pacific island connections with the northern coastline areas of Australia were developments during the vast maritime and colonial operations of the two nations in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe, namely, Spain and Portugal, from the 15th/16th century onwards. The male personnel who were parties in these vast enterprises are likely to have indulged in sexual intercourse with local populations.
This was true in medieval Sri Lanka as well. Witness the proliferation of such names as De Silva, De Soysa, De Zoysa, Fernando, Mendis, Medonza, Peiris, etc. So, pursuing the long historical trajectory, I move to the SPECULATION that the presence of “Peris” in this great Australian’s heritage is an outcome of the early Western imperial ‘footprints’ in northern Australia.
HOWEVER: the MEMO from Kyle Joustra is quite revelatory and places my speculations in the larger context in a definitive manner
VICTOR MELDER: “No, Nova Peris is not of Sri Lankan heritage; she is a prominent Indigenous Australian from the Gija, Yawuru, and Muran/Iwatja peoples. While her surname, “Peris,” has European origins, and she has documented Scottish, Irish, and Filipino heritage, her Indigenous identity comes from her family’s connections to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions and cultures in Australia.”
KYLE JOUSTRA: “There is no indication that she is tied to Ceylon/ Sri Lanka directly. However, because she has Aboriginal bloodlines, she will have connection through the group that left South India and moved to Australia thousands of years ago. As my grandmother’s line is the same haplotype that became Australian Aboriginal, my grandmother’s line went and settled in Ceylon and became Singhalese.
To correct another piece of information the Portuguese didn’t just go to Ceylon and force conversion giving Portuguese surnames, this occurred in a great many places and variants of the surname took place.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
A THOUGHT: I have been smacked on my bum by two experts. Thanks, Guys ……….However let me pose a PICTORIAL ASIDE:
Look at this picture.
370615 03: From right, Nicola Severino, Nova Peris-Kneebone, Evonne Cawley, Ernie Dingo, Lowitja O”Donoghue and Nicky Winmar hold the Olympic torch, June 7, 2000, ”Uluru” prior to the torch arrival at Uluru on June 8, 2000, Northern Territory, Australia. (Photo by Matt Turner/Newsmakers)
IF one replaced the famous faces of Evonne Goolagong, Ernie Dingo and Nova Peris with unknowns of the same complexion and replaced Ayers Rock in the background with Sigiriya, would you not …. as dinky-die Sri Lankans …. lean towards the contention that this cluster was a group of Sri Lankans from the colonial era (as distinct from Vaddas and pukka Demala or pukka Sinhalayo)?
AND …. reflect on this photograph of a cluster of Burghers ….. https://thuppahis.com/2019/02/05/long-live-the-burghers-anecdotes-from-the-past/
