Medal Given to Jackey Jackey.

Rare c.19th engraving of the breast plate given by Sir C. Fitzroy to Jackey Jackey, native servant to the explorer Mr Kennedy.

Jackey Jackey  (c. 1833–1854), Aboriginal name Galmarra), was the Aboriginal Australian guide and companion to surveyor Edmund Kennedy.

He survived Kennedy’s fatal 1848 expedition into Cape York Peninsula and was subsequently formally recognised for heroic deeds by the Colony of New South Wales in words engraved on a solid silver breastplate which read as follows:

Presented by His Excellency Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy K.D. Governor of New South Wales, to Jackey Jackey, an Aboriginal native of that colony. In testimony of the fidelity with which he followed the late Assistant Surveyor E.B.C. Kennedy, throughout the exploration of York Peninsula in the year 1848; the noble daring with which he supported that lamented gentleman, when mortally wounded by the Natives of Escape River, the courage with which after having affectionately tended the last moments of his Master, he made his way through hostile Tribes and an unknown Country, to Cape York; and finally the unexampled sagacity with which he conducted the succour that there awaited the Expedition to the rescue of the other survivors of it, who had been left at Shelbourne Bay.

From the original edition of The Illustrated Sydney News.

References:
Gibbs & Shallard. Illustrated Sydney News. ISSN 2203-5397.

Collections:
State Library New South Wales: F8/39-40
State Library Victoria: PCINF SLVIC=1853-1872
National Library Australia: Bib ID 440095