Duncan McNab (1820–1896), was a Catholic missionary in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and the

Kimberley region of Western Australia The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...

. McNab was born on 11 May 1820 at Achrinich, parish of Morven,

Argyllshire Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, son of Patric McNab and his wife Cirsty. He entered Blair College, a seminary near

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, in 1832 and in June 1835 to the Scots College in Rome but left before taking his oath as a missionary on 8 August 1840. He was ordained a priest in Scotland on 8 March 1845. He later stated that he had dreamed of becoming a missionary to the

Australian Aborigines Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

at that time, perhaps inspired by what he had heard from the family of his fathers sister's family the MacKillop family in the colony of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, but was refused by a bishop perpetually short of priests, and spent twenty years in parish work before finally migrating to Australia on board the ''Chariot of Fame'' in July 1867. Here he was again refused permission to embark on a mission to Aboriginals until 1875 where he began work in the colony of Queensland. McNab firmly believed in restoring Aboriginal People to equal rights and considering their attachment to their land he believed that the best way of assisting them was to help them to become settlers on sections of their own tribal land and on equal terms to that of white settlers. However, his ideas was met with powerful opposition from settlers as well as from sections of the Catholic leadership, subsequently forced McNab to leave Queensland in 1882. He then began a mission amongst Aboriginal prisoners in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, later setting up a small mission station in Goodneough Bay in the remote north of the Kimberley region. Age and illness caused him to retire to Victoria where he died in 1896. Duncan McNab, was a first cousin once removed to Sister

Mary MacKillop Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909) was an Australian religious sister who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, as St Mary of the Cross. Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne but is best known fo ...

Notes

References

* Durack, Mary: The Rock and the Sand, London 1969, 336 pages ill. index. * Nailon, Brigida: The Writing on The Wall. - Father Duncan McNab 1820-1896, Melbourne 2003, 256 ill. index. * Ørsted-Jensen, Robert: The Right to live - the Troubled Conscience of an Australian Journalist (yet unpublished Dr thesis and manuscript) {{DEFAULTSORT:McNab, Duncan Roman Catholic missionaries in Australia Australian indigenous rights activists Scottish Roman Catholic missionaries 19th-century Australian Roman Catholic priests 1820 births 1896 deaths Scottish emigrants to Australia 19th-century Scottish Roman Catholic priests