Duncan McNab

Duncan McNab
McNab as he appeared about 1870
Born	11 May 1820 Achrinich, parish of Morven, Argyll, Scotland
Died	19 September 1896 (aged 76) Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	Catholic Missionary
Known for	Campaigning for equal rights for Australian Aboriginal peoples

Duncan McNab (1820–1896), was a Catholic missionary in Queensland and the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

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

, 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 the Aboriginal peoples until 1875 where he began work in the colony of Queensland. McNab firmly believed in restoring Aboriginal peoples 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, 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.

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• Ørsted-Jensen, Robert: The Right to live - the Troubled Conscience of an Australian Journalist (yet unpublished Dr thesis and manuscript)