Talk:John Caesar/GA1

GA review

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Nominator: SkywalkerEccleston (talk · contribs) 06:10, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: MCE89 (talk · contribs) 05:15, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! I'll be reviewing this article. I'm reviewing this for the May backlog drive, so as part of the drive I'll also be listing this for a more experienced reviewer to come by and take a look at my review. I'll give some initial comments in the next day or so. MCE89 (talk) 05:15, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check.
a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

Earwig shows a high percentage, but is only flagging properly attributed quotes. No copyvio or close paraphrasing issues identified. MCE89 (talk) 07:46, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):

Article is broad in its coverage. No major aspects of the topic are missing, and the article is an appropriate length. MCE89 (talk) 07:46, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:

No NPOV issues identified. MCE89 (talk) 07:46, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:

No stability issues. MCE89 (talk) 07:46, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

Images are appropriately placed and captioned, and have accurate PD tags MCE89 (talk) 07:46, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Overall:
Pass/Fail:

@SkywalkerEccleston I've added my review comments below. Overall I think the article generally satisfies all of the GA criteria and have just given a few comments to address. Feel free to push back if you disagree with any of these suggestions. MCE89 (talk) 07:46, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi MCE89, I have made all these changes and the page is ready for your review. The only thing I haven't changed is your note about the chronology of Garden Island. Could you provide an example of the kind of amendment you would like? Thanks SkywalkerEccleston (talk) 23:49, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

All looks great! Reading over it again, I think the article's chronology regarding Garden Island is fine as it is — I was a bit thrown off by the fact that the other sources don't mention him being sent there until after his first escape, but what you have makes sense and is supported by the Chingaipe source. I'll leave this review open for another day or two so that hopefully another reviewer can pick it up from the list on the backlog drive page to check over, but I'm satisfied that the article meets the GA criteria and will pass it if not. MCE89 (talk) 10:47, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. SkywalkerEccleston (talk) 01:40, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Prose and general comments

Lead

Following a third escape in 1794, Caesar seriously wounded Aboriginal warrior Pemulwuy during a Bidjigal guerilla attack. - The body of the article seems to suggest that these two things were unrelated (i.e. he wounded Pemulwuy at least a year after being recaptured). If that’s the case, I think this phrasing should be changed slightly, as it currently reads to me as saying that he wounded Pemulwuy during his escape or that the two things were somehow connected

Transportation to Australia

...as one of twelve black convicts - Perhaps change this to "at least twelve", or attribute this figure to Cheek? Chingaipe has more recently estimated that there were fifteen black convicts, and I believe other historians have given different estimates

Convict life

Suggest wikilinking Dennis Considen
Suggest wikilinking Lady Juliana (1777 ship)
Not a GA requirement so feel free to ignore, but the blockquotes throughout the article aren't consistent in whether or not they are enclosed in quotation marks. Per MOS:BLOCKQUOTE, they shouldn't generally have quotation marks.

Legacy

Anne Power died on 25 March on Norfolk Island - add the year for clarity
Suggest wikilinking Santilla Chingaipe
It's not essential, but I think it could be useful to add a sentence based on some of the existing sources to explain the significance of bushrangers and why the fact that Caesar was the first Australian bushranger is so notable. E.g. explaining what a bushranger is and that later bushrangers like Ned Kelly have assumed a prominent role in Australian folklore

In popular culture

Suggest wikilinking Percy Lindsay
It would be good to provide a little more context for each of the items in this section, as at the moment it feels a bit like a list of trivia. E.g. for the last one, you could expand this to at the very least something like Mohamed Osman portrayed Caesar in the 2021 SBS docudrama Our African Roots. The docudrama was written and produced by Zambian-Australian historian Santilla Chingaipe, who said that she hoped it would spur a conversation about how Black people had contributed to Australian national identity. A brief discussion of how he is portrayed in each of these pieces of media, particularly in The Playmaker, would be even better.

Source review

Major sources

Cheek (2018) Y all checks out
Chingaipe (2024)
- I think ...though contemporary historians believe Madagascar was his place of birth suggests a bit more certainty than is really contained in these sources. Of the three sources you cite for this statement, only Cheek outright says that Madagascar was his place of birth. Chingaipe says "his precise origins remain unknown: there has been speculation he was originally from Madagascar, and early reports claimed he was from the West Indies" and Cunneen & Gillen say he was "of unknown African parentage, may have been born on Madagascar". I’d suggest qualifying this statement slightly to something more like "...though contemporary historians have suggested that Madagascar may have in fact been his place of birth".
Cunneen & Gillen (2005)
- Both this source and Cheek imply that Caesar wasn’t sent to Garden Island until after his first escape, whereas the article follows Chingaipe in suggesting that he was sent to Garden Island straight after the First Fleet's arrival. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with the way the article currently presents this, but is it possible to make this chronology slightly clearer?

Other sources

Ref 13 Y all checks out
Ref 49 Y all checks out
Ref 54 Y all checks out