Giordano Nanni - Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country

To hear and see the words as they were spoken in 1881 will give the reader a better appreciation of how remarkable the Inquiry actually was.

The richness of character of all the people participating in the Inquiry becomes so evident through the use of the verbatim script. Each person a real person involved in the Inquiry was an active participant in the development of Australias fledgling identity.

Coranderrk will raise the public consciousness of the Inquiry and its importance for the future generations of Australians. The Inquiry itself demonstrates how the colony (and then Australia) struggled with new conceptions of equality and inclusiveness as evidenced by the first-hand testimony of women and natives. The voices of women and Indigenous peoples are so clear in this book it is easy to place their voices in the national narrative that has been missing.

This book brings the past into the present with the hope of understanding a clearer pathway for the future. That pathway is a better understanding of our governing institutions and psyche of the nation and it resides within the words of the Inquiry and in this book.

Dr Mark McMillan, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne

CORANDERRK

WE WILL SHOW THE COUNTRY

Giordano Nanni and Andrea James

First published in 2013 by Aboriginal Studies Press

Giordano Nanni and Andrea James, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its education purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Aboriginal Studies Press is the publishing arm of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

GPO Box 553, Canberra, ACT 2601

Phone: (61 2) 6246 1183

Fax: (61 2) 6261 4288

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Web: www.aiatsis.gov.au/asp

This publication was supported by a Faculty of Arts Publication Subsidy Grant from The University of Melbourne, and by the Australian Research Council, through the Minutes of Evidence project (LP110200054).

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-In-Publication data:

Author: Nanni, Giordano, author.

Title: Coranderrk : we will show the country/Giordano Nanni; Andrea James.

ISBN: 9781922059390 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781922059406 (ebook: pdf)

Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects: Coranderrk Aboriginal Station (Vic.) History. Wurundjeri (Australian people) Victoria Coranderrk History. Wurundjeri (Australian people) Victoria Coranderrk Social conditions. Aboriginal Australians Victoria Coranderrk History. Aboriginal Australians Victoria Coranderrk Social conditions. Coranderrk (Vic.) History. Victoria History 18341900.

Other Authors/Contributors: James, Andrea, author.

Dewey Number: 994.50049915

Front cover: (Upper images) Actors Melodie Reynolds (left); Uncle Jack Charles, Peter Finlay & Liz Jones (centre); and Tom Long (right) performing Coranderrk. Photos by Steven Rhall and the MOE project. (Lower image) The Coranderrk men on a deputation into Melbourne (1886). Source: the State Library of Victoria, H141267.

Cover design: Philippa Lawrence, Sprout Design

Editor: Karen Deighton-Smith

Printed in Australia by Opus Print Group

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are respectfully advised that this book contains images and words of deceased persons, and images of places, which could cause sorrow.

Dedicated to the spirit of justice, friendship and collaboration between the Coranderrk families, John Green and Anne Bon.

May their story be known.

WE WANT THE BOARD AND THE INSPECTOR, CAPTAIN PAGE, TO BE NO LONGER OVER US. WE WANT ONLY ONE MAN HERE, AND THAT IS MR JOHN GREEN, AND THE STATION TO BE UNDER THE CHIEF SECRETARY; THEN WE WILL SHOW THE COUNTRY THAT THE STATION COULD SELF-SUPPORT ITSELF.

Coranderrk, 16 November 1881

Minutes of evidence, Coranderrk Inquiry, p. 98.

FOREWORD

I am extremely proud to write the foreword for a book that reveals evidential material contained within the documents of a Parliamentary Inquiry in 1881 on the treatment of Aboriginal people resident at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville, Victoria.

The establishment of Stations and Reserves was a policy of the Victorian Governments Aboriginal Protection Act to forcibly remove Aboriginal people from their traditional lands, divide families, stop cultural customs and assimilate them into white society. When the Board of Protection tried to move residents and close down Coranderrk Station, my great-great Uncle William Barak said: Me no leave it, Yarra, my fathers country. Theres no mountains for me on the Murray. Barak also said: And we dont want any Board nor inspecting Capt. Page over us only one man, that is Mr Green, and the station to be under the Chief Secretary, and then we will show to the country that we can work it and make it pay, and I know it will.

We will show the country are powerful words which were upheld for many years. From the time of establishment of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station in 1863 until its closure in 1924, the Coranderrk family became friends with a Scottish settler Mr John Green and his family. They trusted John Green and in turn, they successfully managed the 4850 acre property to become the most productive Aboriginal Station in Victoria. Coranderrk became a self-sufficient community, provided for families some distance away and won the first prize blue ribbon award for best hops at the 1881 Melbourne International Exhibition. Another staunch supporter of the Coranderrk family was the Scottish woman Mrs Anne Fraser Bon. Remarkably for the time, she played a big part in bringing about the 1881 Inquiry, which allowed representatives of the Coranderrk family to put their words on the official record. William Barak and Anne Bon shared their personal experiences, in particular, loss of their children. Barak invited Bon to witness a traditional ceremony but she chose to watch from nearby.

Dr Giordano Nanni, a historian at The University of Melbourne, approached me in 2009, during a pilgrimage to Coranderrk. He had recently discovered the minutes of evidence of the Coranderrk Inquiry and was very touched by the power of this story. He had an idea to re-enact the Coranderrk Inquiry using only the words from the minutes of evidence. He was very excited and felt that as a play, it would provide an opportunity not just to talk about the past, but to let the past speak for itself. More recently, Giordano told me that he had been nervous about approaching me because he wasnt sure how the idea would be received by descendants of the Community. I believed in this quietly spoken young man. The idea excited me and I hoped someday, something special might happen, and gave him my blessing.

Something special did happen. Giordanos dedication and commitment in sourcing the transcripts of the Coranderrk Inquiry which he edited together with Andrea James an inspirational woman and successful Aboriginal playwright whose Yorta Yorta family were also Coranderrk residents led to a draft script. And in collaboration with Rachael Maza of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, La Mama Theatre and the University of Melbourne, the script was performed as a series of pilot readings in August 2010, which received a hugely positive response.