Description

More than a century ago an Aboriginal community in Victoria campaigned for recognition of their right to occupy and control the small acreage they had farmed for 25 years. Others wanted to develop this tract. Government spokesmen denied that the occupants had inherited any rights to this land and declared that, anyway, they were not really Aborigines. This book is about the rebellion at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station between 1874 and 1886. It describes how Coranderrk families fought to keep their land. To explain why they fought I must begin with the years before, to show what this ‘miserable spadeful of ground’ meant to them, and how they came to be there. Finally, I sketch what ultimately happened.

First published in 1998, 12 years after the death of its author Diane Barwick,Rebellion at Coranderrk was an attempt to rectify some of the injustices of the past two-hundred-plus years in Australia, and to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

It remains acutely relevant.

This book includes the names and images of people who are now deceased.

‘All Australians have good reason to be grateful to Diane Barwick.’
— H. C. Coombs

‘The painstaking research, the perceptive judgements of people and events, and the brilliant prose combine to produce a magnificent account of the Kulin and their European “administrators”. The book is simply packed with historical reinterpretation and vivid reconstructions of families and individuals.’
— C. T. Stannage

‘The author’s research found that Coranderrk is an excellent example of … an Aboriginal (farming) success story. It is very relevant to modern land-rights protests throughout Australia.’
— Canberra Times

Details

ISBN (print):

9781760466497

ISBN (online):

9781760466503

Publication date:

Aug 2024

Imprint:

ANU Press

DOI:

http://doi.org/10.22459/RC.2024

Series:

Aboriginal History Monographs

Co-publisher:

Aboriginal History

Disciplines:

Arts & Humanities:History;Social Sciences:Indigenous Studies

Countries:

Australia

PDF Chapters

Rebellion at Coranderrk »

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• Preliminary Pages (PDF, 147 KB)
• List of Figures (PDF, 65 KB)
• Foreword to the 2024 Edition (PDF, 1.6 MB)
• Author’s Preface (PDF, 52 KB)
• Editors’ Preface (PDF, 1.7 MB)
• Introduction: Of History and Happenstance (PDF, 90 KB)

1. Kulin and Ngamajet (PDF, 4 MB)doi
2. The Years Before (PDF, 218 KB)doi
3. A New Beginning (PDF, 393 KB)doi
4. Mr Green’s Way (PDF, 1.9 MB)doi
5. Proprietors for the First Decade (PDF, 780 KB)doi
6. The Board Takes Control (PDF, 673 KB)doi
7. Loss of a Good Master (PDF, 555 KB)doi
8. The Threat of Removal (PDF, 691 KB)doi
9. Who Owns the Land? (PDF, 411 KB)doi
10. Cause for Rebellion (PDF, 396 KB)doi
11. Mrs Bon Intervenes (PDF, 864 KB)doi
12. A Brief Victory (PDF, 392 KB)doi
13. Final Defeat (PDF, 654 KB)doi
14. The End of the Story (PDF, 824 KB)doi
15. Dispersal (PDF, 2.2 MB)doi

• Appendix 1: The History of Farm Development at Coranderrk (PDF, 85 KB)
• Appendix 2: Membership of the Boards (PDF, 418 KB)
• Bibliography (PDF, 99 KB)
• Index (PDF, 206 KB)