RMIT entrance, corner of Bowen & Franklin Streets, Melbourne,
To commemorate the execution of the indigenous freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner
http://treatyrepublic.net/content/freedom-fighters-tunnerminnerwait-and-...
2009 commemoration http://treatyrepublic.net/node/28
http://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/sets/72157603761110484/
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were amoung 5 Tasmanian Aborigines who conducted a campaign of resistance to European settlement in 1841 around Western Port and South Gippsland near Melbourne. After 3 military expeditions they were finally captured and brought back to Melbourne for trial. They were not allowed to give evidence themselves. The two men were found guilty of murder, with the jury saying due to the circumstances mercy should be granted. No mercy was given and Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were the first judicial executions to take place in Melbourne on January 20, 1842 before a crowd of 5,000 - a quarter of the population of Melbourne at the time.
It was the third annual commemoration held on this site. A commemoration committee has been formed which aims
* to hold an annual commemoration on January 20 at the corner of Bowen and Franklin streets Melbourne, the site of the execution.
* to acknowledge the injustice that happenned in 1842
* to highlight the unfinished business that still exists between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians
* to work towards the establishment of a significant public monument on or near the site