Birrarung
(The Yarra River) - QuickTime Audio/Image
file
Bunjil
the Eagle
- QuickTime Audio/Image file
About
Coranderrk
- QuickTime Audio/Image file
Professor Joy Murphy-Wandin is a Wurundjeri
Elder.
William Barak
The history of one of the greatest men of this
area...
William Barak is my great, great uncle. He had two brothers and a
sister named Annie. Sadly for William, none of his three children
survived past the age of 14. David was the child that lived the longest.
David I believe was actually born here on Coranderrk. Annie also had
three children. The only surviving child was my grandfather, Robert
Wandin. And so that is our connection with William Barak.
William Barak plays a very important role in our lives because he
became the Ngurangaeta or the head person of the Wurundjeri
people and the people here at Coranderrk. William Barak was not a
very tall man from what I know. He was about 5 foot 8, but was very
strong, had very, very, very strong facial features, and beautiful,
almost bronzed skin. He was a very strong presence.
He was taught by his uncle, 
Billibellary, who taught the ways of traditional practice, and taught
him the ways of leadership. It was his Uncle Billibellary that said
to him, "You will be the next head man of Wurundjeri". And
so he became the head man after the death of his Uncle Billibellary.
He shared that leadership with his cousin, Simon Wonga here at Coranderrk.
William Barak was actually not born on Coranderrk, but born down
at a place, just near North Croydon, which is today called Brushy
Creek. He was born by the creek and today the people of North Croydon
have put a beautiful stone plaque dedicated to William Barak in a
park so people can see it. It's really a nice place to reflect on
when we drive past and I always make a mention of it to my children
and my grandchildren in particular. So that connection of yesterday
and today is very prominent down at Brushy Creek. And it remains a
place where the generations following after William Barak will always
remember him because of that association.
William Barak was also the man who said that this place Coranderrk
would survive, that we would work out relationships with people. He
became a skilled mediator. Today there are still very strong connections
with the people in and around the Healesville area, and particularly
a Swiss family, by the name of Deprury.
William Barak's artworks are shown today all over the world. The
National Gallery of Victoria now has in its possession seven of his
original paintings. The Museum of Victoria has two paintings. He did
all his artwork with a frayed and chewed piece of stick. He would
paint with ochre and charcoal, bringing out the colours in the charcoal,
even producing a blue from a red, and a mix of pink and white pipe-clay.
So some of his work is extremely beautiful. William Barak is known
today, more as an artist, but he was the leader of Coranderrk.
William Barak believed strongly in the rights of his people. He was
aware of the fact that Coranderrk was to be closed down. In fact,
that was taking place when he was presenting and leading deputations
to the Victorian Government in Melbourne. He would get people together,
get them enthused, motivate them, and they would walk from here at
Coranderrk all the way to Melbourne to present petitions. Many Aboriginal
people helped him to write these petitions, including my grandfather
Robert. He would literally hand this petition to the government, which
would say things like "please leave us alone, give us our land
back, don't take it away again". He pleaded with the government,
to let his people be who they were on their own place.
He
also made a very strong request to Queen Victoria at the time. This
letter is actually documented, and although I don't know it word for
word, it says something like "We are the people of Coranderrk,
why do you keep taking things away from us? Please leave us alone.
We are dying away by degrees. All we want to do is live and die at
Coranderrk."
I don't think he ever received an acknowledgment of that letter.
He certainly didn't get a response to the letter. Then ultimately
in 1923 this place Coranderrk was officially closed down.
William Barak was also a man who could embrace any culture. He formed
a beautiful relationship with a lady by the name of Anne Bon, a Scottish
woman. Her husband had brought her out in the mid-1850s, and they
built a property on Wappan Station in Mansfield. William Barak would
have been travelling around with other elders as they did in those
times when there were important social and political decisions to
be made. They would join together as a team of leaders and go and
meet on the most appropriate land. He met up with Anne Bon and their
closeness came about because of loss in their lives. Anne Bon had
lost a child then William Barak lost a child. William generously,
very generously, invited Anne Bon to be part of this sharing of celebration
of death. But she was very respectful and didn't actually attend ceremonies.
She just stood aside and watched what happened. But by that she embraced
the culture of Aboriginal people in a very spiritual and in a very
special way. When her husband died, she had this beautiful monument
made for him which probably stands about 10 feet tall. She had her
husband's name and her child's name put on this monument. Their place
at Wappan Station was eventually to be flooded and became the Eildon
Weir. Anne Bon decided that she should move this monument, but at
this time William Barak passed away. So Anne engaged some tradespeople
to scratch from this monument her husband's name and her child's name,
and re-inscribe it in memory of William Barak. And that monument is
now in the Coranderrk Aboriginal cemetery.
I think it's important to say that William Barak and Anne Bon were
probably the forerunners of reconciliation, and I think that's the
way that it should be. I know that William had many other powerful
relationships, but I would say that none were as powerful as a black
and white person coming together in this way. Certainly, for a white
lady, a Scottish lady who was an aristocrat, to have her much beloved
families' names removed from a very special memorial was an extraordinary
gesture of respect for William Barak.
William Barak also made very many other friends. He was the great
entertainer at Yeringberg, the home of the DePury family who still
reside here in the same place, just outside Healesville, near St Hubert's
Winery. William would be asked to go along and throw the boomerang.
He would perform dances, he would sing beautiful songs, and he would
tell stories, all in his traditional tongue. He became such a very
close friend of the DePury family that he was almost like their son.
