Tunnerminnerwait
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Tunnerminnerwait (c.1812–1842) was an
Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
resistance fighter and Parperloihener clansman from
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
. He was also known by several other names including Peevay, Jack of Cape Grim, Tunninerpareway and renamed Jack Napoleon Tarraparrura by George Robinson.


Early life

Tunnerminnerwait was born on Robbins Island in Tasmania in 1812. He was the son of Keeghernewboyheener. Tunnerminnerwait belonged to the Parperloihener clan of the Aboriginal North West nation in Tasmania. His name means "waterbird". Tunnerminnerwait spoke English well and was 5'8"(171 cm) tall. He was also known as Peevay (Pevay), Napoleon, Jack of Cape Grim, Jack Napoleon Tarraparrura and Tunninerpareway. His wife was Planobeena (Fanny) who was the sister of Aboriginal leader and freedom fighter
Eumarrah Eumarrah (born about 1798 in the Midlands near Campbell Town - died 24 March 1832 in Launceston, Tasmania) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian leader. He was known by the names Kahnneher Largenner. He had been part of the group who travelled with George A ...
.


Encounters with colonists

Tunnerminnerwait grew up on the island of Tasmania, the second European settlement area in Australia after
Sydney Cove Sydney Cove (Eora: ) is a bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, one of several harbours in Port Jackson, on the coast of Sydney, New South Wales. Sydney Cove is a focal point for community celebrations, due to its central Sydney locatio ...
. Relations between the Aboriginal people inhabiting the island and the settlers became very hostile leading to attacks and massacres. The first massacre of Tasmanian Aboriginal people occurred at Risdon Cove in 1804, when troops fired on a group which included women and children. By 1806 clashes between Aboriginal people and settlers were common, and the Cape Grim massacre occurred on 10 February 1828. According to historian Professor
Lyndall Ryan Lyndall Ryan, (born 1943) is an Australian academic and historian. She has held positions in Australian Studies and Women's Studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was Foundation Professor of Australian Studies and Head of Sc ...
, ( University of Newcastle) "Tunnerminnerwait had witnessed the Cape Grim massacre in 1828 as an 11-year-old, when a lot of his own people were killed. His whole family had fallen apart as a result." Tunnerminnerwait first met civil servant
George Augustus Robinson George Augustus Robinson (22 March 1791 – 18 October 1866) was a British-born colonial official and self-trained preacher in colonial Australia. In 1824, Robinson travelled to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land, where he attempted to negotiate ...
, Chief
Protector of Aborigines The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role became established in other parts of Australia pursuant to a recommendation contained in the ''Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Abori ...
, at Robbins Island in June 1830. He worked for Robinson as one of his guides on expeditions around the island from 1830 to 1835. In October 1835 Tunnerminnerwait went with Robinson to
Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colon ...
, a settlement where the remaining Aboriginal population were exiled. Robinson spoke of him as "an exceeding willing and industrious young man", who was "stout and well made, of good temper, and performed his work equal to any white man". A portrait of Tunnerminnerwait was painted by the convict artist
Thomas Bock Thomas Bock was an English-Australian artist and an early adopter of photography in Australia. Born in England he was sentenced to transportation in 1823. After gaining his freedom he set himself up as one of Australia's first professional ar ...
between 1831 and 1835. It was published in
James Fenton James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...
's history of Tasmania.


Relocating to the mainland

Tunnerminnerwait and Planobeena were among sixteen Tasmanian Aboriginal people whom George Robinson brought to Melbourne in 1839 with the intention that they would help to "civilise" the Victorian "blacks" when he became Chief Protector of Aborigines at Port Phillip. Tunnerminnerwait went with George Robinson on a major tour of the Western District from March to August 1841. During the tour they gathered testimonies about frontier violence in the Western District and investigated the
Convincing Ground massacre The Convincing Ground Massacre was a massacre of the Indigenous Gunditjmara people Kilcarer gundidj clan by British settler whalers based at Portland Bay in South-Eastern Australia. It was part of the wider Eumeralla Wars between the British col ...
in which between 60 and 200 members of a
Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their ...
clan were killed by whale-hunters at
Portland Bay Portland Bay ( Dhauwurdwurrung: ''Kardermudelar / Pathowwererer'') is a small bay off the coast of Victoria, Australia. It is about west of Melbourne. The city of Portland is located on the bay. The western end of the bay is marked by the he ...
. After his return, Tunnerminnerwait and four others left Melbourne.


Resistance

In September 1841, Tunnerminnerwait (Peevay) and Planobeena (Fanny) and three others, including
Truganini Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. She was one of the last native speakers of the Tasmanian languages and one of the last individuals solely of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent. Trug ...
and Timme waged an eight-week campaign of resistance against the European settlement in the Port Philip area. They stole two guns and some ammunition from a settler's hut at Bass River. They robbed stations from Dandenong to Western Port and South Gippsland districts on the outskirts of Melbourne over the next seven weeks. They wounded four white men and killed two. It took three military expeditions to successfully track and capture them, with the help of native police. All five were captured in November 1841 at Powlett River.


Trial and judgement

They appeared before Judge Willis on 20 December 1841 in Melbourne, charged with murder. The five were defended by
Redmond Barry Sir Redmond Barry, (7 June 181323 November 1880), was a colonial judge in Victoria, Australia of Anglo-Irish origins. Barry was the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, serving from 1853 until his death in 1880. He is arguably ...
who was the standing Defence Council for Aborigines. Barry questioned the legal basis of British authority over Aborigines who were not citizens and claimed that the evidence was dubious and circumstantial. None of the five people charged were permitted to give evidence in court. "The press reported the exchanges in the court in this fashion: 'After a good deal of conversation an affidavit being made as to the absence of a material witness, Mr. Croke stated his intention of abandoning the principle charge for murder in consequence of not being able to obtain the witness who was so material. His Honour did not wish that justice should be so administered as to afford murderers to escape the justice of the law: he did not wish such a thing to occur in his district.'" "If Willis was cited accurately by the press in describing the accused as murderers' before any evidence was led to convict them (and more than one newspaper carried this commentary), then, he seriously misconceived the rights of the prisoners to a fair trial in which their guilt had to be established by the prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt. In those circumstances a robust defence counsel would have submitted that Willis disqualify himself for prejudging the case." The Supreme Court found the two men, Tunnerminnerwait ("Jack Napoleon Tarraparrura") and Timme ("Robert Timmy Jimmy Small-boy") guilty of the murder of the two whalers, Cook and Yankey at Western Port on 6 October 1841. Tunnerminnerwait was reported as saying that "after his death he would join his father in Van Diemen's Land and hunt kangaroo".


Death

Together with Timme, Tunnerminnerwait was executed for murder on 20 January 1842. They were the first public executions to take place in the District of
Port Phillip Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...
, the colony to become known as Melbourne. Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were later buried in an unmarked grave on a site that is now home to the
Queen Victoria Market The Queen Victoria Market (also known colloquially as Vic Market or Queen Vic) is a major landmark in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Covering over , it is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemi ...
.


Memorials

* In 2008 the ''Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee'' was established to hold a yearly commemoration at the site of their execution. *The Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker exists at the place of execution at the site of the
Old Melbourne Gaol The Old Melbourne Gaol is a former jail and current museum on Russell Street, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildin ...
. The website contains historical research and information on the artists commissioned for the marker, artist Brook Andrew, along with Trent Walter.


See also

* Australian frontier wars *
Black War } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
*
Pemulwuy Pemulwuy (also rendered as Pimbloy, Pemulvoy, Pemulwoy, Pemulwy or Pemulwye, or sometimes by contemporary Europeans as Bimblewove, Bumbleway or Bembulwoyan) (c. 1750 – 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal man of the Eora nation, born around 1750 in th ...
, an Indigenous Australian resistance leader who led a guerrilla movement. * Tarenorerer, also known as Walyer, Waloa or Walloa was a rebel leader of the Indigenous Australians in Tasmania


References


Further reading

* Childs, Kevin. Remembering Those Who Went First. Australian Rationalist, The, No. 87, Summer 2011: 23–25. * * Fels, Marie Hansen; Clark, David and White, Rene. Mistaken identity, not aboriginal resistance. Quadrant, Vol. 58, No. 10, Oct 2014: 74–83. * Saltmarsh, Robert. Tunnerminnerwait, the waterbird calls no more. 40 egreesSouth, No. 48, Autumn 2008: 29–34. * Stevens, Leonie. The phenomenal coolness of Tunnerminnerwait. ''Victorian Historical Journal'', Vol. 81, No. 1, June 2010: 18–40.


External links

* {{Authority control 1842 deaths History of Australia (1788–1850) 1812 births Resistance to colonialism in Australia People executed by Australian colonies by hanging Executed Australian people Indigenous Tasmanian people