John Batman's Statue Tried for War Crimes

On Sunday October 6th 1991 approximately eighty Koori and Gubbah
(non-aborigines) took to the streets of Melbourne to uncover the brutal
history of Australia since the white invasion and to call for a new era of
solidarity and support for the Koori struggle for self determination in their
own land. The march was designed to highlight the 161st anniversary of the
official declaration of war against the Tasmanian Aborigines by Governor
Arthur on October 7th, 1830, and the establishment of the "Black Line", a
massive official military operation designed to exterminate the Tasmanian
Aborigines. The march focused on John Batman, the "founder of Melbourne", who
was instrumental in the attempted genocide of Tasmanian Aborigines before
arriving in the Port Phillip region and continuing to dispossess and destroy
Koori peoples here.

Activists gathered at Flinders Park on Batman Avenue before marching to the
Supreme Court where a barrister outlined the Genocide Convention of 1948 and
how Australian Law has continually transgressed that convention in relation
to its treatment of Aboriginal people. A Koori activist Gary Foley then
outlined how Australian Law continues to work actively against the interests
of Aborigines in their struggles for recognition and social justice. After he
spoke, activists climbed the fence at the Supreme court en masse to serve
eviction notices on the building, highlighting the basic illegality of this
institution on Aboriginal land and the inappropriate and unjust nature of the
laws and values it represents in relation to its treatment of Aboriginal
peoples.

Attention then turned to the statue of John Batman, where activists returned
those original implements and a Koori activist Robbie Thorpe tore up a copy
of the original treaty. He then proceeded to place the statue of John Batman
on trial for war crimes. Batman was charged with theft, trespass, rape and
genocide. As each charge was read, the crowd responded with a guilty verdict,
and a sign for each of the crimes was hung on the neck of the statue. The
hands of the statue were then taped red to signify the blood and suffering
this man was responsible for. After the trial was held, Gubbahs were invited
to form their own treaty with Aboriginal people by signing up to pay the rent
for their use of Aboriginal land.

The action was very successful in many respects. As with most Koori social
protest, there was a very large police turnout, and the police present were
exposed to the truth about treatment of Koori people, information that many
of them would never have been exposed to before. It generated a lot of
positive media coverage in both the electronic and print media. It was both
educational and confrontational, by attempting to reclaim the real history of
Melbourne, and to challenge the wall of apathy, indifference and racism that
still runs through the Gubbah community in relation to Koori issues and
struggle. Unless non-aboriginal Australia acknowledges and understands the
brutal history of Australia since the invasion, we will never fully grasp the
causes and nature of the attitudinal and structural factors that continue to
oppress Aboriginal people today.
Brendan Condon