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| Tunnerminnerwait | |
|---|---|
| Name | Tunnerminnerwait |
| Birth date | c.1812 |
| Birth place | Country of the Parperloihener people, Van Diemen's Land |
| Death date | 20 January 1842 |
| Death place | Melbourne, Colony of New South Wales |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Other names | Jack, Walyer |
| Known for | Aboriginal resistance to colonial settlement, collaborator with Maulboyheenner |
Tunnerminnerwait was a Palawa man from Van Diemen's Land who became known for resistance against European colonists during the early 1840s in Port Phillip, Australia. He was captured during the Black War period, transported to Melbourne, tried for murders linked to a campaign of reprisal and survival, and executed in 1842, an event that drew protest from some colonial and humanitarian figures. His case intersects with broader narratives involving the Black War, Van Diemen's Land convicts, colonial law, and early Aboriginal resistance.
Tunnerminnerwait was born into the Parperloihener family on Van Diemen's Land around 1810–1815 during a period shaped by interactions between Indigenous communities and figures like George Augustus Robinson, William Lonsdale, John Batman, John Pascoe Fawkner, and Charles La Trobe. His formative years overlapped with the campaigns of Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur and the policing strategies of the Black Line (1830) policies, which followed clashes such as the Cape Grim massacre and the wider violence of the Black War. During this era he would have encountered institutions and individuals linked to colonial settlement: Port Arthur (Tasmania), Flinders Island, and the missionary networks associated with George Augustus Robinson's conciliatory expeditions. Contacts with colonial actors such as Thomas Archer and peripheral involvement in events recorded by officials like John Glover and James Backhouse situate his early life within the contested landscapes of Van Diemen's Land.
After being apprehended amid campaigns that targeted Palawa resistance, he became entangled with the Black Line aftermath and the dispersal policies that followed the Black War, which involved officials like George Augustus Robinson and the colonial administrations of Hobart Town and the Colony of New South Wales. Tunnerminnerwait was removed from his homeland alongside others and placed under supervision connected to institutions such as Port Arthur (Tasmania) and the settlement systems overseen by colonial magistrates including John Batman and William Lonsdale. His movement between islands and settlements reflected patterns of forced relocation recorded by observers including Charles Darwin (later writing on colonial contact in other contexts) and humanitarian correspondents like Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Joseph Tice Gellibrand, while administrative correspondence by figures such as George Gipps and Sir John Franklin illuminates the bureaucratic backdrop to transfers of Aboriginal people.
In the Port Phillip district, he associated with other Aboriginal men, notably Maulboyheenner, and engaged in actions framed by colonists as criminal but understood by many Indigenous people as reprisals, survival strategies, and resistance to dispossession. Their movements intersected with settlements such as Melbourne, Geelong, Werribee, and Williamstown, bringing them into contact with settlers, squatters, and law enforcement figures like Police Magistrate William Lonsdale, constables from the Melbourne Police, and personnel connected to Hobart Town and Launceston. Contemporary press coverage in papers like the Port Phillip Gazette and the Sydney Morning Herald recorded incidents involving shepherds, pastoralists associated with stations run by men such as Hugh Glass and John Batman's contemporaries, and reported thefts and attacks that reflected frontier friction noted in dispatches by administrators including Charles La Trobe and George Gipps. Their campaign involved movement across waterways near the Yarra River and coastlines adjacent to Port Phillip Bay and engaged colonial soldiers and settlers tied to militias like those referenced by Sir George Arthur's administration.
Captured following pursuit by colonial forces and local settlers, he and his companions were tried in a colonial legal system presided over by magistrates and judges influenced by statutes from New South Wales and officials such as Sir George Gipps and Charles La Trobe. The trial proceedings occurred against a backdrop of public interest, with coverage in the Port Phillip Gazette and polemical responses from humanitarian writers like Anne Knight and clergymen such as Lancelot Threlkeld who had earlier engaged with Aboriginal matters. Sentenced to death, he was executed in Melbourne on 20 January 1842, a moment observed by officials from the Colonial Office, critics like Earl of Durham-era commentators, and advocates in the emerging humanitarian networks including contacts of George Augustus Robinson. The conviction and execution raised contemporaneous debates involving legal authorities such as Chief Justice Sir William à Beckett and colonial administrators like Sir George Gipps about jurisdiction, colonial punishment, and the treatment of Aboriginal defendants.
The case of Tunnerminnerwait has been interpreted within histories of Aboriginal resistance alongside figures such as Pemulwuy, Jandamarra, and Tarenorerer, and within scholarship by historians including Lynette Russell, Henry Reynolds, Richard Broome, Catherine Jones, and Nicolas Clements. Literary and cultural treatments referencing frontier violence and early Melbourne memory connect to artistic responses by creators influenced by narratives around encounters recorded in works relating to John Batman, John Pascoe Fawkner, and colonial founders. The execution has been cited in debates over settler colonial violence discussed by academics linked to institutions such as the University of Melbourne, the University of Tasmania, and the Australian National University, and in museum interpretations at venues like the National Museum of Australia and the Melbourne Museum.
Recent decades have seen renewed attention from scholars, activists, and institutions including the State Library of Victoria, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Aboriginal Heritage Council (Tasmania), and local councils across Victoria and Tasmania. Projects involving historians such as Clare Land and Lynette Russell, curators like those at the Koorie Heritage Trust, and public historians working with bodies including the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council have re-examined archival records, press archives like the Port Phillip Gazette, and correspondence involving George Augustus Robinson and Charles La Trobe. Commemorative efforts intersect with contemporary dialogues led by community groups associated with organisations such as SBS Television documentaries, projects at Monash University, and exhibitions curated by the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and Indigenous-led initiatives; these efforts contribute to reinterpretations within curricula in educational settings such as RMIT University and in public memorials discussed by municipal bodies like the City of Melbourne.
Category:Indigenous Australian people Category:Executed Australian people Category:19th-century deaths in Australia