Touring nationally until July 18, ‘Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country’ re-enacts the 1881 Parliamentary Coranderrk Inquiry, which marked the only occasion in the history of 19th-century Victoria when an official commission was appointed to address Aboriginal peoples' calls for land and self-determination, and one of the few times that Aboriginal witnesses were called to give evidence on matters concerning their own interests.

Established in 1863, the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve was located around 60 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, near the area we now know as Healesville.

Under the leadership of Woiwurrung leaders Simon Wonga and William Barak - and the management of their Scottish ally, John Green - the Kulin clans settled on the reserve, farming the small piece of land which had been “given” to them and living in harmony with one another.

Within twelve years, 158 men, women and children came to call Coranderrk their home. 

However, the harmony was short-lived, and it wasn’t long before the Aboriginal Protection Board began considering ways of relocating the people living and working on the reserve to make the land available for the white settler community.

John Green refused to assist in pushing the people of Coranderrk out of their home, and as a result, was dismissed by the Board as manager of the reserve. 

With his replacement, came heartbreak and tragedy: children dying during the cold months due to a lack of blankets, people left hungry after receiving insufficient food rations, and young residents becoming the victims of violence and abuse.

The people of Coranderrk could only take so much before they decided their voices ought to be heard.

They began writing letters and petitions, to no avail.

Together, they marched all the way from Healesville to Melbourne to protest directly to the Premier of Victoria.

The men and women of Coranderrk fought so hard that eventually Chief-Secretary Graham Berry had no choice but to assign a Parliamentary Inquiry to investigate the Board’s management of the reserve and determine its fate.

‘Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country’, is based on extracts from the minutes of evidence of the Inquiry, along with passages from letters, petitions and newspaper articles from the time in which it unfolded.

Writer and historian Giordano Nanni and Yorta Yorta playwright Andrea James collaborated to extract the key sections of a 141-page document of evidence and transform them into a script for the play, which was first performed in 2010.

Using nothing but a few props scattered across the stage and the images of the original men and women who fought for Coranderrk, the production gives a powerful voice to a story which is little-known yet deserving of national recognition.

‘Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country’ raises awareness about Australia’s past through theatre, exposing audiences to the rhetoric, attitudes and policies that were once regularly adopted towards Aboriginal people.

More importantly, the production breathes life into the story of Coranderrk, which has been buried under a layer of dust and forgotten in time by too many people.

‘Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country’, will be performed at the Kyneton Town Hall on Tuesday, May 30 and the Geelong Performing Arts Centre on June 1-3, before heading to ACT, NSW, QLD and NT.