Cirrus@Austlit

'The book Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country is an annotated version of the script of a play by the same name, complemented by a couple of excellent chapters on the history of the Coranderrk Aboriginal settlement and another on the play's development, production, and performance. Using the method known as verbatim or documentary theatre, the play's script is composed almost entirely of extracts taken from the minutes of evidence to an inquiry into Coranderrk held in 1881. The inquiry was the outcome of a sustained campaign by the Kulin people, including petitions and deputations to government, for the right to control their own affairs. Historian Richard Broome has argued that for the Coranderrk residents matters of ‘right behaviour’ and proper governance were at the heart of the inquiry and the broader struggle for autonomy of which it was a part.1 After a litany of complaints against authoritarian superintendents and repeated calls for the reinstatement of the Kulin people's preferred manager, John Green, a board of inquiry was established. It met over two and half months, hearing testimony from 69 witnesses, including 22 Aboriginal people, and it also generated further letters and petitions from the Aboriginal residents.'  (Introduction)