Descendants of some of the Indigenous Australians whose stories are represented at the National Museum of Australia will be the first to see a new display recognising Aboriginal resistance on the colonial frontier.
The Resistance display tells four stories of the way some Aboriginal communities navigated the confusing and often dangerous time of the occupation of their countries by another people and culture,” said Jay Arthur, Curator with the National Museum’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program.
Resistance tells of two Aboriginal men who tried to invoke their own laws on the newcomers; Yagan, a young warrior from Perth and ‘Bullfrog’, an older man from Central Australia. Yagan is murdered and his body mutilated, Bullfrog’s actions bring down destruction on his community.
In Perth, Fanny Bulbuk refused to let the occupiers who forgot that this was her country. Bilin Bilin, a warrior from the country south of Brisbane, made the hard decision to lay down his weapons to save his people.
Resistance is on display in the Gallery of First Australians at the National Museum of Australia, for more information visit: www.nma.gov.au