AustLit

'On 27 June 1934 a massive marble monument to William Barak (c. 1824–1903) was unveiled in Healesville, 50 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, by the chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Sir John MacFarland, with prayers read by Reverend Donald Cameron, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church. Barak had been the Ngurungaeta, or Elder, of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, and an influential leader for his people. The site, in the main street of Healesville, had been chosen by MacFarland with members of the Australian Natives’ Association, a mutual society with membership restricted to white men born in Australia. The donor of the stone and instigator of the memorial, 96-year-old Anne Fraser Bon, was also present, sheltering at a distance from the persistent rain. Newspaper accounts recorded only one Indigenous witness: ‘an aged Aboriginal, who exhibited a pair of boomerangs held in a pose’.' (Introduction)