Matt Neal of ABC Southwest, Victoria writes about the push to have Heritage Victoria recognise a 19th-century monument and grave honouring warrior Wombeetch Puyuun and the Camperdown district’s First People.
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Memorial to Wombeetch Puyuun and First Nations People of the Camperdown district, Victoria, Australia |
‘The monument is unlike any other in Australia for two key reasons; it acknowledges the massacre of Indigenous people at a time when they were still happening, and it celebrates a rare friendship between a white colonist and a First Nations person,’ writes Neal.
Dawson and his wife, Isabella, were able to record aspects of the language and customs of the First People of the district. James Dawson published their research in The Australian Aborigines: The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, 1881, reprinted 1981.
Read more in Matt Neal’s story posted on 10 July 2022:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-10/wombeetch-puyuun-james-dawson-camperdown-cemetery-memorial/101083712