In 1934 the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory sentenced Yolngu Clan
Leader Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda (Tuckiar) to death for spearing a policeman
(Constable Albert McColl). The controversial verdict was subsequently
overturned by the High Court amid large-scale protests in Sydney and Melbourne.
Unfortunately Tuckiar mysteriously died after his release from jail and before
he could return to his people. It is believed he was murdered by vengeful
Northern Territory whites.
Photo: Wuyall (left) and Dhukal Wirrpanda showing the pandanus "spear" at
Dhuruputjpi Homeland that is a symbol of their father Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda
(Tuckiar), who was found guilty of murdering a policeman in 1934 and sentenced
to death. "This spear", says Wuyall, "contains all his songs and dances and
knowledge".
Last Saturday there was a touching ceremony of reconciliation in Darwin,
involving both Tuckiar's descendents (The Yolngu people) and 34 of McColl's
descendents - a beautiful constellation. To make it complete, I imagine
descendants of Tuckiar's assassin in the audience. The episode & the
reconciliation ceremony were reported in prime viewing time on National
television on the 7:30 report on Monday June 30. The transcript of that report
is below.
[This is the print version of story
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2003/s891694.htm] ;
MAXINE McKEW: Well, now to the colourful courtroom ceremony which has laid to
rest a 70-year-old tragedy.
In 1933 a young policeman killed in Arnhem Land.
The subsequent trial of the policeman's killer, an Aborigine by the name of
Tuckiar, provoked international outrage.
The High Court later overturned the guilty verdict.
But while Tuckiar may have been spared the noose, he never returned to his
community.
Murray McLaughlin takes up the story.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: The Northern Territory Supreme Court at Darwin has never
seen anything like it, the room where potential jury members muster before
being called into court, converted into a make-up studio.
Yolgnu men from north-east Arnhem Land paint up for a mortuary ceremony finally
to put to rest an ancestor named Tuckiar who disappeared nearly 70 years ago.
Respect for Tuckiar has been enduring.
TED EGAN, HISTORIAN: He was a powerful man and a very competent fighter who
would have accumulated quite a few wives as a result of his stature in the
group.
Certainly, he would rate in normal terms a huge funeral with the mortuary
ceremony.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Tuckiar got that ceremony on Saturday at a place in Darwin
called Liberty Square, a sprawling lawn overlooking the harbour.
In 1933, Tuckiar killed a policeman on an island off Arnhem Land.
Tuckiar's murder trial was a landmark in Australian legal history, and to this
day his people believe he should never have been charged.
DJAMBOWA MARAWILI, YOLGNU MAN: It was just completely a mistake because in
those days, white and Yolgnu didn't get together very well.
And that's why they got bumping and he was a really strong leader.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Constable Albert McColl was 30 years old when Tuckiar killed
him.
McColl had gone to Arnhem Land with a police party to apprehend the Aboriginal
killers of the crew of a Japanese pearling lugger.
When he was killed, McColl was handcuffed to a wife of Tuckiar.
She had recently been raped by two white men and Tuckiar thought she was about
to be harmed again, this time by Constable McColl.
TED EGAN: But he didn't have on a police uniform.
He had a Jacky Howe singlet, a pair of long khaki trousers and sandshoes, no
hat, and so the Aboriginal bloke sees this white man chained to his wife so he
just signalled to her, "Give me room" and hooked up his spear and speared him
in the heart.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Tuckiar's trial for murder was held in the Supreme Court at
Darwin in August 1934.
It lasted only one day, and the all-white jury took two and a quarter hours to
find him guilty.
Tuckiar had no understanding of English, there was no translator, and both his
defence lawyer and the presiding judge failed him.
TOM PAULING QC, NT SOLICITOR-GENERAL: The trial was a vehicle to defend
Constable McColl's honour rather than to find out according to well-known
principle whether Tuckiar was guilty or not of murder.
And his counsel never ran and it was never put to the jury that he may properly
be seen to be acting in defence of his wives.
And, if so, then it wouldn't be murder.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Tuckiar was sentenced to death.
He was then held in solitary confinement in Darwin's Fannie Bay jail for three
months while an appeal was prepared to the High Court of Australia.
In November 1934, the High Court resoundingly overturned the murder conviction.
The Yolgnu people invited the Chief Justice of the High Court to Saturday's
ceremony.
They wanted to thank him for the court's decision 69 years ago.
MURRAY GLEESON, CHIEF JUSTICE OF AUSTRALIA: The High Court in the most absolute
terms refused to bend the requirements of due process to meet the difficult
circumstances under which the trial was conducted.
Those circumstances were not allowed to justify procedural irregularity or
substantive unfairness.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: But the High Court's reprieve did not save Tuckiar.
The Commonwealth Government ordered his release from Fannie Bay jail and his
safe transport home.
He never made it.
TED EGAN: The general story around Darwin is that somebody, probably the
police, shot him.
All I know is that Tuckiar was a consummate bushman.
Had he wanted to get back to his own country he would have done that very
easily, very quickly.
He'd have probably run all the way to Arnhem Land.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Saturday's ceremonies were scripted not just to lay to rest
the spirit of Tuckiar, but also to show reconciliation.
Thirty-four descendants of Constable Albert McColl, distinguishable by their
bows of family tartan, came from around Australia.
AILEEN McCOLL, CONSTABLE McCOLL'S NIECE: I'm very happy that I've been a part
of it.
It's been wonderful.
Very good.
I'll have to spread it among all my children when I go home.
MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: It was the generosity of the Yolgnu people from Arnhem Land
which most moved the crowd that crammed into the Supreme Court.
Their man Tuckiar never made it home, but they were anxious to make peace at
last.
WUYAL WIRRPANDA, YOLGNU MAN: I would like to apologise to the McColl family so
that we will work hand in hand, Yolgnu and white working together, and we can
have a little bit of reconciliation.
Thank you very much.
Good bless you all.
hasta la vista
Chris Walsh
An Australian Constellation Website:
www.constellationflow.com
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