View source for Derrimut (Indigenous Australian)

{{Short description|Indigenous Australian leader}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=December 2011}}
[[File:Derrimut.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Derremart by Benjamin Duterau, painted in 1837 during a visit to Hobart with J.P. Fawkner.{{cn|date=October 2022}}]]
[[File:Derrimut gravestone.jpg|thumb|Derrimut's gravestone in [[Melbourne General Cemetery]]]]
'''Derrimut''' (also spelt '''Derremart''' or '''Terrimoot''') ({{circa|1810}} – 20 April 1864), was a headman or [[arweet]] of the [[Boonwurrung]] (Bunurong) people from the [[Melbourne]] area of Australia.<ref name="rahs">Ian D. Clark, ''[http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-12173454_ITM "You have all this place, no good have children ..." Derrimut: traitor, saviour, or a man of his people?]'', in the ''Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society'', 1 December 2005. Accessed 8 November 2008</ref>
Derrimut was born around 1810, before European settlement of the [[colony of Victoria]].<ref name =obit>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155014233 |title=The news of the day. |newspaper=[[The Age]] |issue=2,965 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=29 April 1864 |accessdate=26 May 2016 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In October 1835 he informed the early European settlers  of an impending attack by "up-country tribes". The colonists armed themselves, and the attack was averted. Benbow from the Bunurong and [[Billibellary]], from the [[Wurundjeri]], also acted to protect the colonists in what is perceived as part of their duty of hospitality.<ref name="rahs" />
He fought in the late 1850s and early 1860s to protect Boonwurrung rights to live on their land at [[Mordialloc Reserve]]. When the reserve was closed in July 1863, his people were forced to unite with the remnants of [[Woiwurrung]] and other [[Aboriginal Victorians |Victorian Aboriginal]] communities to settle [[Coranderrk]] Mission station, near [[Healesville]].<ref name="rahs" />
Derrimut became very disillusioned and died at the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum at the age of about 54 years<ref>{{Cite news| date=1864-01-23| title=Victoria| work=Mercury|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8824068| access-date=2021-11-30}}</ref> on 20 April 1864.<ref name =obit/>
In his honour, over his body, interred in the [[Melbourne General Cemetery]] according to European rather than [[Aboriginal Australians |Aboriginal]] rites, a tombstone was erected. The text of his tombstone reads:<ref name="rahs" />
"This stone was erected by a few colonists
To commemorate the noble act of the native Chief Derrimut who by timely information given October 1835 to the first colonists
Messrs Fawkner, Lancey, Evans, Henry Batman and their {{sic|dependants}} saved them from massacre, planned by some of the up-country tribes of Aborigines.
Derrimut closed his mortal career in the Benevolent Asylum,
May 28th 1864 ; aged about 54 Years"
The Melbourne suburb of [[Derrimut, Victoria|Derrimut]] is named after him.
==See also==
* [[List of Indigenous Australian historical figures]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Lack, John. 1991, 'Traditional Koori Society/The Destruction of Koori Society' in A History of Footscray, Hargreen Publishing Company, North Melbourne, Victoria
* Presland, Gary. 1994, The Land of the Kulin: Discovering the lost landscape and the first people of Port Phillip, McPhee Gribble, Penguin Books, Australia.
* Presland, Gary. 1997, The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region, Revised Edition, Harriland Press, Forest Hill, Victoria.
* Priestley, Susan. 1988, Clans of the Kulin in Altona A Long View, Hargreen Publishing Company, North Melbourne, Victoria.
* Walsh, Larry. 1996, STILL HERE: A brief history of Aborigines in Melbourne's western region up to the present day, Melbourne's Living Museum of the
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[[Category:1810s births]]
[[Category:1864 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Indigenous Australian people]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:People associated with massacres of Indigenous Australians]]
[[Category:Burials at Melbourne General Cemetery]]
[[Category:19th-century Australian people]]