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                    We Protest!

                    Protesters outside Flinders Street station
                    Rowdy, impassioned mobs have frequently and conspicuously occupied roads, parks and open spaces in central Melbourne, demonstrating their concerns around all manner of political and social issues.

                    11 May to 11 August 2018

                    Perhaps you have been among them. The city is a democratic domain, open to any of us with a barrow to push, a placard to wave or a slogan to shout.

                    We Protest! presents an overview of this rude history. A sea of hats and bonnets mills on the banks of the Yarra in 1917, their wearers opposing the introduction of military conscription. Annual May Day marches celebrate workers’ rights, but also serve to promote a vast array of other causes. A succession of demonstrations for Aboriginal rights extends through to the Survival Day rallies of recent years. Peaceniks, dairy farmers, taxi drivers, loggers, vegans, Sikhs and gay liberationists: all make an appearance here, chaperoned – and sometimes confronted – by police.

                    Curated by Malcolm McKinnon

                    Malcolm McKinnon is an artist, filmmaker, curator and ghost-wrangler working mainly in the realms of social history and digital media. He has an abiding interest in the labyrinths of living memory and the peculiar beauty of local vernacular. Over the past 20 years his work has encompassed documentary filmmaking, oral history, urban planning, public and community art projects, critical writing and exhibitions.

                    Image: ‘IT’S COSTING THE EARTH’
                    Benny Zable’s ‘Greedozer’ takes centre stage at the Palm Sunday peace rally in 1984.
                    Photograph by John Ellis University of Melbourne Archives

                    Exhibition hours

                    Monday: 10am to 2pm
                    Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 6pm
                    Saturday: 10am to 4pm

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                    Melbourne Town Hall
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                    Melbourne VIC 3000
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