The Lone Protestor

The late 1920s marked an extraordinary protest by an Australian Aboriginal man on the streets of London. Standing outside Australia House, cloaked in tiny skeletons, Anthony Martin Fernando condemned the failure of British rule in his country. Drawn from an extensive search in archives from Australia and Europe, this is the first full-length study of Fernando’s life and the self-professed mission that lasted half his adult life. A moving account, it chronicles the various forms of action taken by Fernando—from pamphlets on the streets of Rome to speeches in the famous Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park—and brings to light previously unknown details about his extraordinary life in Australia and overseas.
The late 1920s marked an extraordinary protest by an Australian Aboriginal man on the streets of London. Standing outside Australia House, cloaked in tiny skeletons, Anthony Martin Fernando condemned the failure of British rule in his country. Drawn from an extensive search in archives from Australia and Europe, this is the first full-length study of Fernando’s life and the self-professed mission that lasted half his adult life. A moving account, it chronicles the various forms of action taken by Fernando—from pamphlets on the streets of Rome to speeches in the famous Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park—and brings to light previously unknown details about his extraordinary life in Australia and overseas.