Freedom Fighters

Afinação: E A D G B ETecla: DCapotraste: 2nd traste Capo 2 [Verse 1] C F C Do you know the names of the first men hanged here in Melbourne town? C Em FMaj7 Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner wouldn't bow before the crown C F C In January 1842, 5000 stood on Bowen Street Am G FMaj7 With a twisted sense of justice amid the cheeers, dust and heat [Verse 2] C F C Far from their ancestral homes down in Van Diemen’s Land C Em FMaj7 They knew their lives would be in vain if they didn’t take a stand C F C Tunnerminnerwait’s first memory was the slaughter of his kin Am G FMaj7 When the war of dispossession landed at Cape Grim [Verse 3] C F C Maulboyheenner would have led his clan had he ever got the chance C Em FMaj7 And he saw all the bloody suffering of the settlers' advance C F C While the red coats and the convicts tried to wipe us out with lead Am G FMaj7 They sent their Black Line across the Island saying no one would be spared [Chorus] C FMaj7 Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Am G FMaj7 Your names will be remembered [Verse 4] C F C The warriors went with Robinson on the Friendly Mission trail C Em FMaj7 Spreading word among the people to survive we must set sail C F C Now so many lie in unmarked graves on the Flinders Island shore Am G FMaj7 Wwe struggle to remember what was friendly anymore [Verse 5] C F C Sixteen when with Robinson to the Port Philip colony C Em FMaj7 Were they called him Chief Protector of Aborigines C F C And they helped with making contact where no white men had been Am G FMaj7 Five of them lost faith in “protection” ‘cause of the living hell they’d seen [Verse 6] C F C The spirit of resistance could no longer be suppressed C Em FMaj7 Raiding stations across Western Port, as history will attest C F C With no harm to women or children, over an eight week long campaign Am G FMaj7 And they issued out an arsenal as they set fire to the grain [Chorus] C FMaj7 Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Am G FMaj7 Your names will be remembered [Verse 7] C F C At a gun fight in Cape Paterson the miner Watson’s son got hit C Em FMaj7 And they were surely out to kill them, because they never could permit C F C Any reclaiming of the land they stole from the native dispossessed Am G FMaj7 So they sent out every trooper, horse and tracker to put us to the nest [Verse 8] C F C As they waited for the onslaught, they saw two figures in the dark C Em FMaj7 But they couldn’t tell they were whalers before the bullets made their mark C F C They had every reason to fear men like this with their memories of the past Am G FMaj7 When the hand that raped and pillaged was the hand that steered the mast [Verse 9] C F C When the troops began their awful siege they fired off every round C Em FMaj7 By some miracle the five survived as they huddled on the ground C F C The three women were acquitted and the men condemned to die Am G FMaj7 And example must be set, said the judge, lest other rebels try [Verse 10] C F C And as they lay the fighters in the ground they hope their names would quickly fade C Em FMaj7 But lest we forget the heroes and sacrifice they made C F C For they remind us there’s more to do if we’re ever to be free Am G FMaj7 May the spirit of resistance live on in you and me [Chorus] C FMaj7 Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Am G FMaj7 Your names will be remembered C FMaj7 Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Am G FMaj7 Your names will be remembered Am G FMaj7 Your names will be remembered