Nelson Mandela at the Melbourne Town Hall 1990

KENNEDY, Ray (The Age)

Registration number

1834161

Artist/maker

KENNEDY, Ray (The Age)

Title

Nelson Mandela at the Melbourne Town Hall

Production date

1990

Medium

photograph

Dimensions (H x W x D)

32 x 23.5 cm

Credit line

City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection
© Courtesy of Fairfax Media, Ray Kennedy, 27 December 2012, The Age (Melbourne)

Keywords

Nelson Mandela, 1990, Melbourne town hall, apartheid, Honorary Freeman Certificate, 3CR live Town Hall broadcast, South Africa

Summary

This photograph is of Nelson Mandela at the Melbourne Town Hall during his visit to Australia, 25 October 1990. Mandela toured Australia to thank the nation for its steadfast support during the fight to bring down South Africa's apartheid regime and to secure his freedom. By a slim margin, Melbourne City Councillors voted to invite Mandela, then only recently released from 27 years of imprisonment on terrorism offences, to give an address in the council chamber. He duly obliged. It was his first address to a democratically elected council or parliament anywhere in the world. Following an impassioned speech, Mandela receives the Honorary Freeman Certificate and addresses the chamber of councillors.