More than 160 years ago, an African American man who had a major role in shaping the legacy of the Eureka Stockade was laid to rest in an unmarked grave in Bendigo.
John Joseph was one of 13 men charged with high treason for his involvement in the rebellion in 1854.
He was the first to be tried in Victoria's Supreme Court and was acquitted by a jury after 30 minutes of deliberation, paving the way for the acquittals of the 12 men who followed.
La Trobe University historian, Professor Clare Wright said Mr Joseph was selected to go first in the Eureka Treason Trials because he was black.
More than 10,000 people gathered outside the courtroom in Melbourne to hear the jury's verdict at a time when the city's population was less than 100,000.
Mr Joseph was carried on the shoulders of the jubilant crowd.
He probably would have gone down as a national hero had he been a Victorian white man, University of New England Associate Professor David Andrew Roberts said.
But it was not until yesterday that there was a place honouring Mr Joseph's life and contributions to Australian history within the White Hills cemetery, where he was buried.
Dignitaries including the US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, travelled to regional Victoria to unveil a plaque as part of a commitment to racial equity and recognising historical injustice.
Who was John Joseph?
History has failed to record much about Mr Joseph, beyond his involvement in the Eureka Stockade and the subsequent trials.
"This is the compounding tragedy of John Joseph's life and others like him, who for so long have gone forgotten, erased or silenced because of racism," Santilla Chingaipe told attendees at the plaque unveiling.
The documentarian said she learned about Mr Joseph after she started researching the lives of people of African descent in colonial Australia several years ago.
He was described as a tall and powerful man of African descent, who Ms Chingaipe said was likely a sailor from the United States.
"Depending on which source you look at, his home town is listed as either New York, Baltimore, or Boston," she said.
"He likely made his way to Australia by Britain and jumped ship and walked to the Victorian goldfields in the hope of making his fortune."
Mr Joseph is believed to have arrived in Ballarat from Avoca a few days before the Eureka Stockade.
In her speech, Ms Chingaipe said Mr Joseph ran a "sly grog" tent selling illicit alcohol to the miners.
"We can only guess at John Joseph's motives for joining the disaffected miners when they finally revolt against the extortionate licence fees and the bullying tactics of the police," she said.
She said Mr Joseph's contemporaries described him as being in the thick of the fight, on the front line, armed with a double-barrelled shotgun.
"On the rare occasion we hear from John Joseph in his own words ... he admits that he was apprehended within the stockade, but that his tent had been previously pitched within the area," Ms Chingaipe said.
"He was a stranger at Ballarat, he said, and had never had an aggressive weapon in his hand or taken part in the hostile proceedings.
"Despite denying any involvement, he is arrested and charged."
One of the few known facts about his life after his acquittal was his death in Bendigo in 1858, less than four years after the Eureka Stockade, from a suspected heart attack.
Why was he important?
Ms Kennedy said Mr Joseph's story was one set in its time and place, but also one for our time.
"The battle that unfolded at the stockade in Ballarat is an iconic moment in the history of the Australian labour movement and Australian democracy," she said at the event.
"Americans can be proud that John Joseph played a pivotal role in the story … but we must also acknowledge the American context that shaped his fate."
In 1857, the US Supreme Court confirmed black Americans were not United States citizens with the Dred Scott decision.
"At the time of the Eureka uprising, while the US Consul in Australia offered assistance to the other Americans put to trial, it offered no help to John Joseph," Ms Kennedy said.
After seeing the major impact of his acquittal and the rest of the trials on miner's rights, policing, and the administration of justice and governance in Victoria, Ms Kennedy said Mr Joseph was impoverished and forgotten before he died.
"As we face this history, we can ask ourselves: Who is missing from today's narrative, and what is our responsibility to make sure that they're included?"
