Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a hero of the American War of Independence and a great advocate of equal rights, democracy and freedom, returned to Poland in 1784 to fight for the nation's independence. The Head of the Insurrection, wounded badly in the unsuccessful battle of Maciejowice, fell into Tsarist captivity in 1794. The Insurrection crumbled and Poland was partitioned. Kosciuszko and the statesman Julian Niemcewicz, along with a group of generals, were imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.
This difficult period and the ensuing tribulations are the focus of the film Kosciuszko: Poland Will Yet Dance, which proves that we should never lose hope, because even in the worst defeat there is a glimmer of victory.
The film is dedicated to our Ngarigo friends, on whose traditional territories Mount Kosciuszko is located. The highest peak in Australia was named by Paul Edmund Strzelecki, a son of the Insurrection. His intention was that the name of the peak remind everyone of the ideals of equal rights, democracy and freedom: the ideals to which Kosciuszko devoted his life, and which today form the core of social life in Australia. |
