Harry Johns Collection included in the Register

The Harry Johns Collection includes 85 items in total. You may have seen various items in exhibition the Australian Sport Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The other part of the Collection is currently housed at Museums Victoria. The Harry Johns Collection represents the history of a major tent boxing troupe on the domestic show circuit from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Tent boxing has been part of British culture for a long time and became popular in the colony from the 1860s. These shows promised excitement and theatrics long before televised sport. With their famous athletes, loud drums and colourful banners, they attracted big crowds. 

Harry Johns was born around 1880, and was a well-known boxer, trainer and manager. In 1928 he started the famous ‘Harry Johns Boxing Troupe’. This show toured the circuit in the eastern states of Australia until the 1960s.

Boxing was important to Aboriginal culture in the twentieth century. Johns, like many other boxing promoters, recruited and employed Aboriginal fighters. He gave Aboriginal men a platform to achieve success at a time when they faced a lot of discrimination.

In 2019, Archie Roach released a song called “Rally 'round the drum” about tent boxing. This song demonstrated how important boxing was to Aboriginal families and communities.