Each year hundreds of people from across the country gather on the Sunday of the June long weekend to commemorate the unprovoked massacre of 28 Wirrayaraay women, children, and old men by a group of stockmen on Myall Creek Station in 1838. This year marks the 180th anniversary of this horrific event.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The annual memorial service on Sunday June 10 is open to everyone. Those intending to participate are invited to gather at the Myall Creek Hall, on the Bingara-Delungra Road near Inverell, for morning tea.
During the day, the Friends of Myall Creek will also screen a “short” video made with funding from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage promoting their plans to establish an educational and cultural centre at Myall Creek.
They are delighted Roger Knox, the “Koori King of Country”, and Kamilaroi man, will also be with them to share songs that honour his people along with the Tingha and Gomeroi dancers.
READ ALSO:
They will also congratulate the winners of the 10th annual Thoughts and Dreams – Student Art, Writing and Song Competition – which encourages students from Kindergarten through to Year 12 across north-west NSW and the rest of the state, to address and express different concepts of Reconciliation. This year’s theme is “180 years on… What have we learnt?” An exhibition of the finalists will be displayed in the hall.
A great local CWA lunch will be available after the ceremony for a small charge.
The Myall Creek Memorial was erected in June 2000 by a group of Aboriginal and non-Indigenous people working together in an act of reconciliation.
In 2008 the massacre site and Memorial received national recognition when it was included on the National Heritage Register. In announcing its inclusion, Mr Peter Garrett, then Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, said the Memorial was “a sign of how we continue to grow and mature as a nation. That we come to terms with our past, acknowledge it, identify it and then move forward together, sharing future.” The Memorial also received NSW state heritage listing in 2010.
For further information, please contact: Ivan Roberts 0475 838 144 or iroberts2505@yahoo.com.au; Graeme Cordiner (02) 9817 0288 or gscordiner@hotmail.com; or Jo Miller 0414 418 600 or jo@hopwoodmiller.com.
