Blog closing

This blog will no longer be updated, it was too hard getting Google to index it. I don't know enough about computers and Google was completely opaque. You can go to the Facebook page if you want to stay connected with Myall Creek.

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Survival Day commemoration, Moree

Myall Creek has sent out this tile announcing a “survival day’ commemoration gathering on 26 January at Moree, on the NSW tablelands. A quick Google search tells me they have done this before, although it’s not widely known in the cities. The Waterloo Creek massacre is remembered in Roger Milliss' boo, where he also talks about Myall Creek.

Hopefully Waterloo Creek will be better known if more people go along to events like this. It would be good to see media representatives also getting out, however they can, to remember all the slaughter than happened in the time of our ancestors. I come from a family with roots in Victoria and South Australia but it wouldn’t be hard to find occasions when they – at least knew about, and said nothing – massacres of First Nations people.

My great-grandfather lived in Leongatha before moving to Melbourne so his family wouldn’t have been completely unaware that this sort of thing was taking place. No stories about massacres have come down to my generation, THAT much is sure. This is why we need these memorial events: to let us remember so that we can be fully aware of what it means to be Australian.

Just whose Australia are we advancing.

Change the date change the flag

Maybe there’s a way to heal after the trial of the Referendum, a way to ease the pain felt by so many people and a way to bring people together for one cause. The Australia Day debate goes on every year and 2024 will be no exception, I can almost feel the anger expressed on social media, it’s like they’re already arguing.

What about changing the flag at the same time as we change Australia Day. By doing both at once we can both acknowledge our debt to Britain while, at the same time, acknowledging the importance of First Nations people who were so grievously let down by the Crown. What I suggest is a way to move forward and change a defeat into something that works for all citizens regardless of their background or allegiances.

Myall Creek is a seminal event in the country’s psyche. Not only was it the first and last time White people were convicted of killing Aboriginal people, but it is celebrated for what it can offer all of us today. Both descendants of perpetrators and descendants of survivors come together on the Kings Birthday weekend every year in rural NSW. If we change the flag at the same time as changing the date of Australia Day to match this celebration, we can alleviate the anguish of First Nations people. 

Just look at the two designs I have made.

The first I rejected because it brings in the additional connotation of France, who arrived on our shores just days after the First Fleet.

Now if we get rid of the red and white stripes we can arrive at a design that centralises FN. It keeps the signal Southern Cross, which is so beloved of everyday Aussies (I can’t count the memories I have of calves of other body areas with a Southern Cross tattooed).

The red black yellow Aboriginal flag hasn’t been approved for use but perhaps we can just take some of its colours. This lets us introduce something original and distinctive – there is no flag even remotely similar to this in the whole world – while at the same time recognising FN heritage as a central pillar of national identity.

But keep Australia Day on the Kings Birthday. Some things have to stay the same. It’s safer that way. I think it is important to acknowledge FN people but also to acknowledge people of British heritage whose forbears worked so hard to make this country the best country on Earth. After all the Uluru Statement from the Heart talks about the three strands of the national story: Aboriginal, British, and immigrant.

We should be talking about the Voice

It’s been a few months and the only answer that seems to have any currency is that Australians are “racist” but is that true? As long as Labor refuse to bring up the failed referendum we’ll never know. It’s like some sort of curse, something that you never wake up from like one of those movies where the lead characters is doomed to repeat exactly the same steps from waking in the morning until he’s killed again and again. With another Australia Day coming up it’s probably a good idea for Albanese to bit the bullet, publicly confess to having botched the poll, and start a discussion about ways forward that will actually help to improve the situation.

Knowing Albo however – he’s a seasoned political player – this won’t happen. Meanwhile the gap is as large as ever and while other people grow rich and prosperous Aboriginal people continue to experience poverty, high rates of incarceration, and low academic achievements for youth. Aren’t these things more important than the fortunes of a political party?

It seems not.

Politicians are addicted to power, it is the fuel that keeps the engine of government running, not anything like human rights, individual liberty, or equality of access to social benefits. Power is the goal of every politician who enters Parliament to ostensibly “serve” the people. What they want and what they get are people serving their interests. If you manage to get to the pinnacle of the structure, for example as prime minister, you will be particularly well served.

Once you have that access it’s difficult to give it up. It would require qualities in a person that the job of politician is singularly well engineered to weeding out. Nobody with the general interest at heart has a gnats chance in a snowstorm of getting to the top. Albanese for all his apparent sincerity is just another power-mad creature.

What I mean by all this is that to even ask the right questions is something that the business of politics prevents. Since it’s not possible to be a Good Person and a politician at the same time (since to rise to the top you need to be a gaslighting narcissist) then it follows that the interests of the people ostensibly served will instead be ignored in favour of the narcissist’s own interests.

So here we are in 2024 no closer to closing the gap. Instead the gap is used as a cudgel to beat the Opposition around the head because that’s politically expedient. No movement on important metrics, no improvement, nothing. Because it’s against the interests of the very people who have been elected to fix the problem. As long as there’s a problem it will be exploited in order to cause pain to the people on the other side of the Chamber.

No Voice?

The Opposition are racists. It follows like night follows day. This is the only possible takeout. The government will continue to blame the Opposition for not supporting the Voice and there will never be any reconciliation. Reconciliation is not feasible where, in a Westminster system, opposition is the modus operandi of all players.

Sad for the Voice

At the beginning of December I saw a post on X (formerly Twitter) saying that Megan Davis, the university professor and prominent Voice advocate, had been given a position at Harvard University. I was struck by a feeling of jubilation that she’d been rendered silent by the lack of success for her favourite cause and then had disappeared from the public stage in Australia to take a position overseas. This is what “booted upstairs” looks like.

Davis was a take-no-prisoners kinda gal, the type who punches first and asks your name second. Better to put down a rival before they can take you out even if it might be the wrong person.

I’d had a run-in with Davis on Twitter (when it was still called that) precisely about the Voice. I started writing about the Voice in 2017 when the initial report was released and I was watching developments carefully since then up to the time when Davis and I crossed paths in the cybersphere.

The ground upon which we squared off was littered with corpses from her previous battles so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me that she took me for an adversary as soon as I mentioned the word “detail”. But it was detail that I wanted and detail that had been woefully lacking in public debates up to that point in time.

You got two types of contestant in the main, the people who were unthinkingly “for” the Voice and those who wanted to see it crushed. Davis saw only two types of contestant so when I mentioned the “D” word she bridled and lashed out verbally, nicking me with her tweets. I retired but never forgot, so it was easy to work in the shadows monitoring progress of the Voice toward polling day. 

I saw many things. I saw Labor politicians lambasting people on the right with insults and belittling replies. I saw people like Ms Davis following the lead the politicians offered. I saw other Aboriginal luminaries follow suit, always using strong language when mild replies might at least have made their opponents look bad. I saw the people who were trying to progress the Voice to a successful conclusion sink their own ship. Within 40 minutes of the polls closing Anthony Green had declared the result and the game was, unceremoniously, over.

Then silence.

The vanquished went off to lick their wounds and friends of mine said how sad they were. I wonder how sad people were in the Yes camp at any point from August 2017 to 14 October 2023? I wonder how downcast they felt while they were bruising the dictionary with their fast use of epithets designed to cause pain. How sad were they then? Were they sad when they insulted people who disagreed with them? Were they downcast in anticipation of the drubbing they’d receive at the ballot box? I wonder what Megan David pans to do from her aerie in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

Will she remain sad for long?

Referendum is an indictment of organisations

The only reason we’re having this vote is because of the organisations charged with embodying the collective will with regard to First Nations people. If the institutions of government were working properly there wouldn’t be any reason to have a Voice because the wishes of the subject people would be referred to management naturally in the normal course of events. The problem is that the message from the ground isn’t making its way up the food chain, and senior managers are just doing what they want regardless of the needs and wants of the people for whom the programs are run.

Having worked in organisations from 1985 to 2009 I am not surprised. It’s the job of managers to implement top-level policy, not to listen to the people working on the front line. Usually the two things are at odds, and it’s no surprise to learn which wins out in the relevance stakes. Because these organisations work in a vacuum, and the only people who actually know what’s going on are people working in them, the decisions of the top brass are not questioned. 

What a Voice could do is hold the top leaders to account. Normally what happens is that occasionally a Senate enquiry opens up debate to the public, or if something major goes wrong we get a royal commission. These bodies have the power to coerce people to appear and answer questions put to them, and often parts or all of these proceedings are made public on television. A Voice could be a Senate enquiry or r royal commission on steroids, running 24/7 365 days a year, bringing to the public issues that are normally sequestered in the halls of power.

Out of sight out of mind.

A Voice would make the leaders accountable for a change. In the normal run of things their subalterns are the ones who are accountable, and who must reconcile the actual needs of FN communities with official policy. In general, these two things will be at loggerheads as top managers try to impose government policy on people who have no need for it. 

A Voice could potentially give front-line workers the ability to funnel their accumulated learnings into policy, by showing how the things they’re been asking their managers for for years are actually in the best interests of the FN communities and, by extension – because we all want to see those Close the Gap benchmarks improve – of the country as a whole.

A Voice is the only way to make this happen. It will act like a permanent TV channel directing important FN debates into the newspapers and onto the TV screens of millions of voters and taxpayers around the country. There is no better solution to Indigenous disadvantage than such a feed of worthwhile information.

Julian Leeser leaves the front bench

When I was reading back over that post from July I discovered something ironic, because it transpires that Julian Leeser publicly asked for more detail at that time. Now, he’s quit the front bench of the Liberal National coalition out of frustration that his party rejected the Voice to Parliament.

What’s going on?

The Liberal Party’s discomfort with Labor’s policy is exactly the same as Leeser’s back in xthe depths of last year when Labor had just come out with its plan. The plan was for Parliament to fix the details of the VtP once it had been enshrined in the Constitution.

Leeser is disagreeing with himself.

The Liberal Party has been running interference for a long time, even before they openly sided with the opposers of Labor’s plan they were asking for more details, in fact it was this public position that Leeser in July was conforming to. Leeser has taken a position on the VtP (leaving the front bench) on the basis of a disagreement that he once was voicing himself.

It’s routine that politicians are labelled hypocrites, but Leeser’s stance on an issue that is so central to his identity is very disconcerting. It makes his commitment to the cause seem fragile, partial, and even something driven by ulterior motives. If he believes so strongly in a VtP why then didn’t he come out and say so back in July? Why follow the party line back then and now, in April, take a different tack?

It’s very strange.

I wonder if Leeser thinks that everyone has forgotten what he said last year when he had the opportunity to visibly support a policy he says he now endorses? Well, most people won’t remember. I recall when the media first made the announcement of Leeser’s retirement from his job that no mention was made of the fact of his utterances back in the depths of time. A week is a long time in politics. Six months is positively Triassic.

What are the alternatives to a Voice to Parliament?

There’s a film that was made over a decade ago that posits a Chinese invasion of Australia seen through the eyes of teenagers. Back in 2010 it would’ve been impossible to predict that the CCP would ink a pact with the Solomon Islands which Australian authorities are enviously eyeing as heralding the start of a new Cold War. 

In response (again, unthinkable in 2010 when the movie was released) the United States has started devoting more effort to the Pacific. A new frontier for global diplomacy. Two hundred years ago the Frontier Wars were resulting in unnumbered Aboriginal deaths as the colonial government threw its forces into an effort to try to stop reprisals against settlers – who had stolen the land from the continent’s original inhabitants – by persecuting tribes up and down the east coast. 

Nowadays it’s easy to sit back and reflect soberly on the injustice, as though we deserved this period of relative calm, but what about Manase Sogovare and his overtures to China? If we deserve our peace then what do we do about people who would disturb it? 

Perhaps the answer lies in trying to come to terms with our past in a way that might light up the way forward. The offer of friendship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have held out to the settlers’ descendants is genuine and it’s a generous opportunity to find a solution to the problems that we see playing out in the media every day. How many massacres make a genocide? How many deaths in custody perpetuate it? 

How can we move toward a place where there is justice? An authentic response to the troubles currently informing the public sphere in Australia must involve all parties. At the table we must have representatives from the three strands that make up modern Australia. 

As the Uluru Statement points out there is much to be thankful for, but the benefits of the long peace haven’t been distributed equally. It’s not a matter of “equalising” through reparations it’s just a matter of telling the truth. It may make you free. The alternative is certainly bondage.

Voice to Parliament starts to become clearer

I was talking with a friend about the Voice in the light of the prime minister’s speech at Garma during which she’d had tears in her eyes listening to the events unfold. I agreed with the ABC presenter that it was a momentous day, but when the two of us, my friend and I (and her rambunctious, friendly, intelligent dog), were crossing the park I said that the most important thing about the day wasn’t what Albanese said but the fact that the Opposition spokesperson was present.

This morning a Sydney Morning Herald headline agreed with me, drawing me in to read a story in which he said that more detail is needed. But the thing I like the most about Labor’s proposal is that it contains two parts: one to establish the Voice in the nation’s founding document, and then Parliament deciding how it should be formed and what form it should take.

This open-ended strategy almost circumvents Leeser’s misgivings as any future government would also be able to change the formulation of the Voice. Doing things this way should give the Liberals confidence that nothing is set in stone forever in this term of government, and that alterations, improvements, adjustments and tweaks can be made at any time well into the future.

Given this new way of thinking about a Voice I think we’re in a better position to sit down and feel comfortable that there’s no need to panic – or to kill the idea. This would be my main worry, and having the Liberal Party along for the ride (and the Nationals as well) is central to the success of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Let’s reflect on Albanese’s wise words: this is mere courtesy, and it’s also very practical since the way we’ve been managing things up to this point obviously aren’t working very well (though no doubt there have been success stories). 

Opening a new page can be liberating, and we’ve got an opportunity with the USftH to do just that. It’s time to lift the covers and find our future written within. 

Paramontage - 'Syntax prescribes - I'

A third work of art by Matthew sent to the group. Enjoy.

This work is the last one in a series.

Another photographic work - 'On the way to New England'

This is a 3-minute video with a second artwork Matthew made commemorating Myall Creek. 

Hope you enjoy watching it. Thanks for your time.

Photographic artwork about Myall Creek - 'Return'

One of the Sydney Friends, Matthew da Silva, shared a video with the Friends showing a striking photographic artwork he made featuring Myall Creek. Specifically, the piece shows the 2011 commemoration ceremony, which he attended. 

This video runs for about 3 minutes. The work is one of a series Matthew made, and more videos will be posted here in coming days.

New history of Myall Creek memorial published

It’s easy to overlook the importance of reconciliation. What does it mean to you? To me? To the bloke down the street with his designer clothes? Graeme Cordiner’s memoir pulls back the layers of history to reveal a long-term commitment to the act of reconciliation.

A journey on a road that, to make it, makes perfect sense. It’s a journey that, in a way, each Australian is being asked to make now that we’re facing the prospect of a referendum on a Voice to Parliament. But it’s easy to miss the turnoff even when we feel that something is wrong. We have centuries of abuse to deal with.

As Cordiner says in his book, Aboriginal people have given us a gift in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Whichever model is chosen to proceed on the path to closure for all Australians – remember that we have prospered while they have been – among other things – killed, raped, and had children stolen from their parents – we should take the time, as Cordiner has done, to understand the full breadth of the issue. 

Written over a period of 20 years, ‘Find Our Heart at Myall Creek’ charts the trajectory of one man. Taking a view that privileges early settlers as well as convicts, Cordiner tries to come to terms with the fact of the word “Sorry”. What does it mean to an Aboriginal person to hear the word? What does it cost a white man to utter it? What kinds of relations become possible once the fact of the matter has been admitted, in all of its real and imagined ramifications? What kinds of relations are prevented from happening in its absence?

Drawing on personal memories, in a series of short, punchy chapters, Cordiner unveils an image of forgiveness and shows that it will cost us more to ignore than to recognise the depth of the injustice that has been perpetrated in our name. He doesn’t spare iconic names, such as the Sydney Morning Herald – a booster of colonial enterprise that disparaged the prosecution in the case of the crown at the time of the Myall Creek murder case – because Sydney was involved as much as was New England, where the crimes took place at a remote cattle run in 1838. 

Not only were around 30 Aboriginal people killed, in the aftermath of the massacre Sydney was troubled and generations have been troubled in kind. The map of the territory is still being drafted, but we can all lend a hand in opening a passage through the thickets. 

Sydney Biennale – possum skin cloak

Part of the exhibit at the National Art School in Darlinghurst is this impressive item made by people associated with the Myall Creek Memorial. Entry is free and it’s on for a little while yet. 

The show in Darlinghurst is collectively titled ‘Rivus’ and it contains several things with the theme of a river, which is fitting considering where the massacre took place, in the environs of a creek in northern New South Wales. In the same room as the cloak, for example, is a work that resembles a snake river by a Colombian artist who lives in Los Angeles. The show is eclectic and interesting, and is worth spending an hour to view if you have time or if you’re in the area. The school is quite close to Museum Station on the City Circle line.

Media release: Recent incident of vandalism at the Myall Creek Memorial

The Friends of Myall Creek Committee has been joined by a broad representation of its supporters and stakeholders to condemn a recent incident of vandalism at the Myall Creek Memorial near Bingara, NSW

The committee was formed in 1998 to raise awareness of the Myall Creek massacre to better understand the truth of our shared history. Their work to highlight this unique story in our nation’s history was recognised by the unveiling of the Memorial in 2000.

Throughout this time a broad section of visitors and school groups continue to travel from far and wide to attend the annual solemn Memorial. The NSW and National Heritage listed site honours the violent and unprovoked massacre of at least 28 Wirrayaraay women, children and old men on 10 June 1838.

Vandals have damaged areas connected to the new sections of the Memorial site, damaging and removing several items connected to the amphitheatre and one of three water tanks built to provide essential water to the bush garden. The newly built section was part of a Create NSW grant that was launched in a COVID safe way in February 2021. A plaque situated along the Memorial Walk has also been vandalised, but it remains unknown if this was done by the same perpetrator/s. A number of these items have already been repaired by our partner Gwydir Shire Council who has acted quickly on this.

Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall condemned the senseless act of vandalism. “More than 20 years of hard work has gone into transforming the Myall Creek Memorial site into a place of cultural healing and reflection,” Mr Marshall said. “Unnecessary acts like this do little to support the message of reconciliation the site was established to achieve. I hope those who caused damage take a good hard look at themselves and do the right thing by handing themselves into NSW Police. I am committed to working with the Friends of the Myall Creek Memorial to making the site a safe and welcoming space for all.” 

Aunty Sue Blacklock a founding member and life member of the Friends of Myall Creek Committee, as well as a direct descendant of the survivors of the massacre said she was disappointed by the news. “We are just saddened by what was done at the Memorial.”

The committee is also upset by the incident and it has particularly effected all of the Aboriginal members. Founding and current committee member Marilyn Isaacs who is also a direct descendant of the survivors of the massacre has also been saddened by the incident.

“We’ve had the plaques along the Memorial Walk damaged before. With the new additions to the Memorial only being developed seven months ago, we need more security for the site. This place is about reconciliation. I just feel sorry for these people.“

Any fair-minded human being would not defend the actions of those responsible. Over the last 20 years the committee had prided itself on the relationships we have built with Gwydir Shire Council and community organisations in Bingara and Myall Creek who have always supported the annual Memorial gathering along with other businesses in the New England region.

The committee would also like to draw the public’s attention to social media posts that has included some inaccuracies concerning the incident.

It is understood that the damage out at the site took place before September 3 2021, we call on members of the public to do the right and honourable thing and report any suspicious activity they may have observed at the site. Should any members of the public have information that may assist Police with their investigation of the matter, please call Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000 or nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.

Listen live to Yingiya

Graeme Cordiner is 20 years part of the Myall Creek Massacre Memorial, and a fundraiser for Yiŋiya (Yingiya) Mark Guyula’s 2016 & 2020 election campaigns. 

This post is to introduce readers to a largely unheard-of man, but a man whose voice needs to be heard, listened to, not just as an MP in the Northern Territory, nor as a Djirrikaymirr (senior leader) of his people, the Yolgnu country of east Arnhem Land – but by all Australians.

Yingiya grew up in traditional culture, his spirit shaped by Madayin (system of law) and Ŋärra’ (governance institution of law). Aged ten he started to undertake a Western education, in turn becoming an aircraft mechanic, commercial pilot, cross-cultural and community facilitator, senior university lecturer, and Independent MP (overturning a sitting deputy leader by 8 votes in 2016).

Yingiya, who was re-elected in 2020, speaks directly and powerfully to us out of a civilisation which for tens of thousands of years maintained peace, justice and harmony. Yolŋu Rom Ŋurruŋu is a message from the Yolgnu for all Australians. It speaks of the foundation of all relationships since the time of creation, challenging our nation – and world – to see where our feet first left the path.

Until now we have not listened. We have refused to meet as humble equals with a civilisation so very much older than our own with other than our cultural assumption that ‘We know best’. And then we blame them for the community fallout from the overwhelming inroads of our Western world. The very people who alone can give us that core sense of ourselves as a nation remain on the margins.

Yingiya is fighting for a partnership and treaty that respects the authority of Aboriginal nations on their own country. In so doing what Yingiya is ultimately fighting for is the soul of Australia.

That we can assist in getting his message out is our privilege. The talk with take place on Tuesday 28 September  at 7.30pm. Register your details here. 

Commemoration ceremony roundup

The following was sent out by the Friends of Myall Creek Memorial Committee via email and is posted here for convenience. If you want to subscribe to such mailouts, please search for the Facebook Page.

Thank you for your ongoing interest in the Myall Creek Memorial. I apologise for the delay in this report on the 2021 Myall Creek Gathering and concert on the June long weekend and the progress of the building works at the Myall Creek Memorial precinct.

The NSW Government provided $1.3 million for the establishment of Stage 2 of the memorial project consisting of visitor amenities and a cultural performance space. Gwydir Shire Council has provided parking and the Friends of Myall Creek Memorial raised some money towards creating an Indigenous bush garden. The latter was beyond the scope of volunteers alone and we require more funds to meet the cost of establishing the garden and its irrigation system. If you are able to assist us with a donation please visit our website: www.myallcreek.org

The Sounds of Country Community Concert on 12 June was planned to be a celebration of the completion of the cultural performance space at Myall Creek. Unfortunately, an untimely deluge turned the dance circle into a lake and the concert had to be moved to Bingara Oval. However, the concert was a great success despite cold, wind and some rain. Michael Coutts-Trotter, thanked Aunty Sue Blacklock for inviting him to speak and he spoke about the importance of truth-telling and how Myall Creek Memorial was instrumental to that and how the “cultural performance space will give non-Aboriginal people the opportunity to listen, learn and better understand the richness that Australia has in the unique heritage of Aboriginal people.”

Musicians included Gamilaroi man, Roger Knox (aka the Koori King of Country) and his band Euraba who opened the concert followed by Aboriginal-Tongan singer-guitarist Radical son with his reggae and hiphop and finally the Buddy Knox Blues Band. The music was interspersed with traditional dance and song presented by the Ngambaa Dhalaay Dancers, the Tingha Nucoorilma Dancers and the Tamworth-based Gomeroi Dancers.

Fortunately, by Sunday 13 June the dance circle had dried out sufficiently for the memorial gathering to be held at the Myall Creek Stage 2 precinct. MC for the event was Keith Munro, co-chairperson of the Friends of Myall Creek Memorial and grandson of the late Lyall Munro who was remembered as one of the main people who worked for years to make the memorial and annual commemoration happen. The late Mr Munro’s sister, Aunty Sue Blacklock, welcomed everyone to country and spoke inspiringly. The Ngambaa Dhalaay Dancers and the Tingha Nucoorilma Dancers also welcomed everyone.

We were very fortunate to have guest speaker, Professor Lyndall Ryan, step in when Professor Henry Reynolds was unable to travel from Tasmania. Professor Ryan and her colleagues have created and are continually updating an interactive map of over 350 Australian Colonial Frontier Massacres from 1788-1930 which can be viewed on the Newcastle University website. This means her words about the importance of the Myall Creek Memorial for all Australians were particularly pertinent. The speeches were followed by a smoking ceremony and walk down the memorial pathway to take part in the usual ceremony at the main memorial rock.

The enhanced precinct was officially opened by our local State Member Adam Marshall. Julia Pucci, Director Infrastructure from Create NSW, whose team oversaw the project, was also present.

We apologise for being unable to confirm arrangements until the last minute as everything depended on the weather. The memorial hall was not available because the black soil was too boggy to allow vehicle parking there. This meant the planned lunch could not be provided by the CWA, the Thoughts and Dreams Art, Writing, Song and Dance Competition entries could not be exhibited and the awards could not be presented in person. However, the gathering at the memorial precinct was well attended considering the last minute changes and on road parking was at full capacity. The Friends of Myall Creek Memorial Annual General Meeting was held back in Bingara at the Living Classroom as had been previously advised. The Annual Report and Michael Coutts-Trotter’s speech can be viewed on the website under the Memorial tab.

We also wish to thank Professor Henry Reynolds for presenting a webinar on the frontier wars through the University of New England on Friday 11 June in lieu of the planned symposium there in person.

We hope that on Sunday 12 June 2022 we can return to the usual format of a gathering at the Memorial Hall followed by a walk up the hill to the memorial precinct for the commemoration ceremony.

Kelvin Brown interview for NSW Creators of Peace

Myall Creek National Committee member Kelvin Brown, a tribal elder of the Anaiwan People of the Gamilaraay Nation, on Saturday 3 July participated in a presentation for an international group of (mainly) women, Creators of Peace. The interview was conducted over Zoom and most of the participants were in Australia.

Kelvin talked about his upbringing in the area commonly referred to as New England. When he was very small his father had been abusive and his mother, after a particularly bad flogging the man inflicted on the child, took Kelvin 70km on foot to Tingha, a small town north of Armidale. Here there were places where Aboriginal people lived, and here Kelvin grew up before he moved to Inverell so he could go to high school.

Kelvin recounted experiences of a spiritual nature, once of which took place when he was walking through bush near the town. He’d gone in between two slender trees before, on the other side, sensing a voice telling him to turn around. When he did he saw an Aboriginal warrior with spears and nullanullas whose body was transparent. He looked at this apparition for about 30 seconds before turning back to continue on his way.

On another occasion, Kelvin had an out-of-body experience. He was in class and heard a voice telling him to get out, so he walked outside. Into the distance, between two prominent rises that marked the landscape, he went in spirit until he reached a place where a very old man was sitting by a fire. Kelvin asked the man why he had been called and the man said he was dying and wanted him to be there. At that moment thousands of images flew through the air into Kelvin’s mind, though at the time he had no recollection of what they depicted. When he woke up from his reverie a friend was near him and he asked his friend how long he’d been there. His friend said he’d been gone for 15 minutes and that even punches on his arm hadn’t woken him up.

Kelvin also talked about his family’s experience in war. One grandfather, an English migrant, had been involved in Gallipoli and had decided, after that event, to come to live in Australia. Kelvin’s father had been in WWI and was in Tobruk. Kelvin’s uncle was in Singapore when the English surrendered to the Japanese and was subsequently taken into captivity. The Japanese had trouble working out what to do with him and eventually gave him more freedom than other prisoners enjoyed. In this way he was able to save 60 of his comrades.

For his part, Kelvin was in the army and assigned to signals. One of his comrades hated Aboriginals and would abuse Kelvin verbally whenever they meet, or else pointedly ignore him. Kelvin didn’t react to this conduct but got on with his other comrades, and one day this man told Kelvin that he couldn’t hate Aboriginals any longer. His mother had taught him to think that way, and later he asked Kelvin to go back when they had leave to stay at his mother’s house. When they left at the end of the weekend, she asked Kelvin to look after her son and gave them lunch to take with them for the journey back to base.

Armajen Aboriginal Medical Service was a project Kelvin was asked to become involved with. He told us how he’d been in a pub having a beer one day when he heard a tapping on the glass. A woman outside called him over and told him that her group had been having trouble getting funding for Armajen and that they wanted Kelvin to help them out. He agreed to look at their paperwork and read through it over the period of a few days, eventually agreeing to be involved on account of a certificate from the state premier supporting the project.

Kelvin subsequently became involved with a Sydney health service and started to petition the government, always coming up against on particular man who he classified as his nemesis. One time, at a conference where over 300 professionals were attending, including the man from the department, the two of them found themselves sitting opposite each other at lunch. Before the man got up to leave he told Kelvin not to stop his work, and to keep on asking for support. Not long after this, his friends asked him to come back home so he quit the health service and travelled back to New England where they told him there was a meeting with the government and he’d been asked to attend. When they got there, they received the news that their request had been successful and that approval had been given on condition that Kelvin be involved as his example had shown the bureaucrats that the group was serious.

Kelvin was asked to be involved with Myall Creek by his nephew.

Annual ceremony went ahead with some changes to plans

This year there was some bad weather for the event, as there was on the long weekend along the whole of the East Coast. “Word somehow went around the commemoration was cancelled!” said Graeme Cordiner of Sydney Friends of Myall Creek. “The site was quite dry enough, even to use the amphitheatre for dances. Sue and speaker Lyndall Ryan spoke well, as did Adam Marshall, the local MP.”

NBN News provided coverage of the event regionally. The concert on 12 June took place at the Bingara sports ground as there were concerns about the memorial site being too wet.

Around 500 people came for the commemoration on 13 June including two people from Sydney’s Initiative of Change group. 

Prasanthi said: “Going to Myall Creek is the highlight of my 29 years of life in Australia. It was a very spiritual experience for me. I felt the healing, the love and welcome by our indigenous people. 

“I do feel now I have the permission to seek and learn more about aboriginal culture. The way the dancers invited us to dance with them, and the way Auntie Sue and Clayton Blacklock welcomed us on both days felt like a warm embrace.

“It was indeed a worthy pilgrimage and I commit to spread the message to every Australian I know so they get inspired to go on this journey to learn and heal and move forward together.”

Yousif said: “The last weekend was absolutely remarkable. The journey itself was part of the destination. The friendships that were renewed and those that were established were phenomenal. 

“The occasion itself was highly spiritual. This year I was able to feel peace, and there is no more anguish or inner weeping for my own ancestors who were massacred. There is no more weeping: we are at peace. This is a powerful message, expressed in action. I feel I have been cleansed of all depression and anguish for my ancestors. I have already forgiven, through the One True God. 

“But no more weeping. I feel my ancestors want me to establish peace, in a real way, through love and forgiveness."

Vale Bob Steele

Bob Steele died recently and at the meeting of Sydney Friends of Myall Creek at the end of last month he was remembered by those gathered. Bob had a strong sense of justice and overcame significant odds in his life. Being a whistleblower cost him personally as he was in a court case at the end of his life and it went against him.

The son of a preacher, he got bullied at school but an Aboriginal girl in the class got worse and he always remembered this fact. 

Peter Stewart remembered: “Bob was a man of enormous integrity who fought not only for issues that concerned him directly but for numerous issues that would make our society better for all.”

He had an extensive library and was always happy to share ideas. Bob stipulated that he wanted no funeral but left money to Myall Creek in his Will. 

He had a busy and full life. In the 1980s he lost his job in a pilot’s strike. Subsequently he had an accident in an ultralight, and though told he’d never walk again he recovered. 

Bob contributed two stories for a new book on Myall Creek being published by Graeme Cordiner.