| Media Release | June 5 , 2000 |
Aboriginal massacre commemorated as Myall Creek railings lead march to Stadium Australia
On that fateful day in 1838, twenty-eight Aboriginal men, women and children were systematically massacred and their bodies burnt, by 11 convict station workers and the son of a local squatter in what became known as the Myall Creek massacre. The timbers that will form the cross, along with the iron hinges the gates hung on, are the only surviving pieces of the wooden stockyard that imprisoned the helpless aborigines as they were slaughtered. The cross was also used by the church at the 1988 “National Prayer Gathering” in Canberra which launched the Aussie Awakening movement as 50,000 gathered the weekend before the official opening of new Parliament House. It was after this event that the then Federal Justice Minister, Senator Michael Tate, said, “We don’t exactly know how it will unfold, but the solidarity achieved here and the sense of reconciliation with the Aboriginal people will all permeate our public and national life from now on – of that I am convinced.” The 250,000 Australians who walked across the Sydney harbour bridge recently certainly share those dreams. The unwillingness by some sectors of our leadership to acknowledge the widespread empathy for the Aboriginal cause will again be confronted as tens of thousands gather in Stadium Australia. Aboriginal elders will share water in a reconciliation ceremony with church and political leaders after the march. Marchers will be invited by Aboriginal leaders to accept the water which they offer us. It reminds us that when the first white Australians arrived, they would not have survived if Aboriginal people had not shown them how to find water - how to live in this harsh country. It also represents the water of life that God offers us all, without which we will all thirst and die. “The rough timbers from Myall Creek also symbolise the possibility of apology, confession and a past that can be over,” says event coordinator, Mal Garvin Photo opportunity: Myall Creek railings and hinges; broadcast quality footage of 1988 and 1998 gatherings featuring the cross. More
information: or contact your Awakeing State Office |
Weather-beaten
railings from a wooden stockyard that bring an echo from June 10, 1838 of one
of the darkest days in Australian history, will be shaped into a cross and carried
at the front of the marches into Stadium Australia during the Celebrating 2000
event on Saturday in a moving memorial on the same date.