'Coming together without division': Healing and reconciliation after the Myall Creek Massacre

Hundreds gathered for the memorial sit in concentric circles.

Keith Munro says the annual commemoration brings together Australians to remember the Myall Creek Massacre and to create a space for healing. Source: Supplied / Friends of Myall Creek

Every year, hundreds gather to mark the Myall Creek massacre in New South Wales. Once a no-go zone, today a memorial stands at the site as a tribute to the group of 28 unarmed Aboriginal people killed by a gang of stockmen on 10 June 1838. It was one of 438 sites where the mass killing of Aboriginal Australians took place during the period called the Frontier Wars, between 1788 and 1930. The event was also the first – and only – time European settlers were successfully prosecuted for the mass murder of Aboriginal people. For Keith Munro, a descendant of the survivors, the annual gathering is a major truth-telling project brought to life by the local community - both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Biwa Kwan spoke with Keith Munro about the significance of this year's commemoration.


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