On the 10th of June 1838, near Bingara in Northern NSW, a group of 11 convict stockmen rode onto Myall Creek Station and massacred about 28 Aboriginal people comprising mostly older men, women and children.
Known as the Myall Creek Massacre, the event occupies a unique place in Australian legal and social history.
Following the massacre, the NSW colonial administration ordered an investigation and applied colonial law to the case of the criminal mistreatment of Aboriginal people. This resulted in the prosecution and execution of the stockmen responsible for the atrocity. For the first time during the frontier wars, justice was served, though the historical effect was to send subsequent massacres ‘underground’.
To acknowledge the event as well as its legal significance, the University of New England’s will hold its annual Myall Creek Memorial Commemoration at the Oorala Aboriginal Centre on Friday, 7 June. The Commemoration sets the scene for the official Myall Creek ceremony on Sunday, 9 June and will feature a symposium titled Myall Creek & The Law, presented by the UNE Law School, and a Yarning Circle event.
“UNE’s Law School is the closest Australian law school to the site of the massacre at Myall Creek Station near Bingara,” Professor Cameron Moore Deputy Head of the UNE Law School said.
“Our academics will discuss the ongoing relevance of Myall Creek to legal scholarship as the trial and execution of the perpetrators were some of the most momentous in NSW colonial history and its implications continue to reverberate in modern Australia.”
The symposium will examine the Indigenous Laws of War, question why there was no declaration of martial law for the fighting at the time of the massacre, provide a comparative perspective with New Zealand and North America and explore where to from here.
The symposium will be dedicated to the memory and work of the late Professor Lyndall Ryan, who passed away recently. Lyndall was a leading Australian scholar on massacres and Frontier War violence.
After lunch, there will be yarning and truth telling session with Gamilaraay and Kooma man, Boe Spearim.
Boe is the creator and host of Frontier War stories, a podcast series dedicated to truth telling about a side of Australian history that has been left out of the history books.
To date, he has recorded over 30 episodes, speaking to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people about research, books and oral histories the document the first 140 years of conflict and resistance in Australia. Episode 21 was dedicated to the Myall Creek Massacre Memorial.
Boe will be yarning with attendees on The Frontier Wars and Blak Resistance: Then and Now with specific emphasis on truth-telling in history. On Sunday, he will deliver the on-site oration at the Myall Creek Memorial.
The UNE Myall Creek Memorial Commemoration will be held at the Oorala Aboriginal Centre, and via Zoom, on Friday, 7 June from 10am to 3pm. It is a free event but attendees are asked to RSVP to tcullen6@une.edu.au for catering purposes.
The event is sponsored by the Oorala Aboriginal Centre, the UNE School of Law and the Armidale Friends of Myall Creek Memorial. People interested in becoming a friend can contact Andrew.Lawson@une.edu.au.
More information: https://www.une.edu.au/info-for/indigenous-matters/oorala/whats-on/yarning-about-truth-telling
