Myall Creek Massacre Essay Example

twenty eight friendly Aboriginal, elderly men, women and children. These were the relatives of the Aboriginal men who were working with the station manager, William Hobbs.

The twelve stockmen then dragged the Aborigines into the bush and slaughtered every last one. Their bodies were then burnt. The cowardly attack on the elderly Aboriginal men, women and children was well planed.When William Hobbs returned and discovered the attack he immediately began his own investigation into the atrocity. He went to the site of the massacre, questioned other employees of the station and let it be known that he intended to report the matter to his employer, Henry Dangar, as well as the authorities.

On the 24th June, Frederick I. Foot, a landholder, travelled to Muswellbrook to report the incident. On arrival at Muswellbrook, Foot discovered he had missed the police magistrate so decided to travel onto Sydney to report the incident there.On the 4th July, Foot wrote an account of the incident for the attention of Governor Gipps. Governor Gipps ordered an investigation into the incident with the view to prosecution.

There was a great deal of antagonism against the Government for this decision. Unfortunately, colonial Australia was extremely racist and Victorian in their thinking and treated Aborigines as pests, and animals to be exterminated. Later, when the perpetrators were put on trial, one juror was quoted in the Australian Newspaper as saying,” I look on the blacks as a sort of monkey and the sooner they are exterminated from the face of the earth, the better.I knew the men were guilty but I would never see a white man hanged for killing a black. ”

The hanging of the Myall Creek murderers caused great outrage in Sydney, but there were many colonists that were outraged at the massacre of Aboriginal people, but unfortunately, those colonists were the minority! One hundred and sixty two years after the massacre, a memorial to the Wirrayaraay Aborigines of Myall Creek was dedicated on the 10th June 2000. An annual memorial service has been held on 10th June, at the site of the massacre, ever since.

Colin Isaacs is the artist who painted the original artwork from which the engravings on the seven plaques along the memorial walkway of the Myall Creek Memorial were made. Today there is a monument in the place of the massacre which was unveiled at a special ceremony in 2001 The Myall Creek Massacre Memorial was established in 2001. The Memorial consists of a large granite boulder with a plaque, erected on a hill overlooking the site of the massacre at Myall Creek. The path winding up to the monument has seven smaller rocks each containing some of the story, with a seat opposite each rock and situated under trees.The Memorial brought together the descendants of the victims, survivors and perpetrators of the violence in an act of reconciliation which had implications for the whole community. On 10th June each year a commemoration ceremony is held at the site.

The site is becoming more frequently visited by non Indigenous people who are slowly becoming aware of the true history of Indigenous Australians and the struggle since the invasion. This is the only massacre for which Europeans were charged, found guilty and punished. Seven men were found guilty of murder and hung.In

early May 1838 a group of about 40 Aboriginal people set up camp on Henry Dangars Myall Creek station. A posse of blood thirsty, white stockmen and squatters arrived one day seeking revenge for cattle losses. The Aboriginal people (the Kamilaroi) at the property had no involvement in these attacks on stock.

Despite this knowledge the men cold bloodedly killed 28 old men, women and children and later another three. Children were decapitated and people hacked to death. A young women was forced to witness her people being killed and was then repeatedly brutalised.Governor Gipps ordered an investigation onto the massacre with a view to prosecution. There was a great deal of public anger towards the government over this decision. In the initial trial the 11 men were found not guilty, in the retrial 7 men were charged with murder and sentenced to be hung.

The intended message of this trial and hanging from the government was that Aboriginal people could not be treated in this way. The message that was received was that if you did kill Aboriginal people, don't tell the authorities and cover up any evidence. The result was that nearly all further massacres went unrecorded.Myall Creek Massacre, murder of 28 Aboriginal Australians by British ranchers in the colony of New South Wales, Australia, in 1838.

The massacre provoked an outcry against colonial brutality and led to the passage of laws designed to protect Aboriginal people. In the early 1800s British colonists began settling the Australian interior, leading to conflicts with Aboriginal people living there. Violence increased steadily, and killings were committed by both sides, though colonists who killed Aboriginal people usually

were not punished for their crimes.In June 1838, 28 Aboriginal men, women, and children were shot and burned indiscriminately by stockmen working on a cattle ranch at Myall Creek Station, near the town of Inverell, about 450 km (280 mi) north of Sydney. Eleven colonists were tried for the murders and acquitted.

In the years before the massacre, public sentiment for more humane treatment of Aboriginal people had been building, due largely to the antislavery movement led by British reformer William Wilberforce. (In 1833 Britain had outlawed slavery. As a result, the acquittals at Myall Creek sparked a minor but important outcry, prompting Governor Sir George Gipps to seek another trial. At the second trial, seven of the stockmen were convicted and hanged, causing an even larger outcry. The following year, the British Parliament passed the first of the Aboriginal Protection Acts. The acts were designed to protect Aboriginal people from encroaching settlers.

In practice, however, the acts segregated Aboriginal people and legalized discrimination against them