HISTORY isn’t always something that a community can be proud of, but the true mark of a strong community is how it moves forward from a troubled past.
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On August 14, 1824, martial law was declared across the Bathurst region.
In response to increased conflict between the Wiradyuri and European settlers, marital law allowed retaliatory bloodshed to be stopped by any means necessary, seeing many senseless deaths on both sides.
On Tuesday, Bathurst’s Wiradyuri elders and the wider community gathered in Peace Park to remember what took place.
- VIDEO: The commemoration ceremony, led by Dinawan Dyirribang
A smoking ceremony started proceedings, to cleanse all present, before attendees stood in a circle to hear about the significance of the date.
Elder Dinawan Dyirribang said a lot of the problems between the Wiradyuri and the settlers arose from land use and hunting.
“The conflict was over land use and when you have two cultures that have two different types of views about how the land should be used, who has ownership of it, that’s where you have that clash and that’s what happened back in that period,” he said.
When martial law was declared in Bathurst, it wasn’t communicated to the Wiradyuri people, and the situation eventuated to “payback killings” from the Wiradyuri.
No accurate record was kept of the number of people who died on either side.
Dinawan said the declaration of martial law has been overlooked for many years, but now the Wiradyuri elders are working with the National Trust to ensure the date and everything that came after are not forgotten.
The first commemoration ceremony was held in 2017, with about 50 attendees.
Dinawan said that it is important that the community moves forward together and that can only happen with education about the past.
“We’d like you all to have a think about it and come up with ideas on how we can move forward,” he said.
“It is us today that have to fix this mess that was created by our ancestors.”
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