HERITAGE Minister Peter Garrett (pictured left) brushed aside calls for an apology to the victims of the “Aboriginal Wars” during his Saturday visit to Myall Creek for the 170th anniversary of the 1838 massacre that claimed the lives of at least 30 Wirrayaraay people.
Moree Aboriginal elder and co-chairman of the Myall Creek Memorial Trust, Lyall Munro snr, had earlier told The Northern Daily Leader he was campaigning for an apology to the victims of the Aboriginal Wars.
Mr Munro said the wars, of which the Myall Creek and the nearby Waterloo Creek massacres had been a part, were real conflicts with real casualties.
He said despite his people’s primitive weapons they had fought back bravely in defence of their lands and that their courage and sacrifice deserved to be recognised.
Mr Munro’s appeal comes at the same time the Federal Government is reportedly considering erecting an official memorial to the victims of the Aboriginal wars in Canberra.
It was reported yesterday The Canberra Institute, headed by ACT Labor Senate candidate From page 1
and former Hawke Government adviser Peter Conway, had recommended a memorial.
The proposal is for it to be constructed on ANZAC Ave.
Sydney media said yesterday the Federal Government had told Mr Conway the proposal “would be considered” by the Canberra National Memorials
Committee.
The Canberra Institute argues the government had set a precedent by the recent decision to erect a national Boer War memorial.
It believes if a memorial for a “British Colonial War” is justified then there is certainly a case for a memorial to the Aboriginal casualties of the “Aboriginal Wars”.
Mr Munro told The Leader thousands of Aboriginals had died – often horribly as in the case of the Myall Creek massacre – at the hands of settlers and Government-appointed “professional killers”.
“I want recognition for the Aboriginal people as a nation,” Mr Munro said.
“I want recognition and a treaty in the same way as New Zealand has the Treaty of Waitangi (between the settlers and the Maori people).”
Mr Munro was standing shoulder to shoulder with 82-year-old Elizabeth Connors when he made the call.
Elizabeth, who said the massacre had never been publicly acknowledged when she was a girl, is a direct descendant of Queen Annie Munro – the daughter of one of two young boys who survived the June 10, 1838 massacre by hiding in the mud of the creek. Mr Munro is also a descendant.
Mr Garrett was at Myall Creek on Saturday to announce the inclusion of the massacre site on the National Heritage List.
He said the Heritage Listing was particularly significant as it had originated with the Myall Creek Memorial Trust and was community driven.
Despite this he appeared dismissive of Mr Munro’s call for an apology.
Mr Garrett told The Leader he believed the Government had made its position clear with the apology to the Stolen Generations earlier in the year and the subsequent inclusion of Myall Creek on the National Heritage register.
He said both were a “significant part” of the reconciliation process and that Australia needed to follow that process to see where it led.
When asked if it was possible the path could lead to a further apology a visibly annoyed Mr Garrett replied: “That is all we will say at the moment”.