Australia Day: South West elder calls for truth telling on January 26

On a day seen by many Aboriginal people as a day of mourning, one South West Elder hopes sharing the uncomfortable truth about the region’s past can be brought to light to help “heal”. Wardandi Elder Bill Webb said January 26 marked the beginning of nearly two centuries of genocide, massacres and systematic destruction of the Aboriginal cultures and societies that existed in Australia prior to European settlement. A truth-telling march in Busselton next month will give others the opportunity to share their stories and knowledge of this painful past wiped from the history books, he said. “Western Australia has not had a truth-telling time,” Mr Webb said. “The truth needs to come out that it is not Australia Day, it’s Invasion Day. What was done to the Aboriginal people was genocide. “They took all of our beautiful culture and spiritual connections.” For the second year in a row, the truth-telling march will be held along Queen Street on February 22, to mark the 1841 massacre at Minninup Lake, where Wardandi men were killed by Busselton settlers Captain John Molloy, John, Vernon, Lenox and Alfred Bussell and their men. Mr Webb said it was just one of many massacres that took place across the region in some of the “unclosed chapters” in WA’s history. Mr Webb’s ancestral grandmother, who was friends with the Layman sisters, was tied up to a tree so she couldn’t warn anyone about the massacre the families had planned. “She said they killed over 100 hundred people, possibly up to 800 people,” Mr Webb recalled. “She said the Wonnerup Estuary ran red with blood.” Mr Webb said these horrific parts of the country’s history needed to be told so that all Australians could heal. “I’ve been all over Australia and these kinds of stories are everywhere. It’s horrific. It would make your stomach turn.” “You can celebrate your Australia Day, but we’re still suffering and need the recognition of what really happened,” he said. “The truth needs to be told. We need to heal the truth.” Alongside the march, a timeline and history of the massacre will be displayed in Mitchell Park by Curtin researcher and academic Mary Blight. Earlier this month Australian cricket star Ash Gardner voiced her opposition to Cricket Australia scheduling a T20 on January 26, a day which she said marked the beginning of “genocide, massacres and dispossession”.