Gudyarra (war) and the Bicentennial of Martial Law, 2024

 

(family album)

If we remain silent we can pretend it never happened.

Aboriginal peoples and especially Wiradjuri peoples should be aware that this series will contain content which is highly upsetting and may contain images, names and stories of people who are deceased.

2024 marks 200 years since Martial Law was proclaimed on the Wiradjuri peoples in the Central West, including on Mowgee, Guntawang, Dabee and Bogee peoples. (Mudgee region).[1]

This series attempts to summarize some of the major events which led to this Proclamation and the violence that was part of it, especially focussing on Mudgee region.  It is drawn from my own research and reading which I dived into in 1998 as part of research into my own family’s journey and what occurred in the areas they moved.  Links are to my family’s story as well as other related information. Prime source for the war in the Central West NSW is Stephen Gapp's, Gudyarra: The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance.  A link to the reference list is at the end of each section.

Five generations of my family lived and are buried in Wiradjuri/Mowgee Country/Mudgee.

I view this series as a pilgrimage of remembrance and yindyamarra/respect and my personal contribution to the Dhuluny Project and Conference (Dhuluny meaning - "Truth and that which is direct") from 11-18 August 2024 organised by members of the Wiradyuri community around Bathurst, Bathurst Regional Council and Charles Sturt University - 'an opportunity to engage in truthtelling and reconciliation'...as well as to honour of the life and work of Historian and Emerita Professor Lyndall Ryan, AM, FAHA (14 April 1943 - 30 April 2024) - and I invite you to walk with me.

65,000+/- years ago people are living in this continent we now call Australia. 

40,000+/- years ago people are making tools and 30,000+/- years ago people are grinding grain and making bread in NSW with a thriving cultural life, including complex systems of law, ceremony and social structures which support them through the last Ice Age from 30,000 to 20,000 years ago until today. (Australia’s epic story: a tale of amazing people, amazing creatures & rising seas)

Endnote.

[1]  2024 is also the Bicentennial of the Legislative Council of NSW. Eleven days after the Proclamation the first meeting was held and Lieutenant Governor Colonel William Stewart was appointed (in absentia), leading to the establishment of the NSW Mounted Police which were eventually used “to enforce British rule on the Wiradjuri Nation” (quote from memorandum). On 20 March 2024 in Parliament a memorandum establishing this connection, and that it should be considered in the Bicentennial celebrations, was tabled and accepted.  This was the first time Wiradyuri language was heard in Parliament. (Notice Paper No. 46 pp. 70-72)













© A. Maie, 2024



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