Click to see the news article,
published in
The Daily News recently.
A member of one of the Tweed's first
pioneering families has launched a campaign to counter growing
claims that early settlers engaged in wholesale massacres which
wiped out members of the original Wollumbin tribe.
Wollumbin farmer James McKenzie believes a recent resurgence of
massacre allegations by some Aborigines is slanderous and casts a
stain on the reputation of his family and other early white settlers
to the region in the early 1860s.
"They are wrongly being branded as murderers and I believe it is
time to set the record straight," said Mr McKenzie.
He recently fronted Tweed Shire Council to ask for help in dousing
what he says are totally inaccurate allegations.
He says massacre claims are being spread through the internet,
including a council-sponsored Wollumbin Festival website.
In that website, Widjabul tribal member John Roberts stated that the
biggest majority of the Wollumbin tribe was massacred at Kunghur and
predicted that their sins will be visited upon their descendants for
several generations to come.
Although the comments have now been removed from the website, Mr
Roberts, who at one stage was based in Lismore, repeats the claim of
an 1860 massacre in a YouTube video on the internet which can be
accessed under the subject, Fire Mountain Wollumbin.
He says because the Wollumbin tribe was wiped out, three tribes from
surrounding areas were forced to step in to take over custody of
sacred sites on the Tweed, including Mount Warning, now called Mt
Wollumbin by Aborigines.
Mr Roberts could not be tracked down for comment, but Mr McKenzie
said the Aborigine's claims are contrary to evidence contained in
his own families' documented history and history books complied by
local researchers.
"I am not denying that some Aborigines died violently at the hands
of white settlers - but none of the deaths could be described as a
massacre," Mr McKenzie said.
There is evidence that two Aborigines were shot dead and others
wounded in a revenge attack following the murder of two white timber
cutters.
"There are also reliable accounts that up to 10 Aborigines died at
Fingal after consuming stolen flour that had been laced with
arsenic."
But Mr McKenzie says he is particularly incensed by the allegations
because surviving documents from his great grandfather, who
pioneered cane farming on the Tweed, reveal that they shared
harmonious relations with local Aborigines.
"The Tweed's traditional owners have also been robbed of their
traditional rights by this propaganda campaign by wrongly claiming
they are all dead."
Mr McKenzie says he wants Council to issue a press release putting
the massacre claims to rest.
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