Mass killing, bodies burnt, a 'conspiracy of silence': Why this massacre is not forgotten

Descendants of those killed at Forrest River gathered in remote northern Western Australia to mark the 100th anniversary of a massacre that has long been shrouded in a "conspiracy of silence." In 1926, at least eleven Aboriginal people were shot and their bodies burned in makeshift ovens on Balanggarra country. The event became a national scandal when details emerged, leading to a Royal Commission the following year. The commission officially concluded that 11 Aboriginal people were killed. Ronnie Morgan, chairman of the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, stated that the commemoration is not about blame but about confronting a dark part of Australian history. "This is part Australian history, as dark as it is," Morgan said. "Let's bring it to the surface, and be honest about it, and then maybe we can start to move forward." He explained that his great-grandparents helped collect the remains and bury them under a cross, which remains the only visual marker of the killings. The massacre began after an Aboriginal man named Lumbia fatally wounded a white pastoralist during an altercation. A party of 13 police and civilians then pursued and killed at least eleven people over several weeks at three different sites.

“

My great-grandparents said they went out there with other people from the mission and put the remains into hessian bags. And they buried them here, under a rubble of rocks, and put up this cross.