WHAT IS TRUTH TELLING?
Reclaiming the Noongar Voice
It is ‘reclaiming the Noongar voice' and acknowledging truth:
Acknowledging - that less than 200 years ago Noongar people were brutally dispossessed of traditional lands and forced to the margins of society.
Acknowledging - how government policy, and decisions by those in power, have heavily impacted Noongar families across generations.
Acknowledging - the continued strength and resilience of Noongar people - kura (back then) and yey (today)
To begin Truth Telling, and then Healing – Aboriginal people need to tell their history, and non-Aboriginal people need to listen. It is part of truth, justice and healing for everyone in our community.
Image: Patrick Miles, Rodney Garlett, Uncle Ben Taylor, Robert Miles, Bernie Green on-country @ junction of Gugulja (Avon River) and Boyagerring Brook. The boodja where we plan to create a 'yarning circle' to tell our history and cultural stories.
Gnulla Karnany Waangkiny (Our Truth Telling)
Newcastle Gaol Museum
This 2023 National award winning Gnulla Karnany Waangkiny (Our Truth Telling) installation was a collaborative project - led by NKAC - with Shire support through their Reconciliation Action Plan, and funded by LotteryWest. Through a Noongar 'voice' GKW highlights traditional life pre colonisation and the dark history and unjust treatment of Noongar people post colonisation. View GKW installation at the Newcastle Gaol Museum. The Shire, in partnership with NKAC, is the first local government in WA to research and show case the local 'Truth Telling' as a significant permanent display in the Museum in a dedicated space.
LEARNing THE TRUTH
Australians should not be worried about truth telling. It can be done in a respectful way that simply acknowledges the truth in our collective history. For over 45,000 years Noongar moort (families) moved across our valley - an area covered in rich fertile land and waterways. Families had dedicated and distinct moort-boodja (family lands) and rights to certain waterholes. Then in the 1800’s - with the colonial attitudes of the new comers - the land grabs (in the pursuit of acreage for stock pasture and farming land) led to many violent clashes on the frontier. Clashes resulted in Noongar clans being brutally displaced from their lands through tactics of discrimination and massacre. A high level of lawlessness and intimidation by those that had taken the land was made legitimate by racist government policy of the time.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Following 1836, hundreds of settlers occupied land along the Avon River, disregarding Noongar people and their customs. This sparked a period of despair and conflict for the Noongar. In 1834, Captain James Stirling had led the Pinjarra Massacre, killing up to 80 Noongar people to instill fear and weaken resistance, later writing that the only way to deal with Aboriginal people was to "reduce their tribe to weakness by inflicting such acts of decisive severity as will appal them as a people." Stirling’s government granted Noongar land to Europeans without consent, with newspapers warning of further violent reprisals. Colonisers dismissed thousands of years of Noongar wisdom and sustainable land practices—an inconvenient truth challenging their claims of superiority. Facing these truths is essential for national healing, as understanding the impacts of the past brings reconciliation. Head to Toodyay's Newcastle Gaol Museum to read more.
The AUSTRALIAN FRONTIER WARS
The term Frontier Wars refers to conflicts between European colonists and First Nations people, beginning with the British arrival in 1788 and lasting into the 1930s. As the British established a colony in Australia, First Nations groups resisted, resulting in violent wars marked by organized battles and open massacres. While exact death tolls are unknown, University of Newcastle research has recorded at least 10,000 Indigenous people killed in 416 massacres between 1780 and 1930. Historian Emeritus Professor Lyndall Ryan noted that most occurred from 1860 to 1930. Frontier massacres increased as colonial forces moved across Australia, including Western Australia. Laws and legislation often escalated frontier violence. Despite growing research, our national curriculum still largely denies the Frontier Wars. To learn more, view The Australian Wars documentary on SBS.
Images of Dark history story boards:
