On the 14^th August 1824, Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of the colony of NSW, declared “martial law to be in force in all the country west-ward of Mount York: - And all soldiers are hereby ordered to assist; and obey their lawful superiors in suppressing the violence…”  In doing so he invited all soldiers and colonists to be part of a violent suppression of local indigenous people, and assured immunity from prosecution to anyone involved.

This was a very dark time in our history, with various murders and massacres taking place.

There are events in Bathurst to commemorate the events of this time, particularly during the week August 11^th to 18^th.  Please have a look at https://www.dhuluny.com.au.  Here you can find more information about our history.  I was surprised that there are quite a large number of events planned for this week: a smoking ceremony, corroboree, tour of the art gallery, various short films, creative workshops… I will be looking at my calendar and looking at what events I can get to during that week…