DARGANGWIN (MASSACRE)
A ngook (honey) coloured meeka (moon) gloriously ascends into the darkening sky, as the clan families gather around the karl (fire) singing boolarang meeka, the Meeka Moorart (full moon) song. Yoonjep feels the warm evening breeze sweep through the karleep (campsite) as she listens to the song and quietly feeds Ngoorweel.
After the song, everyone begins to yarn around the karl (fire) circle. Yoonjep can hear Munday's solemn tone as he discusses the slaughter of a neighbouring Bindjareb clan on the banks of the Moelan (Murray River) at a place the wedjela named Pinjarra. Munday knows some of the Bilyidar (river families) from trading wilgi (ochre), feather ornaments and kitj (spears) with them.
It was at these trading ceremonies that Munday first heard about a wedjela, Thomas Peel, who’d taken vast tracts of the Binjareb boodjar from Woodman Point to the Murray River. Peel resented the Binjareb people, blaming them for the destruction of his stock, crops and buildings and felt frightened and threatened by their large karleep (camp) near his settlement. When the Binjareb warrior, Calyute, committed a payback murder of a wedjela named Private Nisbett, Peel took immediate action.
Calyute’s punishment was to be strapped to the Boorloo (Perth) jail whipping post, where he received many lashes from a cat-o’nine-tails, leaving his back raw and bleeding. Dissatisfied, Peel wanted to teach the Binjareb to bow to the new wedjela law so he begged his ally, Governor James Stirling, to help him teach the Binjareb a harsh lesson. He believed it was time to quell their resistance.
The pungent smell of booyi (smoke) permeates the circle, dancing upwards in wisps, as Munday begins a tragic story of the Binjareb slaughter. Before he begins his story, he quietly says with respect,
Nidja Binjareb boodjar wer wangkiny.
He honours Binjareb land and their story, honouring Yaburgurt (George Winjan), a Binjareb boy, who survived this massacre. In mingalya (tears) and mairak (grief), he shared this tragic story with Munday.
Munday lowers his voice, brimming with sadness and grief, takes a long slow breath and begins to share Yaburgurt's story.
This massacre occurred in Kambarang, the most beautiful of all seasons, where the colourful wildflowers, balga (grass tree) spears and fruits are as profuse as the dartj (meat) available for hunting. Growing alongside the Moelan (Murray River), an integral life source to the Binjareb clan, the moodjar tree was alive with vibrant orange flowers, ready to become the resting place for those who would not survive the day.
Many of the Binjareb teenage boys had already left with the adult males for the initiation camp in the nearby inlet, leaving the bridiya maam (senior men) yorga (women) and koolangka (children) back on the banks of the Moelan (Murray River). Yaburgurt, a young Binjareb boy remained behind because it wasn't time for his initiation ceremony.
The ngaangk (sun) had just begun to rise over the bilya (river), evaporating the dew and lifting the heavy fog that sat ominously over the mia mia (shelters). The Binjareb slept peacefully, unaware that for many, this was their last djidar (sunrise).
As the families awoke, they began to move out from their mia mia (shelters), stoking karl (fires), preparing merenj (food) and feeding their koolang (babies). As the sun rose higher, there was the usual hum of morning activities, chatter and laughter heard at the family karleep (camp). The koolangka (children) laughed as they ran with the dwert (camp dogs) through the carpet of ferny bracken down to the river’s edge.
Suddenly, approaching gnort (horses) trembled the ground. Sensing danger, the dwert (dogs) began to bark ferociously. Elderly men began to walinj (cry) loudly,
Aliwa, aliwa, barang, barang (Danger, danger, run, run).
In the panic of hearing the horses, the moort (families) scattered in panic. Karl (fires) were left and the remains of food thrown to the ground.
Out of this serene calmness, chaos erupted. What was once a peaceful dawn morning, soon became filled with the sounds of guns and the terrifying screams of adults and koolangka (children).
What no Binjareb realised was that while they peacefully slept, the wedjela soldiers were hidden in the nearby bushes awaiting an ambush. Catching them unawares, wedjela appeared from all directions, some on horseback, some on foot, but all with guns. They were there to arrest Calyute for the murder of Private Nisbett and to payback the other attacks that threatened Peel’s new settlement.
Captain Stirling’s party had positioned itself into two groups. One large group hid on the opposite bank of the bilya (river) amongst the deep grasses and trees, whilst the remainder hid in the bushes of the Binjareb camp, creating ease of access to shoot the Binjareb clan at close range.
The soldiers had let out one loud cry, a signal to begin shooting. In karang (anger), the senior men grabbed their kitj (spears) in resistance to this cowardly dawn attack on their innocent families. But their kitj felt powerless, as gunshots felled their family like trees.
Realising the soldiers were amongst their karleep (campsite), many Binjareb believed it would be safer to flee towards the bilya (river). They weren't aware that Stirling and his men were hidden in bushes on the opposite side of the river bank. As they emerged with relief through the low-lying ferns and bushes to the open riverbank, gunshots cut them down face-first into the cool waters, bloodied bodies darkening the water.
In a panic, one Binjareb mother, holding tight to her newborn koolang (baby), broke through the fern barrier at high speed onto the open banks of the river, only to be struck down. Together they fell face-first onto their boodjar, dropping her koolang (baby) with her. Yorga (women) and koolangka (children) who managed to dodge the bullets, ran into the bilya (river) to hide among the floating logs and tall reeds.
Yaburgurt ran the familiar path as fast as his little legs would take him. With his heart thumping in fear as he dodged bullets, he jumped over the riverbank into the deep brown water where the icy cold chill took his breath away. Only when he was safe amidst the long reeds, silently submerged beneath the bloody waters, did he breathe again by sucking air through the reed’s hollow tube.
It seemed like an eternity that Yaburgurt was shallow breathing listening to the continuous stream of gunshots. Despite his heart pounding in fear, he dared not move from his position. The guns continued until the sun was high in the sky. Yaburgurt thought that at any minute a bullet was going to hit him as he felt the vibrations and muffled screams of bodies pounding into the water. From behind him, a floating body suddenly bumped his head. He stifled a scream.
After the onslaught of violence and chaos, Yaburgurt’s world suddenly went quiet as an eerie silence settled over the camp. Nothing stirred, nothing moved. Stirling’s party had retreated. The djert (birds) had scattered and the dwert (camp dogs) were dead.
Yaburgurt waited until his heartbeat and breathing slowed. Courageously, he lifted his head from under the icy waters, slowly emerging from his watery grave. He was shaking uncontrollably from the fear and cold that racked his little body. In the distance, he could hear family members wailing and weeping for their gnoytj (dead), while others moaned from the agony of their gunshot wounds.
From Yaburgurt’s waterlogged body, water and tears mixed and fell, as his eyes adjusted to the horror scene that was before him. Some of his moort (family) lay noyitj (dead) on the riverbank, while others floated like dead logs in the water. Red. Blood was everywhere. Shot down as they tried to flee from the men on horseback in their camp, or by Stirling and his men on the opposite river bank. There was no escape.
Amidst the blood and flesh of his loved ones, Yaburgurt collapsed onto the muddy bank, overwhelmed, breathless and inconsolable. He released a deep guttural wail in the realisation that all the people he loved were now noyitj (dead).
Sadly, Munday finishes his story by dropping his head in silence. The listeners stare silently into the hot coals, watching the branches and twigs disintegrate in the heat. Munday is unable to list the names of Yaburgurt’s family who died. This is out of respect for their spirits journey to Kurannup. That day, Yaburgurt lost his mothers, brothers, grandfathers, while the Binjareb leader, Calyute lost his son Ninia and one of his wives, Yamup who later died after a gunshot to the leg.
With tears falling from his cheeks, Mooritj inhales a deep breath. He’d forgotten to breathe throughout the retelling of this horror story as if he too had been submerged underwater without air. He felt silenced by the shock of the wedjela cruelty and capacity to hurt his moort (family).
Mooritj and Yoonjep both know that to survive in this new world, their family would need a different approach to these wam (strangers). They knew they couldn't continue the same fight as Calyute, Yagan, Midgegooroo or Munday. As their moort (family) grew, they would have to decide how to navigate this ever-changing world so they could teach Ngoorweel, who grew bigger each day, how to walk in both worlds. Just like Mooritj’s koondarm (dream).