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Photo: Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw at the Friday’s ceremony at Yurrkuru. (ABC News: Steven Schubert)The Northern Territory Police commissioner has apologised for the actions of officers in the last state-sanctioned massacre of Aboriginal people.
Hundreds of people gathered in the outback for the 90th anniversary of the Coniston Massacre.
A swift and brutal campaign against Aboriginal people in the area was led by Mounted Constable George Murray after the killing of white dingo trapper Fred Brooks in 1928.
An official inquiry soon after the massacre found 31 people were killed, but the National Museum of Australia puts the figure at more than 60.
Local people say many more died.
The Northern Territory did not exist in 1928, and Murray worked for South Australian police.
But current NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw laid at wreath at the ceremony on Friday and apologised for what happened.
“There was no excuse or justification for what occurred here 90 years ago,” he said in a speech at Yurrkuru, or Brooks Soak, where Fred Brooks was killed.
“As a police officer and commissioner I’m sorry for what has occurred.
“A community should never fear their police and police should never fear their community.”
‘History is still not being heard’
There were a series of emotional speeches from descendants of those people who were killed, as well as those who did the killing.
Photo: Women perform the Purlpa to commemorate the massacre. (ABC News; Steven Schubert)The great-niece of Constable Murray, Liza Dale-Hallett, travelled from Melbourne to attend the ceremony.
“We are here today because we believe facing our history, Australia’s history, is so important and this history is still not being heard,” she said.
“If we can accept what happened here 90 years ago, we might be able to accept 60,000 years of history,” she said.
Central Land Council delegate Harry Nelson asked if a National Park could be created around the massacre sites to mark the area’s history.
Other suggestions were for a national day of commemoration for Indigenous massacres similar to Anzac Day.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he would look at what could be done.
He said truth-telling was an important part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was last year rejected by the then Turnbull government.
“I’m sorry for what happened here 90 years ago and the truth must be told and the trust must be heard,” he said.
Topics: history, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-policy, murder-and-manslaughter, police, colonialism, nt
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