Last Sunday, the 17th of April, a memorial was held to mark the 210th anniversary of the Appin Massacre, where at least 14 Dharawal men, women and children were shot and herded off a cliff by British troops, on the command of Governor Macquarie, in 1816. Macquarie ordered his troops "to inflict exemplary and severe punishment on the mountain tribes...to strike them with terror...clearing the country of them entirely", further instructing that the corpses be hung up on trees as a warning to other Dharawal resisting the invasion.
The massacre was only one of hundreds of other massacres perpetrated across the continent as part of the British genocide against Aboriginal peoples.
Around 150 people, including descendants of both the Dharawal victims and British perpetrators, attended Sunday’s memorial, held at Cataract Dam just outside of Appin and organised by the Winga Myamly Reconciliation Group.
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