Land council and shire collaborate on new signage

Originally published in The Nyngan Weekly

The Bogan Shire Council and Nyngan Local Aboriginal Lands Council (LALC) have reached the pinnacle of a near 12-month long project working to create signage that will recognise the Bogan River Massacre.

Nyngan LALC CEO Veneta Dutton said she first approached council in 2021 to discuss the LALC board’s wish to have signage erected acknowledging the event.

“We’ve discussed it for a long time at the land council, with our board and members, about how there is no acknowledgement of the Bogan River Massacre. We thought it would be good to have something down the river.

“The specific site, well they didn’t have GPS coordination, so it’s hard to locate the exact spot so, that’s why we thought somewhere along the river just to acknowledge it, and it will be good for healing for our community as well.

“That’s when we approached council and started talking to Derek [Francis] about it and how we could go about working it out.”

Ms Dutton said she shared with council all the resources she had, noting there was no physical primary sources, written evidence, from an Aboriginal perspective.

“So that’s when council helped out and we conducted some research and found a parliamentary review.”

This review became a primary source for the final signage. Ms Dutton said all parties had been concerned with accuracy when telling the story, and she was pleased with the use of the verbatim transcript.

“We wanted to make sure we could back up what we said with fact. You know what we were told, it’s all handed down, it’s not exact facts. When we talked about it and worked on it [with the shire] we wanted to make sure that we can back it up, so if anyone does questions us, there is something to show them,” she said.

Bogan shire general manager Derek Francis said the account was the most detailed found during the research process, and it was agreed to be a more than reputable source.

“Bogan Shire Council has been working with the Nyngan LALC since the beginning of the year on wording for the new signage.

“The most detailed account of the incident that could be located is the record of the contemporary discussion of the Legislative Council in the Sydney Morning Herald of 1842 with speakers providing differing points of view,” he said.

Newspaper articles, journal reports, and information from various sources were also consulted during the research stage.

The final sign does not give an estimated or exact number of deaths however, Ms Dutton said she is not concerned with this, and believes the final death toll isn’t too important in the broader picture.

“We wanted to signage to reflect the information we had, and nowhere says how many people were killed. So, we decided together we would write unknown. A massacre, it’s not one person, it’s not two people, it’s a massive, large number of people.

“We thought we would just say an unknown number because then we can back it up with parliamentary facts.”

Mr Francis said that during the research process there were several estimates on how many people were killed at the time.

“Available written accounts of the number of Aboriginal people killed in the massacre vary considerably with “three”, “10”, “12”, “many” and “hundreds” quoted. Generally, the term “massacre” is understood to mean the killing of many people.”

Ms Dutton said that in the future there may be opportunity to discover more information about the event, but for now the acknowledgement will do well in healing.

“At the moment having something on the river is more important to us than not having anything at all.”

At July’s Bogan Shire Council meeting, councillors received copies of the signage wording, as well as historical details about the event, to approve for use on signage in the river precinct.

There was concern from some councillors about where the signs should be placed, and if people would become confused if the story was on multiple signs.

It was proposed the approved copy could be placed on its own sign in the area.

Ms Dutton said she could see both pros and cons to the wording being used on a larger information sign and its own standalone.

“I like the idea of it being alone by itself but then again, I like the idea of being with other information.

“I can see it working both ways and I think by being on a bigger sign, it will draw more people to look at it and read it because it's not just about the massacre.

“So, I'm unsure, I will put back to my members and see what they think and let them choose on which way they prefer to go, but as long as it's written there, I'm happy,” she said.

Mr Francis said the council will continue to consult with the LALC as to the location and other content of the signage now the wording has been approved by all parties.

This collaboration has been hugely beneficial to the relationship building between the LALC and Bogan shire.

Ms Dutton said she hopes to see their relationship continue to build as it has over recent years.

“We've had a good relationship with the council, we’re improving our relationship and making more and more steps forward.

“We have a mutual respect for each other, and we’ve been having quarterly catch ups with the council and just following up with the different things, looking at some other signage maybe later on down the track.

“But at the moment, this sign was our important priority, and we want to have that acknowledged.”

The respect doesn’t go just one way, with Mr Francis also saying he hopes to continue to work with the LALC in the future.

“Bogan Shire Council and the Nyngan LALC have had a good working relationship for many years and we look forward to continuing and strengthening that relationship to work together to unite our community.”

At Thursday night’s council meeting councillors moves that the wording be approved, with the only adjustment to be the inclusion of both miles and kilometres when speaking of distance.

Councillors also moved to give Mr Francis, in consultation with mayor Glen Neill and deputy mayor Victoria Boag have consultations with the Nyngan LALC as to whether the wording should be placed on an individual sign or an information sign, with their approval to continue with the procedure of erecting the signs in the river precinct.

The signs will display both the Bogan Shire Council and Nyngan Local Aboriginal Lands Council logos, to show the collaborative work conducted in finalising the wording.

The approved wording can be found in the 2022 July Bogan Shire Council business papers.