1.30 p.m. Walking with Wayne Thorpe.
Meet at Gilligan’s Island (Pony Club Reserve) Nowa Nowa. Walk to the Gorge Lookout and become a story teller when you share your story of Gorge life.
Wayne Thorpe is the author of Bung Yarnda giving insight into a local story with universal significance. He invites us to work with nature in the cycle of the lake opening and closing and in the process become custodians of the lake.
The Warrigal massacres
Film 6.30 p.m. The Warrigal Creek Massacres by Andrew Dodd & Lisa Gye at Lake Tyers Hall.
Organised by Leanne Flaherty. Froute van food available at the hall.
“This was a clear cut case of history going to the victor, and the victim’s story being untold resulting in a conspiracy of silence amongst those who knew about it,” says Alex -Swinburne film student.
The Warrigal Creek Massacres examines a charge led by explorer Angus McMillan, who in 1843 set out with his highland brigade to kill as many Gunai Kurnai people as he could.
Between 60 and 150 children, women and men were killed in the mass slaughter when about 30 people sought revenge for the murder of Port Albert squatter Ronald Macalister.
Churchill Gunai woman Auntie Doris Paton, who speaks in the documentary, said it was important to start a dialogue about this largely unspoken aspect of Gippsland history.
“These massacres were a part of life for Aboriginal people in Gippsland at the time … this was a horrible history,” she said.
“We can’t change the past but it’s important to know the truth and it’s time we started talking about this truth.”
Co-filmmaker Andrew Dodd said he was moved to make this film after examining his connection with the region, growing up in the Latrobe Valley.
“What happened in Gippsland completely shook my understanding of the region’s history,” Dr Dodd said.
The Swinburne journalism academic, along with co-filmmaker Lisa Gye and their team of students trawled through archives to source primary documents that revealed this past.
The film also features several Indigenous voices who have extensive knowledge of the history of the killings on country.
Dr Dodd said he was surprised at the lack of general knowledge surrounding the Gippsland massacres believing the region’s past had escaped scrutiny.
“Gippsland was a lawless state at the time. Warrigal Creek was a very large massacre, and the fact it isn’t well known makes it all the more surprising.”