THE remains of a woman who was taken from her family 113 years ago were finally laid to rest at her home during a symbolic sunrise ceremony at Myall Creek on Saturday.
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A fresh morning combined with a cloudless sky provided the ideal setting for the private ceremony at the Myall Creek Massacre Memorial site attended by just seven select male members of the Kamilaroi tribe.
The burial site was chosen for its close proximity to the site where up to 30 Aboriginal people were slayed by a group of white stockmen in 1838.
According to Moree Local Aboriginal Lands Council (LALC) administrator and participant in the ceremony, Gerald Brennan, the location of the burial site has been kept secret in a bid to avoid the vandalism which has occurred to sacred sites in the past.
Mr Brennan said a number of false holes were also dug to disguise the true whereabouts of the remains.
The remains, a skull, are believed to be those of a female of Aboriginal and European decent aged between 30 and 40 years which had been housed in Scotland’s Anatomical Museum for most of the last 110 years. Being the remains of a female provided a somewhat rare opportunity for Narrabri Kamilaroi woman Delma Brennan to also participate in the traditional ceremony for a short period — an invitation considered by her as “an honour of a lifetime”.
Prior to the ceremony privileged guests were invited by ceremony leader William Priestley (commonly known as Bill Stanley) of Moree to walk through smoke generated by burning eucalyptus leaves to cleanse their souls.
The burial ceremony, carried out in line with the traditional process of returning ancestral remains “to country” was then conducted to the sound of clapping sticks which Mr Stanley said hunted bad spirits away and conjured up good spirits.
“It’s over now. She is reunited with her traditional land, we can get on with our lives now,” Mr Brennan said at the conclusion of the ceremony.
