Invasion Day gets me thinking about white representations of history. Racist and mainstream narratives about Australia鈥檚 past are rightly challenged by First Nations activists. The campaign to 鈥change the date鈥 is building, as is truth-telling about the genocidal acts of the colonial 鈥渇ounding fathers鈥.
Just 20 metres from my workplace in the Perth CBD stands the larger-than-life unfurling a parchment. British naval officer and colonial administrator Stirling was instrumental in setting up the Swan River Colony.
Stirling became the first Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia in 1831. The white version of the story is that Perth owes its existence to this 鈥渆nthusiastic鈥 and 鈥減ersistent鈥 gentleman, who persuaded the British government to establish a colony here.
Less well-known is that Stirling鈥檚 family were and that, while working his way up the ranks of the Royal Navy in the 1800s, Stirling was engaged in and slave-holding interests in the Caribbean.
Also whitewashed is Stirling鈥檚 leading role in the Pinjarra Massacre of 1834 鈥 one of the deadliest assaults on First Nations people in Western Australia鈥檚 history.
Early in the morning of October 28 of that year, Stirling, along with 25 armed men including soldiers and police, attacked a Bindjareb Noongar camp on the Murray River, 85 kilometres south of Perth.
This event has become known as the 鈥溾 but, in truth, it was a cold-blooded massacre.
Stirling鈥檚 posse shot and killed between 15 and 80, possibly more, Bindjareb Noongar men, women and children. His letters of the time make it very clear that it was a calculated ambush: he wrote to the colonial secretary on the Binjareb Noongar was needed after they killed a white man and aimed to 鈥溾 and 鈥渞educe [them] to weakness鈥 by inflicting 鈥渟uch acts of decisive severity as will appal them as people鈥.
After the massacre, Stirling threatened survivors: 鈥淚f any [white] person should be killed by them, not one [Noongar] would be allowed to remain alive this side of the mountains鈥.
Despite his brutality, Stirling鈥檚 legacy is seen everywhere today: from the Stirling Highway that runs 18 kilometres from Perth to Fremantle; to the City of Stirling Local Government Area; the Stirling Gardens; the Stirling Ranges and more.
Last year, the City of Stirling debated a proposal submitted by to change its name. Bullen argued that the use of the name 鈥淪tirling鈥 would be like a Berlin council honouring Adolf Hitler. The proposal was debated and rejected. Noises were made about in other ways through the city鈥檚 Reconciliation Action Plan.
Stirling was just one of a so-called party of 鈥渉eroes鈥 who attacked the Noongar camp that day in 1834. The colony鈥檚 surveyor general, , also played a leading role. Roe too is memorialised in Roe Street, Roe Highway and the town of Roebourne.
Colonist also participated in the massacre. Peel now has a whole region south of Perth (Peel) named after him 鈥 an area that includes Pinjarra itself 鈥 as do hundreds of businesses and non-government organisations, such as the Peel Thunder football team, the Peel Health Campus and the LGBTIQA+ rights group Pride in Peel.
Like Stirling, the use of Peel鈥檚 name has been the subject of protest and debate. The area鈥檚 Traditional Owners, the Bindjareb people, have called for a name change.
Conservative commentators like to insist that changing colonial-era place names won鈥檛 help overcome First Nations disadvantage.
But this misses the point.
A nation that refuses to confront the truth that modern Australia was built on violent dispossession and genocide is incapable of addressing the legacies of invasion. The destruction at Juukan Gorge and the continued refusal by governments to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody is proof of that.
It鈥檚 time that white Australia stop聽celebrating its murderous colonisers and whitewashing history.
White Australia has a Black history, and it needs to be told. 麻豆传媒 strives to this. We could do it better if you聽become聽a supporter and pledge聽a sum聽to our $200,000 Fighting Fund.
Video:聽Invasion Day 2022: 'We are fighting for justice'.聽.