Description

From the beginning of time to now, Matthew Priestley tells the story of his Country, his family, his mob for the sake of the generations to come.

In Part 1 Gomeroi Country we start at the beginning and then encounter invasion, massacre and colonisation.

This podcast has been informed by the historical work of Aunty Noelene Briggs, and particularly her books Winanga-li and Burrul Wallaay. To find out more about Aunty Noelene's books click here

To contact us, support us and find out more, join us at Patreon, click here


Detailed Music Credits
"Track 4 (Hurt)" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Didgee Beat Box Mix" by Philip Okerstrom, "Didgy" by Philip Okerstrom "Quirky Play" by Marco Pesci, "Green Garden" by Score Wizards, "Track 10 (Hurt)" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Talismanist’s Art" by Tera Mangala, "Omen" by Richard Johnson, "Didgeridoo Long Loop" by Tera Mangala, "Track 3 (Hurt)" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Charmaine" by Philip Okerstrom.

This podcast was made with funding from Create NSW.

A podcast from Matthew Priestley supported by Third Space Ventures and Coequal.

Other Coequal Podcasts

for Real Made Up Stories click here
for Agents for Change click here

Content Description

This episode contains discussions of colonial violence, including detailed references to massacres and systemic dispossession of Aboriginal people
 
Wirilla – Episode 1: “Gomeroi Country” Duration: ~22 minutes
Setting: Recorded on Gomeroi and Dharawal Country, moving between ancient storytelling space and historical narration.
Narrators/Voices:

• Matthew Priestley – Mehi Murri man (Terry Hie Hie clan, Gomeroi Nation)
• Dante – Young Gomeroi man, co-narrator and learner
• Kim – Anglo-Saxon background, long-time friend of Matthew, teacher from Moree
• Phil – Co-creator, occasional narrator

🪶 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT BREAKDOWN Opening Invocation: The Wind

• Speaker: Matthew Priestley
• Matthew opens the episode with a poetic reflection about the wind as the source of life and communication.
• He describes the wind as magic—essential, invisible, and often unacknowledged.
• Key idea: Breath and speech come from the wind, positioning “air” as the first teacher.
• Sets a meditative, spiritual tone—listeners are drawn into Country as a living force.

🌀 Themes introduced:
Connection to Country · Breath as life · Gratitude to unseen forces · Story as wind.
Welcome and Setting

• Speaker: Dante (intro narration)
• Dante welcomes listeners to Wirilla, acknowledging Gomeroi, Dharawal, Elouera, and Wadi Wadi lands.
• Introduces Matthew and the location — the ridge called Wirilla.
• Kim describes standing on the ridge: red gums with “red bellies,” tall and narrow.
• Matthew teaches that these are Yarran trees, sacred and central to story.

🌿 Theme: Naming and language as a way of seeing; reclaiming Aboriginal place-names and meanings.
Creation Story of Baime and the Yarran Tree

• Narrator: Dante
• A Dreaming story unfolds:
  • Baime creates the first humans from red earth on the ridges.
  • After a drought, one man refuses to eat a kangaroo rat, walks away, dies beside a red gum.
  • A Yowie appears, places him inside the hollow tree, which then rises into the sky amid thunder.
  • Two cockatoos follow it upward — their flight creates the Southern Cross.
  • The story marks the origin of death in the world.

🌌 Themes:
Cosmic transformation · Origins of mortality · Sky stories as moral lessons · Animal kinship.
Yarran Do and the Hidden Star

• Speaker: Matthew
• Matthew expands on the story:
  • The lifted tree becomes Yarran Do.
  • Hidden within is Gameeri, “the smallest star in the universe,” invisible to the naked eye.
  • Knowing the story helps you never get lost on Country — signs are everywhere.
• Ends with cockatoos shrieking (“See you later”), blending story and lived moment.

✨ Themes:
Knowledge as orientation · Invisible truths · Story as navigation · Spiritual continuity.
Introductions and Reflections on Identity

• Speakers: Dante, Kim, Matthew
• Dante introduces himself as Gomeroi, living on Dharawal land, learning about his ancestry through this project.
• Kim introduces herself as Anglo-Saxon, long-time collaborator and teacher from Moree.
• Raises the question: “Australians like to think everyone gets a fair go — but is that actually true?”
• This line bridges from ancient story to modern social reflection.

🪞 Themes:
Belonging · Cultural reclamation · The myth of equality in Australia · Intercultural friendship.
Matthew on Pre-colonial Knowledge and Balance

• Speaker: Matthew
• Describes Aboriginal people as living in “subconscious mode” — deeply attuned to Country.
• Speaks of thousands of years of balance: people knowing 30–40 languages by age 11, every star, plant, and animal by kinship.
• Presents a vision of knowledge as living ecology — not ownership but relationship.

🌏 Themes:
Ancient intelligence · Linguistic richness · Embodied learning · Ecology and spirituality united.
The Land Before Colonisation

• Narrators: Dante and Kim (quoting settlers’ accounts)
• Introduces historical documentation:
  • Quotes from Paul Mann (Australian Geographic, 2010) and Peter Cunningham (1827).
  • Descriptions of Moree and the Liverpool Plains — fertile, lush black soil, “a green ocean.”
• Matthew comments on the abundance of the black soil and Aboriginal “preparation” of the land.

🌾 Themes:
Land stewardship · Colonial misunderstanding of Aboriginal agriculture · “Gardened” landscapes.
First Contact and Conflict

• Narrator: Dante
• The Gomeroi meet white settlers — initially peaceful, then resistance arises as land is stolen and damaged.
• Colonial law claimed Aboriginal lives had equal value, but killings were ignored and widespread.
• Introduces the notion of “a war of extermination.”

🔥 Themes:
Invasion · Resistance · Hypocrisy of colonial law · Systemic erasure.
The Myall Creek Massacre

• Narrators: Dante and Kim
• Detailed retelling of the 1838 Myall Creek Massacre:
  • Wirriyarray clan working amicably with settlers are massacred by convicts and stockmen.
  • The aftermath: bodies mutilated, burned.
  • A rare moment of legal accountability: 11 men tried in Sydney.
  • Despite a first acquittal, seven are retried and hanged after a second trial for the murder of a child.
• The story foregrounds justice and injustice intertwined.

⚖️ Themes:
Truth-telling · Justice and complicity · Silenced history · Courage of witnesses.
Aftermath and Silence

• Narrators: Dante, Kim, Phil
• Newspapers react with outrage — not at the massacre, but at the convictions.
• Darkly ironic “newspaper dialogue” shows settlers joking about poisoning Aboriginal people as a “safer technique.”
• The press goes silent after Myall Creek — killings continue unrecorded.
• Matthew reflects on the many massacre sites never documented, remembered only by Elders.

🕯️ Themes:
Cultural amnesia · Settler denial · Oral history as preservation · Grief and endurance.
Colonisation Consolidates: Protection and Control

• Narrators: Matthew, Dante, Phil
• As resistance collapses, Aboriginal people are coerced into station work.
• Gold rush changes power dynamics; landowners rely on Aboriginal labour.
• In 1883, the NSW Aboriginal Protection Board is established — its stated aim benevolent, but its practice restrictive.
• Next episode preview: the Terry Hie Hie reserve.

🏚️ Themes:
Assimilation disguised as help · Survival and adaptation · Policy and control.
Reflection and Credits

• Speakers: Phil, Dante
• Phil asks Dante what he makes of it all.
• Dante, overwhelmed: “I didn’t even know half of that… People should really know about this.”
• Credits follow, acknowledging team, sound, design, and Elders (especially Aunty Noeline Briggs).

💬 Themes:
Learning and reckoning · Intergenerational knowledge transfer · Respect for Elders · Ongoing truth-telling.