Council supports Butchulla Memorial in Maryborough

The Fraser Coast Regional Council has unanimously given its support to the Butchulla Men’s Business Aboriginal Association with their proposal for a memorial.

The first step will be to support an application for a grant of up to $100,000 through the ‘First Nations Commissioning Fund’ of Arts Queensland by the Butchulla Men’s Business Aboriginal Association to build the memorial.

Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour agreed with Butchulla Elder Glen Miller that the project was not an attempt to make the non-Aboriginal population feel guilty or apportion blame – the goal was to recognise what took place and honour those who lost their lives.

“I was moved by Glen’s address at a Council briefing at which he spoke of the need for the Butchulla Memorial,” he said.

“In his address he told of giving the ‘Welcome to Country’ at the unveiling of the Anzac to Armistice memorial in Queens Park where he noted that while we have memorials for many other groups and occasions in Queens Park, there is nothing that represents the people who have lived on this land for more than 40,000 years.”

The monument, a bronze sculpture, would support connection with the Butchulla community and help us work towards reconciliation, Cr Seymour said.

Background to the sculpture:

Traditional conflicts involved Aboriginal men throwing spears at each other, which were collected from the ground and thrown back and forth between opposing groups until a resolution was reached.

The goal of the sculpture is to show the end result of the unequal match between spear and musket, defender and intruder and ask the observer to imagine what must have happened when Butchulla men threw all of their spears and stood there waiting for them to be thrown back - but instead were cut down by musket balls.

The sculpture would show three Butchulla shields lying on the ground as they would have been dropped by the Butchulla defenders: each shield would have a musket ball hole in it.

The memorial would also include a plaque which would outline the reason for the memorial and an interpretation of the sculpture.

The three shields commemorate the three Butchulla laws; What is good for the land comes first; Do not touch or take anything that does not belong to you, and If you have plenty you must share.

This project has been identified by the Premier`s Regional Economic Forum for the Wide Bay Burnett Fraser Coast as one of the projects worthy of support by the Queensland Government.