Dhuluny Conference
The Dhuluny Conference will be held from Thursday 15 August 2024 to Friday 16 August at the Charles Sturt Bathurst campus, under the shadow of Wahluu (Mount Panorama), Panorama Avenue, Bathurst. Attendance and presentation is free.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples accessing this website are advised that the pages do include names of people who have died and, where possible, the inclusion of those names has been made after permissions granted by family members.
Between 1822 and 1824, conflict between Wiradyuri warriors and colonists in the Bathurst region spiralled into a state of warfare.
On 14 August 1824 New South Wales Colonial Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane declared martial law* in the region and authorised Commandant Major James Morisset to deploy several detachments of soldiers against the Wiradyuri warriors.
In December, Wiinymaldhaany (Wiindhuraydhine, Windradyne, Fire-maker), travelled to see Governor Brisbane in Parramatta and to sue for peace.
Two hundred years later, the declaration of martial law has become an important locus of Wiradyuri pride in resisting colonisation and in acknowledging a period of resistance warfare, violence and massacres.
2024 marks the bicentenary of Governor Brisbane’s declaration. A series of community events will pay focus on the legacies of these events and their consequences for Wiradyuri people and settlers and colonists of the Bathurst region.
The 1824 declaration was the first use in New South Wales of martial law against Aboriginal people. The bicentenary is an opportunity to progress reconciliation by marking these shared histories and how they are reflected in the broader history of the Australian (Frontier) Wars.
"Dhuluny" - the war of resistance by the Waradyuri 1824 to 2024
Meaning of Dhuluny - A community commemoration of the Wiradyuri Homeland wars and the declaration of martial law in Bathurst the meaning of Dhuluny (dhu-loin) "truth, rectitude, that which is direct, straight, living or gospel".
The Junior Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) and GWTY discussed with the Elders the core components of the design. The spear and shield are symbolic of the resistance that Aboriginal people showed against martial law, and our resistance and strength then, now, and for the past 200 years.
In the centre of the design, there are 5 circles which represent the mob on Wiradyuri Country. The light blue also represents the water, the Wambuul, that flows through our Country along with the mountains in the shadows, which are at the top and bottom of the shield.
The diamond: the yellow and orange represent brightness of the sun, its connection to Aboriginal people, and our capacity to survive through dark times.
And let's not forget our fallen warriors, men, women and children, who fought to death to protect our way of life. They are represented by the red dots, symbolic of bloodshed, in the middle of the circles and on the spears.
Wiradyuri Traditional Owners
Junior AECG Secretary Kalinda Pitt
GTWY Graphics Design
*The Declaration of Martial Law text
Stephen Gapps, Gudyarra The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance - The Bathurst War, 1822-1824
Mary Coe, Windradyne, a Wiradjuri Koori (Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1989)
Stan Grant Jnr, Tears of Strangers: A Family Memoir (Sydney, Harper Collins Publishers, 2002), especially Chapter 4 (Man of Fire) and Chapter 5 (Finding Wongamar).
Discussion of the bicentenary of the martial law declaration and relationship to the bicentenary of the NSW Legislative Council.
Sonia Feng and Melanie Pearce, Scars of Bathurst’s declaration of martial law laid bare at commemoration 193 years on (ABC News, ABC Central West, 15 August 2017)