What was said was offensive by the person who stated that their family was the first Aboriginal family to live on the banks of the Mehi River in Moree.

History shows otherwise.

It is an insult that this person has disregarded all other Aboriginal families by singling out and naming only their own.

This is highly offensive and an insult to those many Aboriginal family members who are departed and those descendants who still remember today earlier times at the three major camps known as Top Camp, Middle Camp and Bottom Camp that stretched along the Mehi River for survival in their own land, who also consider themselves traditional owners.

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When the Aboriginal families decided to leave the first Aboriginal Reserve that was situated at Terry Hie Hie in 1895, they walked, many with no shoes, to Moree to save the children from being taken by the Aborigines Proection Board.

Over time three major camps came about here in town, the first being Top Camp at the top end of the Mehi, then Middle Camp near the town dump over from the hospital near to what is now the Golf Course, and Bottom Camp on the Cemetery side of the Mehi where the town kiln for making bricks was situated.

Many of those Aboriginal descendants who are left today that came from the camps respect their ancestors for the hardship they experienced and the local paper, as far back as 1917, shows how they refused to go back to the reserve at Terry Hie Hie that controlled their lives.

The manager was removed and this Terry Hie Hie Reserve closed in 1924.

Shame, shame, shame.

It will take a long time to get over this year’s NAIDOC Week through this hurtful, non-truthful and uncalled for comments.

There has been more than one Aboriginal family in Moree and they should all be shown more respect.

Noeline Briggs-Smith OAM, Aboriginal researcher, author and Elder.