In Wirilla Ep 2: Reserve we move from Dreaming and sky-knowledge to the ground-level realities of segregation, following the creation of reserves and camps while tracing the life of Matthew’s great grandfather Alexander Stanley.

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


This podcast was made with funding from Create NSW.

Detailed Music Credits
"Just Did" by All Stars, "Soundscape" by Mirko Sosai, "Omen" by Richard Johnson, "Guitarline" by Philip Okerstrom, "John as well" by Mirko Sosai, "Fred" by Fred, "Awkward Comedy" by Luca Francini, "Hurt Track 4" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Aytonn, "Tranquility Base" by Chill Factor, "Hurt Track 13" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Hurt Guitar Track 8" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Proud Return" by See More Music, Blusy G'Tar by Mirco Sosai, "Hurt Track 5 by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton.

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

To contact Coequal and find out more, check out our Patreon page, click here

Content Description
This episode contains references to segregation, forced child removal, discriminatory laws, and the hardships faced by Aboriginal families living on reserves and in camps.

Wirilla – Episode 2: “Reserve” Duration: 23 minutes
Setting: Moves between star stories, family history, and the lived memories of the Terry Hie Hie reserve and Moree’s early camps.
Narrators/Voices:

• Matthew Priestley – Mehi Murri man (Terry Hie Hie clan, Gomeroi Nation)
• Dante – Gomeroi young person narrator and learner
• Khalani – Gomeroi young person narrator and learner
• Kim – Long-time friend of Matthew, researcher and collaborator
• Phil – Co-creator, occasional narrator

🪶 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT BREAKDOWN Opening: The Lyrebird — Sound and the Birth of Language

• Matthew opens by explaining that sound itself was created by the lyrebird, and that animals generated the first sounds — before wind had “sound.”
• He frames vibration as an original language, akin to mathematics — a structural, patterned intelligence that underpins how we communicate.

🌀 Themes introduced:
Sound as origin · Lyrebird as culture-keeper · Vibration as language · Science and story intertwined.

Opening Story: The Emu in the Sky

• introduces the Gomeroi sky story of the the Emu in the Sky, explaining how the dark spaces between stars form the celestial emu.
• The changing shape of the emu tracks the seasons — when it lies down, when it rises, and when the birds are nesting.
• teaches how the sky is a living calendar, a guide for movement, ceremony, and food gathering.

🌀 Themes introduced:
Celestial knowledge · Seasonal law · Country as teacher · Reading the sky.


Terry Hie Hie: Bora and the Calm Before Segregation

• The hosts discuss Terry Hie Hie as a major meeting and ceremonial site — one of the largest Bora grounds.
• They note the last recorded Bora at Terry Hie Hie in 1883, and how the cultural practices continued even as colonisation imposed new pressures.

🌿 Themes:
Ceremonial life · Continuity amid disruption · Record vs lived practice.

After Myall Creek: Disease, Poison, and Disrupted Songlines

• Traces the cascading impacts of massacres: disease, poisoning, food source depletion, and broken pathways/songlines that undermined traditional life.
• Explains how these pressures foreshadowed more formal systems of segregation and control.

🔥 Themes:
Cultural disruption · Environmental impacts of colonisation · Fragmentation of communal life.

Creation of the Terry Hie Hie Reserve (1895)

• The Aboriginal Protection Board set aside 102 acres for a reserve at Terry Hie Hie in 1895.
• Hosts discuss the split among white settlers — some professed “protection” motives, others openly expressed racist aims (preventing intermarriage, “protecting” the white race).
• The reserve is framed both as an imposed protection and as a tool for segregation.

🏚️ Themes:
Protection as paternalism · Segregation policy · Control of bodies and movement.

Naming, Registration, and Identity Theft

• The episode explains how births were registered by farmers or reserve managers, Aboriginal names were ignored, and white names or property names were imposed (example: “Dave Combadello”).
• This bureaucratic renaming severed cultural ties and created false official identities that complicated family histories.

🪞 Themes:
Bureaucratic erasure · Identity control · Loss of language through paperwork.

Family Story: Alexander Stanley (Matthew’s Great-Grandfather)

• The life of Alexander Stanley is traced: born 1896, worked on cattle stations, later enlisted in WWI using a falsified identity (a common tactic by Aboriginal enlistees).
• His experience illustrates the contradictions of Aboriginal service: fighting for a nation that denied rights at home.
• Alexander’s post-war life — work, relationships (meeting Rachel Munro), and railway work — ties family history into broader patterns of movement and survival.

🪶 Themes:
Personal resilience · Identity negotiation · Indigenous war service.

The Protection Act and Child Removal Practices

• The episode quotes the 1909 Aborigines Protection Act and describes how it allowed indenturing children as apprentices, controlled wages, and restricted movement — measures used to assimilate and exploit Aboriginal children.
• Hosts highlight that promised pocket money was rarely given and that children were effectively trapped in institutions or domestic servitude.

⚖️ Themes:
Legalised family separation · Exploitation under law · Institutional abuse.

Education, Exclusion and the 1899 School Case

• Tells the story of 11 Aboriginal children in Gullarganbone who were briefly admitted to public school (Feb 7–20) before being suspended due to Department pressure.
• By 1902 Aboriginal children were effectively banned from public schooling — an explicit policy of exclusion.
• The episode uses a sarcastic 1899 newspaper extract to show local sentiment and systemic racism.

📚 Themes:
Educational exclusion · Public humiliation · White anxieties about equality.

Life in Moree: Top, Middle and Bottom Camps

• Describes how displaced families set up makeshift camps in Moree: Top Camp (near Pitt family), Middle Camp (near the dump), Bottom Camp (near the cemetery).
• Living conditions: tin shacks, poor sanitation, stigma
• Council resistance to establishing a formal reserve inside the municipality is discussed, showing local hostility to Aboriginal presence.
• Matthew speaks about the importance of listening to old people and ancestors.

🏘️ Themes:
Spatial marginalisation · Community resilience · Municipal racism.

Returned Soldiers, Memorials, and Hypocrisy

• The episode recounts how returned Aboriginal servicemen were excluded from the Moree Soldiers Memorial Hall despite their service.
• Hosts quote the Hall committee’s explicit discriminatory rule banning “full blood or half caste” Aboriginal people from attending.
• This stark irony underlines the hypocrisy of national celebration built on dispossession.

🕯️ Themes:
Recognition denied · National myth vs lived reality · Moral indictment.

Reflection and Closing

• Khalani and Dante react emotionally — perplexed, angered, determined to learn more.
• Credits and thanks close the episode, with a preview: the next breath of Wirilla will focus on Top Camp.

💬 Themes:
Memory as resistance · Intergenerational responsibility · Learning as activism · Continuing the yarn.

Additional Citation: Fuller, R.S, Norris, R. P, Trudgett, M: The astronomy of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples and their neighbours in Australian Aboriginal Studies 2014/2

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.

Reece loves directing, particularly saying "Cut!" when things go off topic, which pretty much means anything that's not about footy, which he loves. Reece's story shows how blokey sport can create space for everyone, in their own way, on their own terms.

To see the film of One of The Team and other great posts: come and join us at Coequal's Patreon page: click here

To listen to Real Made Up Stories click here

To listen to Podcasts from the Edge click here

To check out Beyond Empathy's webpage: click here

Detailed Music Credits
"Hurt Theme" by Philip Okerstrom and Damian Mason, "Plain Loafer", "Jarvic 8", "Bicycle" and "Fluidscape" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Detailed Summary
In this episode of A Good Mind To, we tell the story of Reece, a young man whose deep love for rugby league has become a bridge to connection, confidence, and community. Reece is a young man of "all-abilities" and a huge fan of the Collegians Rugby League Footbaell Club. This is the story about how the players and staff have woven Reece into the fabric of the club — not just as a supporter, but as part of the team. We hear from players, coaches, and Reece’s family and friends, including Jimmy, whose friendship with Reece helped open new doors. From shyly hanging back at training to proudly joining the team in the sheds after a win, Reece’s journey is one of growth, belonging, and joyful disruption. He brings laughter to tense moments, keeps the team focused, and never misses a chance to sing the team song. This is a story about inclusion that doesn’t feel like a lesson. With interviews, candid moments, and plenty of Reece’s humour and heart, the episode offers a beautiful glimpse into how sport can create space for everyone, in their own way, on their own terms.

It was early in 2022. We were still just on the tail of the Covid pandemic. We were still quite often wearing masks, often doing social distancing and still RAT testing and staying home if we got infected.
Shellharbour City Council, on the homelands of the Wadi Wadi people, decided to commission a few people in the Shellharbour community to tell some stories…
And the 5 stories they commissioned became a collection that they called We are Shellharbour.

To watch the We are Shellharbour stories as films: click here

To connect with Coequal: click here

The stories in this episode were produced with funding from Shellharbour City Council.

Andrew reflects on repaying the East Timorese people, and reconnecting with family on his return from service.

Advisory: The people who have "a good mind to" tell you this story would like you to know there is a description of a dead body in this episode. 

Andrew enlisted in the Army in 1995. He was assigned to 5th/7th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment in Holsworthy. The UN International Force East Timor (INTERFET) consisted mainly of Australian Defence Force members, including Andrew, and was deployed to East Timor to assist with the conflict. Andrew arrived in Dili aboard the Jervis Bay, and was met with the devastation that faced the region.


Detailed Music Credits
"All This," "Inexorable," "Consequence," "Dark Fog," "Energising," and "Light Thought var 3 "by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Accoustic Road" " by Music Dog and "Hawaii" " by Dimitry Khlynin HD Studio,


Thanks to Albion Park RSL Sub-Branch and Warilla RSL Sub-Branch for putting us in touch with local Veterans.

Thanks to Veterans NSW for proudly funding this project.

This podcast was created for Shellharbour Snapshots, a podcast by Shellharbour City Museum and was proudly funded by The NSW Government.

To find more Shellharbour stories visit Discover Shellhabour: https://discover.shellharbour.nsw.gov.au/

(c) Andrew Horne 2023 All Rights Reserved

Will Mark and Assunta get any answers from the Doctors about what happened to Mark? And what's happening now, 15 years later?.

"The Throwing of a Lead Cover over the Whole Thing" is the sixth and final episode in our series: Invisible Injury - a dissection of one man's brain injury story.

Artwork Credit: isarisariver https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescientist/8430282209, under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode

Detailed Music Credits

"Ambient Guitar" by SF Music, "Dam Audio 01" by Damian Mason, "Waking Up" by Adi Goldstein, "New PJH" by Philip Okerstrom and Damian Mason, "Experimental Cello" by Sonicscope, "The Tension" by Music Service, "Secret Agents Mission" by Praded, "Slick and Sneaky" by Soundroll, "Reflective" by Tristan Noon, "Slow Ambient Movement" by Orchestralis, "Towards the Light" by Hyperprod, "Comic Italian" by AG Soundtrax, "Better than Us" by Nikistan, "Intro," "Intro No Drums" and "Bleaky" by Philip Okerstrom, "Daybreak" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Assunta gets us up to speed with some loose end stories.

Swimming Against the Tide is the fifth episode in our series: Invisible Injury - a dissection of one man's brain injury story.

Artwork Credit: isarisariver https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescientist/8430282209, under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode

Detailed Music Credits

"Slow Ambient Movement" by Orchestralis, "Heartless" by Philip Okerstrom, "Moving Backwards" by AG Soundtrax, "Intro" by Philip Okerstrom, "Ambient Documentary" by Orchestralis, "Bleaky" by Philip Okerstrom, "Organic Meditations 3" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Mark and Assunta finally get some clarity about the nature of Mark's brain injury and treatment. But that doesn't make it much easier to handle.

A Cork in the Ocean is the fourth episode in our series: Invisible Injury - a dissection of one man's brain injury story.

Artwork Credit: isarisariver https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescientist/8430282209, under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode

Ad: To check out Our Listener podcast;
https://linktr.ee/your.listener.coaching

Music Credits:
"Clock and the Piano" by Orchestralis, "Sad" by Szymon Piotr Wiśniewski, "Quirky Play" by Music for Media, "Light Science Comedy Documentary" by The Dapper Chap, "Loving" by Tre Houston, "Modwai" by Philip Okerstrom and Damian Mason, "Drama Sadness" by Elite Music, "Dirty Tape Loop Soundscape" by Andy Slatter and "Emotional Inspiring Piano and Cello" by Bland Trend Music.

Mark gets some apologies, of sorts, but makes no real progress amidst more confusing information about what has happened to him after his surgery.

An Extra Drop is the third episode in our series: Invisible Injury - a dissection of one man's brain injury story.

Artwork Credit: isarisariver https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescientist/8430282209, under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode

Music Credits:
"New Direction," "Pale Rider," "Isolated" nd "Piece for Disaffected Piano 2" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Put up with it" "New PJH" and "Atmospheric Industrial Watery" by Phil Okerstrom and Damian Mason
"Brooding Raw Idea" "Opening Prologue 2" and Bleaky" by Phil Okerstrom 
"Loving" by Tre Houston
"Clockmaker's Daydream" by 369
"Minimal Dystopian Pulse" by Orchestralis
"Sparse Atonal Ladscape Quirky" by Peter Hamilton Dean

Mark's condition remains unexplained and the family tries to cope.

"The Busses are Humming" is the second episode in our series: Invisible Injury.

This episode contains some swearing. If you prefer a beeper version click here: Beeped version

Artwork Credit: isarisariver https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescientist/8430282209, under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode

Music Credits:
"Pale Rider" and "Lightless Dawn" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Intro" and "Bleaky" by Phil Okerstrom
"Ahab#01" and "Put up with it" by Phil Okerstrom and Damian Mason
"Reflective" by Tristan Noon

Mark had a sun spot, just a small discolouration on his nose. He went into hospital to have it removed. And he came out of the surgery with something much more serious.

Sun Spot is the first episode in our series: Invisible Injury - a dissection of one man's brain injury story.

Artwork Credit: isarisariver https://www.flickr.com/photos/lescientist/8430282209, under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode

Music Credits:
White Lotus: Kevin MacLeod by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Intro: Phil Okerstrom and Damian Mason
Intro No Drums B: Phil Okerstrom
Bleaky: Phil Okerstrom
Piano: Phil Okerstrom