Remembering the Oombulgurri Forrest River massacre 1926–2026

In 2026, people gathered with the Balanggarra to reflect on the actions of a police and civilian punitive patrol that arbitrarily killed and then burnt the bodies of many women and men in the Kimberley, Western Australia in 1926. A Royal Commission in 1927 found that at least 11 people were murdered and the deaths of two women and two men were the sole responsibility of two police constables. This personal reflection considers the evidence which sustained the Commissioner’s Finding and calls on others to embrace truth-telling and remember this history.