Monday, June 17, 2013

“Kilminister’s Confession” by Kilminister & Aboriginal Land



 In 2007 the group Kilminister recorded the song Kilminister’s Confession which tells the thoughts of one of the white men, Charlie Kilminister, who murdered the Aboriginal people at Myall Creek.

Laurie McGinness from Kilminister says [9]: “The Kilminister character is an amalgamation of several of those involved so the song should not be considered as a completely accurate recount of the events… I changed the story for dramatic effect and to emphasise the cycle of violence, abuse breeds abuse, so the brutalisation of the convicts flowed into the brutalisation of the Indigenous people.”


Lyrics: Kilminister’s Confession

My name is Charlie Kilminister and tomorrow I must die
When the sun comes up I will stand upon the scaffold high
With six of my companions beneath the crowd's gaze
At the end of a rope, short and strong, I will end my days

Jack Ketch will be the hangman and he'll hang us true and well
When the sun goes down tomorrow, we'll be on pour way to hell
God doesn't care for murderers or so the priest did say
But if I go to hell I don't care, I already spent ten years there

I was sent to the colony of New South Wales
for stealing a pound, a pound of nails
They took me from my wife and child,
it's the things a man loses that drive him wild

Out beyond the Big River,
to Myall Creek I was delivered                                         
In the heart of an Aboriginal nation
well beyond the limits of location

My master was Henry Dangar and I was his convict fool
I've known a lot of evil men but never one so cruel
He had me march to Patrick Plains for twice times fifty on my back
Then the bastard turned me round and marched me straight back

Most of the blacks were dead already from the work of Cobban and Nunn
The few that were left hid in the bush and from the stockmen they did run
Some women and kids and a few old men took shelter at our station
They were about ail that was left of a great Aboriginal nation

There was a woman named Ippeta who with her husband I did share
She felt the scars upon my back,
I thought she cared though her skin was black
Well Daddy was an old man and Billy but a boy
Somehow into our misery they brought a little joy

John Russell was a stockman who hated all the blacks
With George Cobban he had ridden on many great bushwhacks
He heard about the group we had at Myall Creek
like Satan he did tempt me, like Judas I was weak

We took them out and murdered them, for no reason that I know
And when it came to Ippeta, I killed her with one blow
The power of pure evil was strong upon my mind
But still I cannot understand how I was so blind

The night is nearly over and the sun will surely rise
Soon it will be time to die with those I do despise
But one question still haunts me won't you tell me if you can
Why Major Nunn, who did worse than me,
will never hang and still is free

My name is Charlie Kilminister and tomorrow I must die
When the sun comes up I will stand upon the scaffold high
With six of my companions beneath the crowd's gaze
At the end of a rope, short and strong, I will end my days

Lyrics published with kind permission by Laurie McGinness from Kilminister. The CD features another song about a massacre, called Waterloo Creek.