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.
