154TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLYING FOAM MASSACRE

Murujuga National Park lies within the Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago and is home to one of the world’s most ancient rock engravings and is also the place where a massacre of the Yaburara people took place in 1868.

Yaburara descendants organised the first remembrance day in 2013 and this year marks the 154th anniversary since this atrocity took place.

The story has been passed down by ancestors of the survivors and transcripts of early pioneers who took part in murdering over one hundred men, women and children.

Robert John Sholl ordered the massacre after a Yaburara man went to get his wife back who was kidnapped by a white man. He killed the man and his tracker when he came across them. 

There is still a street named after Sholl in Roebourne. Yabbura woman Barbara Sinclaire called for it to be renamed. 

“It should have been changed long ago when the streets were named, there were a lot of ancestors that would have remembered what we are talking about today. How do we explain that to our generation that’s coming through?”

Yaburra man Kevin Cosmos also said education about the massacre needed to be more widely talked about and taught.

“I think it should be educated across the board, not only in schools but everyone in the community should be educated on it and what went down and what really happened and who are the people that got massacred out there.”

The last memorial service was held in 2013. This year the Flying Foam Massacre service will be held on June the 12th at the massacre site from 10:30am.