Graves are about identity, that we are here – that we exist. Here lie one hundred of our ancestors in unmarked graves. Although a free people they were taken to Wybalenna to help establish the ‘friendly mission’ and a promise of return to their homelands. It soon became a ‘death camp’. They were betrayed, abused and left to die. Some of our old people died not only at the hands of the soldiers but of dispossession of land and broken hearts. In this ﬁeld were once one hundred crosses that marked these graves. The stolen plaque read: To commemorate approximately 100 Aborigines buried in the vicinity of Wybalenna 1833–1847 erected by the Junior Farmers of Flinders Island.
Phyllis Pitchford, 1994