This exhibition seeks to revise the mistaken official view of history

This exhibition seeks to revise the mistaken official view of history, which states that Aboriginal people in Broken Bay and the surrounding area are “vanquished tribes”, they died out in the first few months of the invasion of their lands. It aims to “bring the dispossessed out of the shadows to recognise that they are part of us”. It speaks of frontier violence and collaboration between early settlers and Aboriginal people. Of collaborative relations, it commemorates the Picketts, Alfred William Morrow Settree, William Cape, the Hendersons and the Mann family. For example, Alfred William Morrow Settree arrives in Brisbane Water with his mother in 1829 when he was about 7 years of age. They occupy Portion 16, Parish of Patonga (Woy Woy Bay). As a boy, Alf swims from the point to the Woy Woy side. He would cross by means of native canoe to Riley’s Island, then to Bedlam (Saratoga) where he would feast on fish and opossum with the Aboriginal boys. The largest blacks camp in the district was at Bedlam.