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O'Leary of the Underworld : the untold story of the Forrest River Massacre / Kate Auty.

O'Leary of the Underworld : the untold story of the Forrest River Massacre / Kate Auty.
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9781760643980
Author Auty, Kate (author)
Title O'Leary of the Underworld : the untold story of the Forrest River Massacre / Kate Auty.
Publisher and/or associated date/s Collingwood, VIC : La Trobe University Press, 2023.
©2023.
Description xv, 269 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits, facsimiles ; 24 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary A powerful investigation that reveals the deep injustices inflicted on Aboriginal people in the Kimberley in the 1920s In June 1926, a posse of police officers and white civilians murdered at least twenty Oombulgurri people at Forrest River in the Kimberley. After the massacre, a conspiracy of silence descended. Witnesses vanished. Charges against two of the officers were dropped for insufficient evidence. One of the massacre's perpetrators was Bernard O'Leary, a former soldier whose land holding was known as 'the underworld'. At the 1927 Royal Commission into the killings, O'Leary was portrayed by his lawyer as a simple honest backwoodsman who was framed. In this powerful account, Kate Auty argues that O'Leary was in fact 'vicious, brazen and a bullshitter', with 'a propensity for brutality'. Although never charged, he played a leading role in the murders, and his duplicitous testimony thwarted the commission's work. In electric prose, Auty depicts O'Leary as a merciless killer, while the apparatus that concealed his crimes is portrayed with great realism and clarity. Driven by both forensic and moral judgement, the book exposes the injustices embedded in Australian settlement history, and the culture of denial that has prevented truth-telling in this country.
Level General.
Subjects Massacres -- Western Australia -- Kimberley
Trials (Murder) -- Australia
Aboriginal Australians -- Western Australia -- Kimberley
Aboriginal Australians -- Crimes against
Massacres -- Australia -- History
Kimberley (W.A.) -- History
Australia -- History -- 1922-1929
Australia -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century
Australia -- Race relations -- History
Call number 2023.053
Catalogue Information 100083072 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 100083072 Top of page .
Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Status Due Date
A00963098 2023.053
General Collection   . Available to Museum Staff .  
. Catalogue Record 100083072 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 100083072 ItemInfo Top of page .