In Macquarie we see NAIDOC week as an opportunity to heal, and there is much healing to be done. Author of People of the River, Grace Karskens, describes the first recorded massacre of Aboriginal people by the military at the Battle of Richmond Hill in the Hawkesbury in 1795 as 'a surprise attack in darkness during which seven or eight people were shot down and everyone else fled in terror'. This is a history that should be told, and these are injustices that we need to acknowledge. The NAIDOC event organised by Merana in Richmond Park will as always be a beautiful bringing together of communities to heal.

In the Blue Mountains, as part of the Blue Mountains Police Area Command's reco