Kiama is set to be the star of the silver screen tonight as the fourth episode of SBS’s Great Australian Walks With Julia Zemiro airing tonight features our home town.

Comedian and actress Julia Zemiro travels to Australia’s best day walks, including walks around Kiama’s unique landscape of rivers, lagoons, volcanic rocks and of course, the famous Kiama Blowhole.

Tonight’s episode features an interview with Aunty Gwenda Jarrett, local Aboriginal elder, the native title lead for the south coast of New South Wales and one of the traditional owners of the land.

Speaking to The Bugle, Aunty Gwenda said she mainly spoke about her childhood experiences growing up around Minnamurra and her memories of fishing with her family at the river. The area has particular significance for the local Indigenous people, considering the Minnamurra River massacre that took place there in 1818, where an unknown number of Wodiwodi people were killed.

Aunty Gwenda said she only briefly touched on the Minnamurra Massacre during her interview. However, it was vitally important to ensure these stories are still shared, no matter how uncomfortable discussing them may be.

“You might have heard of the saying ‘sharing and caring,’ well that’s what we’re doing with storytelling. We’re sharing it with the rest of Australia, because with all these contentious issues around the country like The Voice, this is a way people can look at it with a nicer, softer approach,” she said.

“When non-Indigenous people interview us, and we highlight that massacres took place, it’s a form of a reality check. A lot of non-Indigenous people don’t know anything about a massacre.”

It’s no secret that Australia’s education around our Indigenous heritage has been lacklustre in the past, which is why Aunty Gwenda likes to share stories from her own upbringing to put things into perspective for the uninitiated who don’t know about Australia’s bloody history.

“When I do a community speech, I like to tell people, especially non-Aboriginal people, about growing up. When we were in school, we were taught differently, and it’s been proven now that we were given false information about our history. Massacres weren’t even talked about, and it’s still taboo.”

While the Minnamurra Massacre took place more than 200 years ago, the importance of sharing the story of what happened has never been more relevant. Grassroots organisers are fighting against Boral’s planned expansion of a sand mine, and Aunty Gwenda disputed the project due to concerns about the missing bodies that were never found on the site. 

“There was a lot of ignorance, and there still is a lot of ignorance,” she said. “It can be quite intimidating for some people to even talk about because they don’t even know they could be walking on a grave.”

Speaking on the documentary's host Julia Zemiro, Aunty Gwenda had nothing but kind words for the host. 

“She is a very passionate, grassroots person. Her energy level is so warm; me and her just connected. What she’s doing is these videos that might just be a walk for her, but especially in our area where we haven’t got a large population of Indigenous people, people are craving to learn something and see something, so it’s great that I have that local knowledge so we can get us on the map.”

The episode also features interviews with Associate Professor of Volcanology Heather Handley, who speaks about the largely ignored history of Australia’s volcanoes, and local surfboard designer Chris Homer, who discussed Kiama’s surf culture.

Episode four of Great Australian Walks With Julia Zemiro airs tonight on SBS at 7:30pm, and will also be available on SBS On Demand.