Tradional Owners say a memorial should be built at a mass grave of Aboriginal remains at Riverlea

Protesters who gathered at the Riverlea housing development project in Adelaide’s north want a memorial built at a mass gravesite unearthed there.

A protest held at the Riverlea housing development project has seen Indigenous leaders call for a memorial to be built at the site of a mass grave that was unearthed in July this year.

Those who rallied on Saturday and many Kaurna Traditional Owners are not convinced that the ancestral remains were traditionally buried and were instead put there as a result of a “massacre”.

Organiser and Kaurna woman, Natasha Wanganeen asked people in attendance how they would feel if the remains of their ancestors were dug up.

Riverlea Protest at Buckland Park SA. Pictured on October 21st 2023. Picture: Ben Clark

Riverlea Protest at Buckland Park SA. Pictured on October 21st 2023. Picture: Ben Clark

Riverlea Protest at Buckland Park SA. Pictured on October 21st 2023. Picture: Ben Clark

Riverlea Protest at Buckland Park SA. Pictured on October 21st 2023. Picture: Ben Clark

“What would you do if I went out there with a shovel and started digging them up and bagging them up? Would you be okay with that?,” she said.

“And yes, it is a massacre site. I believe that and feel it through everything in me, because the way they’re laying, you don’t bury people like that. We’ve never buried our people like that.”

Ms Wangannen said it was “disgusting” the way the site had been handled by the state government, who have so far given the approval to remove 29 of the remains and store them in a shipping container.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher has previously told the Advertiser that work has now ceased and that he will make a decision on what will happen to the grave early next year.