A WIRADJURI leader fears that acknowledging Albury's birth as a military outpost at the city's War Memorial will create a rift.
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Liz Heta strongly supports a plan by historian Bruce Pennay to have greater recognition of the city's Aboriginal ties but is wary of having a display atop Monument Hill.
He argues Albury was effectively formed as a military outpost because the police received military pensions and NSW Governor George Gipps, who ordered the mapping, was adopting a military strategy derived from his background as a soldier.
Mrs Heta welcomed the proposed recognition but baulked at a display at the memorial given its connection to the Anzacs and "fighting for the country."
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"I'm saying it should be done but where it should be done is something I'd need to talk about with other people," Mrs Heta said.
"You want to acknowledge something so that people go on a journey and not cause a rift.
"People need to understand Aboriginal history and walk the pathway with Aboriginal people, but also need to do it in a reconciliative way."
Dr Pennay understood Mrs Heta's position, saying he was "drawing a long bow" by flagging the memorial as a site for the acknowledgment.
But at the same time he stressed the need for a "positive and respectful" marker.
Mrs Heta suggested a display detailing the origin of Albury could be created alongside the Murray River at the Hovell Tree, whose name refers to the explorer William Hovell who joined Hamilton Hume in travelling through the area in 1824.
Dr Pennay also suggested acknowledgment by given to the Wiradjuri at a Hume memorial in the botanic gardens and at a Hume and Hovell plaque erected to mark the pair on the facade of the MAMA gallery.
Mrs Heta supported those ideas.
"I think acknowledging country and saying it wasn't an empty country, there was a society, (is important)," she said.
"It builds a way forward for the whole community to see there's something else in this story and 'what does it mean?' and builds up their thirst for knowledge to look at it a bit deeper."
Mrs Heta it was important the stories of massacres of all types during the colonial period were aired as well as the impact of small pox and influenza on the original inhabitants and the role of Aboriginal trackers.