The Aboriginal Mother

The poem is told in first-person as a mother, whose older child and husband died in the massacre, tries to quiet her baby.

[2][4] Dunlop's poem was first published in The Australian on 13 December 1838, about a week after the seven men were found guilty, but several days before they were hanged.

It is written from the view of a mother who managed to survive the massacre, but whose husband and older child were killed in it.

Dunlop's poem took an "immediate, visceral, political, and poetic" approach,[4] addressing the problem of Aboriginals suffering.

A violent passage in the Sydney Herald told people that if Aboriginal Australians, referred to as the "filthy, brutal cannibals of New Holland" and "ferocious savages",[14] attempt to destroy property or kill someone, "do to them as you would do to any white robbers or murderers — SHOOT THEM DEAD".

This version is "even more revealing", showing the discovery of the dead bodies of the children killed during the event as well as more details about the trials in court.

[16] This caused Dunlop to write a letter to the Sydney Herald's editor, arguing on behalf of the poem and explaining why her views were correct.

[19] An article in The Australian complimented the way it was sung and the "peculiar degree of pathos", but also mentioned that the performance may have been affected by an absence of confidence.

[20] The performance was also covered by the Sydney Gazette, which wrote a substantial article about it with significant praise, saying that "We were in spite of ourselves affected even to tears, and most of our neighbours from a similar state, were prevented observing our weakness."