The one person Lindy Chamberlain cannot forgive
Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton has been wronged by many people, but there’s one person in particular that she says she can never forgive.
The 68-year-old revealed at the National Christian Family Conference in Sydney on Monday that she struggles to forgive her ex-husband Michael Chamberlain.
Three decades ago Lindy was wrongfully jailed for life over the murder of her newborn baby, Azaria, after a dingo had snatched her from a tent.
“You can’t get away from it. It sleeps with you at night. It goes to the bathroom with you. It showers with you. It has parties with friends with you. It’s always there. You need to choose your battles wisely. You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to. A fight without a foe - where’s the battle?
“If you’re holding the anger… you’re not hurting them at all. They’re succeeding well beyond their wildest dreams. It’s you that’s dying.”
The publication asked Lindy who she struggled most to forgives: the Northern Territory Police, the media, the judicial system or the public – all of whom screamed murder when Azaria went missing from a camp site at Uluru in 1980.
“No, it’s my ex-husband,” Lindy replied. “That’s private.”
Lindy, who divorced Michael in 1991, also revealed the scars from her past are slowly healing after 32 years. She said it was the Australian public's “responsibility” to “carry the pain” after many wrongly accused her of murdering her baby daughter.
“People often get involved in things and take sides with no knowledge,” she said.
“I’ve never felt I had to carry that pain. That’s their responsibility. God and I knew the truth and that was enough for me. Because all the way through I felt absolutely positive that at some stage He would make sure that it all came out right.”
Lindy, who had always maintained that a dingo snatched her baby, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1982. In 1986, a crucial piece of evidence was found – Azaria’s jacket – after an English tourist David Brett fell to his death from Uluru. His body was recovered from an area of dingoes, where police discovered the baby jacket. Lindy was released from prison in 1998, the Supreme Court of Darwin quashed all convictions and declared the Chamberlains innocent.
But it wasn’t until 2012 that Azaria’s death was officially ruled as a result of her being taken by a dingo.
Lindy told the audience in order to be happy she had to forgive, focus on positives and let the past go.
“It’s not what happens that counts. It’s how you choose to deal with what happens,” she said.
“You can choose if you’re going to live with anger, regret and revenge and miserably think yourself a victim. Or you can choose to be a hero in your own life and forgive the past and move on.
“It doesn’t happen immediately. Sometimes I go back and have to remind myself to start all over again. It isn’t easy.”
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