Campbelltown Arts Centre is remembering the Appin Massacre with an exhibition titled With Secrecy and Despatch, commissioning 10 works by Australian and Canadian artists.

The Appin Massacre: 1816: Governor Lachlan Macquarie sends military soldiers to Appin to "rid the land of troublesome blacks"

1816: Governor Lachlan Macquarie sends military soldiers to Appin to "rid the land of troublesome blacks" April 17: Soldiers commanded to shoot, drive Aboriginal people over gorge

April 17: Soldiers commanded to shoot, drive Aboriginal people over gorge Officially 14 people killed but Aboriginal historians believe numbers much higher

It was one of the first massacres of Indigenous Australians by the colonists.

In 1816 Governor Lachlan Macquarie dispatched three military regiments to the Appin region south-west of Sydney to, according to his diaries from the time, "rid the land of troublesome blacks".

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 52 seconds 3 m 52 s A new exhibition commemorates the Appin massacre of 14 Aboriginals in 1816 Download 7.1 MB

The Tony Albert artwork, Greetings from Appin 2016. ( Supplied )

Officially 14 people were killed, but Aboriginal historians believe the number was much higher.

In the early hours of the morning on April 17, soldiers under the command of Captain James Wallis, by instruction of Governor Macquarie, shot at and drove a group of Aboriginal people over the gorge of the Cataract River.

Two hundred years on, the atrocity is being remembered through an art exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre.

The woman behind it, curator Tess Allas, said the massacre had a devastating impact on the community at the time.

"I've been speaking to Glenda Chalker, a descendant, an elder out there at Appin," Ms Allas said.

"She said everything changed, of course everything changed. Children were killed, people were hung up from trees and decapitated so everything changed for them."

The exhibition will showcase new works by Australian artists Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Julie Gough, Genevieve Grieves, Dale Harding and Frances Belle Parker, alongside new pieces by First Nations Canadian artists Jordan Bennett, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Marianne Nicolson and Adrian Simpson.

"They have created works of great significance," Ms Allas said.

Hopes to raise awareness of massacre

Canadian First Nations artist Jordan Bennett, a Mi'kmaq man, contributed to the With Secrecy and Despatch exhibition. ( Supplied )

David Garneau, a First Nations Canadian who co-curated the exhibition, said there were parallels between the early colonial history of his country and Australia.

"I find with the Canadian artists, they're treading lightly on this territory, not wanting to disrupt things, not wanting to stir the pot in an irresponsible way. But to show similarities in our history," he said.

The exhibition will show the newly commissioned works alongside existing pieces.

"They are on show with some existing works by Aboriginal artists from the past 30 years that also address those themes of brutality," Ms Allas said.

She hoped it would help create more awareness about the Appin Massacre.

"To acknowledge that this atrocity happened in the first place, to see the conversations that have been going on in contemporary art for many, many decades now, and to see the beauty and the love that the commissioned artists have put in to this project," she said.

Jordan Bennett, a Mi'kmaq man, will be exhibiting his work in Australia for the third time.

His piece, tamiow tle'owin, is a combination of photographs on aluminium, video projection and print on canvas.

"It's an installation piece," he said.

"It reflects the history of the island and province of Newfoundland and Labrador."

"Our histories are so similar in the fact that Captain Cook visited Newfoundland and named a lot of places and was part of the colonisation of the island."

The exhibition will be on show until June 12.

A memorial by the Winga Myamly Reconciliation Group will be held at the site of the massacre, on April 17.