Category: History Beyond the Classroom HSTY 3902 – 2022

For this major project, I am working with the Millers Point Resident Community Action Group. Located around Sydney Harbor, this group encompasses the suburbs of Millers Point, Dawes Point, Walsh Bay and The Rocks as well as Barangaroo. With over 50 years of history, the Millers Point Resident Community Action Group aims at advocating on behalf or residents within Sydney Harbor, particularly around the preservation of these suburbs as well as improve the safety and amenities within this area.

I first discovered this group on my weekly drives with my family around the city, where we would pass through The Rocks and the community center that this organization uses, the Abraham Mott Hall. My interest in the group started from a sign placed in front of this hall with the statement “Don’t Block the Rocks.” Further research through a Change.org page online would lead me to discover this group. Having some basic understanding of the kind of activism that took place within the 1970s around the preservation of The Rocks and surrounding suburbs, I was interested in delving into the history of the organizations behind this and reached out to the Millers Point Resident Community Action Group.

After contacting the organization’s secretary, I was invited one of the organizations meeting, where NSW government officials presented a proposal to construct an additional seating area for on of the finger wharfs in Walsh Bay. After the meeting concluded, I was able to meet with individuals of the organization, which included one of the oldest members of the group (in terms of membership) as well as the president. After explaining this project to them, I feel that they certainly did express interest in the project, however discussions on what project should be done are still in discussion.

However, for this project I have come up with some ideas. One of the main ideas I have is a video that discusses the history of the organization. In this idea, I plan on interviewing members of the organization as well as exploring the organization’s archives for additional information. I feel that by using oral history, I can bring light to individual experiences of members, particularly through a video as opposed to just plain text.

From this project, I feel that a historical research project may be of great benefit for the organization. Primarily, I feel that it will help bring to light some of the history that this organization offers in shaping the landscape of the Millers Point area. After looking through the organization’s website, there is a limited emphasis on its history, despite its influence in preserving the heritage of the suburbs around Millers Point. As well as this, I feel that a video would present its history in an engaging manner.

I think one major challenge for this project will be the consideration of time. While this should be completed by the 25th of November, I feel that the time needed to gather the history from members, as well as dedicating time to researching the archives and actual filming and editing pose a significant challenge.

Link to Millers Point Resident Community Action Group website:
https://www.millerspoint.org.au/our-mission

Link to image:

https://theconversation.com/let-it-rip-barangaroo-a-masterclass-in-planning-as-deal-making-188434

I’ve grown up and lived the majority of my life in Western Sydney, and during much of that time I saw my area as being essentially barren when it came to the arts and any related opportunities. It often seemed to me that the disadvantages of the west were immutable and unscaleable. I was wrong, very wrong in fact, but it’s a pretty pervasive mentality out west. Deadset on proving people like young-me wrong are institutions like the Arts and Cultural Exchange (ACE – https://ice.org.au ) in Parramatta.

I first became aware of ACE by its former name ICE (Information & Cultural Exchange) through a band mate who facilitated workshops with Neurodivergent musicians – and it was quite eye-opening to find an organisation with the kind of facilities and programs that it does snuggled right in the heart of my West. I later had the pleasure of using one of its recording studios (for a later abandoned project, alas), and attending a night of First Nation punk bands performing in their space.

ACE has gone through several name changes and shifts in the methodology of its mission since its inception in 1984 – so much so that the arts and creativity were not strictly involved when it was founded as a van providing information to disadvantaged communities – but combating social injustice and embracing cultural diversity has always been at its core. Access to technology and information has also always been an important part of ACEs aims.

Today, ACE runs five program streams – First Nations, Youth Engagement, Multicultural Women, Neurodivergent Artists and Aged Care, and Screen Media – all of which produce interdisciplinary, intergenerational projects designed and run in collaboration with the communities in question. Many of these projects harken back to ACE’s origins when it aimed to provide information, but significantly expanded to include access to technology, skills training and creative, entrepreneurial experience. These projects are often groundbreaking in their approach and life-changing for the communities who participate. So my project idea is to profile individuals who have significantly interacted with ACE, and explore the ways the organisation has impacted their lives. Something that came up in my meeting with ACE was the feedback they’d received of how much love for the organisation and its programs there was amongst participants. It’d be great to tap into that love, and find out why it’s touched people so deeply for so long. These profiles can then hopefully be paired with ACE’s new website they’re designing to coincide with their recent rebrand.

History is a craft of respecting, preserving and transmitting memories of the past – but who takes the responsibility for this craft-making process when the very sources of memory begin to fade? From its establishment in 1992, the Sydney Jewish Museum has been a leader in preserving the memories of Holocaust survivors who have found refuge in Australia, ensuring that their histories remain alive and that dynamic conversations surrounding its horrors and legacies flourish into future generations. The Museum itself has been a cultural focal point and meeting place for the Sydney Jewish community, housing an impressive collection of personal objects and original memorabilia related to the Holocaust, Judacia and Australian Jewish history. The extensive range of permanent and feature exhibitions is almost entirely composed of personal donations and artefacts from the Sydney Jewish community, such as identification cards, letters and uniforms; and importantly, completely void of any display of Nazi iconography or infrastructure. This reflects the Museum’s objective to convey the Holocaust history specifically through the personal testimonial narratives of individual, Jewish experiences, not from the voices of the oppressors. These stories are particularly valued for their delicacy, as the Museum foremost acknowledges that survivors relive their memories in retelling them and inviting their audiences to harbour the legacy. 

The faithful preservation of memory and authentic Jewish voice has been ever-paramount in the face of the dwindling generation of Holocaust survivors. The custodianship of Holocaust memory has been gradually transitioned from the generation of survivors and their immediate relationship with the past, to their succeeding generations of descendants who grapple with a mediated one. The Museum has therefore successfully incorporated digital technologies to keep survivor voices alive with evolving mediums of history-making – most notably, through the Dimensions in Testimony project, where six Sydney-based Holocaust survivors and their biographies have been preserved using artificial intelligence (AI) and language processing technologies. These new digital projects are also accompanied by the continuously evolving range of online events offered by the Museum, such as historian panellist discussions, blog posts which document historiographical and curatorial discussions, representational mediums such as book launches and film screenings, and virtual workshops and tours, which ensure the longevity of survivor voices. 

The Museum also aims to explicate the lessons of the Holocaust through a more universal, intercultural framework. The humanitarian dimensions of the Holocaust and survivor narratives – particularly how it embodies the nadir of humanity, the consequences of prejudice, and the importance of celebrating (rather than annhilating) religious and cultural diversity – are extracted to further and more contemporary issues of morality and human rights. The Museum’s pivotal vision for the intergenerational and intercultural transmission of Holocaust memory is therefore encapsulated by its most recent permanent exhibition, The Holocaust and Human Rights – ensuring that the Holocaust reveals the necessity to lead with empathy in championing the rights of Refugees and Asylum Seekers, People with Disabilities, First Australians and the LGBTQI community. Though I do not identify as belonging to the Jewish community, my sense of connection to this Museum derives from the similar desire for belonging as a person of colour in Australia – reflecting upon what it means to be an ethnic-Other in a hegemonic, Eurocentric landscape which denies my culture (in inconspicuous ways); and writing history as a means to articulate this longing and keep the voices of the past alive.