Riding Develops Abilities

This is the motto that characterises the Riding for The Disabled Association in Ryde, Sydney.

First RDA centre: England, 1970.

In riding a horse, we borrow freedom.

HELEN THOMPSON WOLLEY

The Riding for the Disabled (RDA) is a remarkable organisation dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with disabilities through equestrian activities. Founded in the UK in 1969, the RDA has grown into a global movement, with centres across Australia. I have chosen to work with the local Ryde Centre (NSW), which stands out for its commitment to providing inclusive equestrian experiences, fostering both physical and emotional development for its participants.

Young rider at the Ryde centre, NSW.

Empowering Lives Through Equine Therapy
The core mission of the RDA is to promote the therapeutic benefits of horse riding, which can significantly improve balance, coordination, and confidence in individuals with various disabilities. The organisation offers riding lessons tailored to the unique needs of each rider, ensuring that everyone, regardless of abilities, can experience the joy of being on the saddle. Beyond riding, the RDA enhances life skills, teamwork, and social interaction, creating a holistic approach to therapy that empowers its riders. The Ryde centre does this through creating a safe environment and an inclusive sense of community that enriches lives.

I chose to work with this organisation as I am deeply passionate about their work. Growing up with horses, I know the enriching impact riding can have. I also have a personal connection to the RDA, as my family have been volunteers for many years. Even just volunteering three times with the centre in Ryde so far, I have witnessed the transformative effects of equine therapy. During my first visit, I was told a story that will stay with me forever. A young boy was riding a horse that wouldn’t move forward. The instructor encouraged him, saying, “Tell him to walk on.” With a quiet yet determined voice, the boy replied, “Walk on.” At that moment, his mother, standing at the side, burst into tears. When asked if she was alright, she replied, “that was the first time I heard my son’s voice.” This powerful moment exemplifies the profound impact that riding can have on individuals, further inspiring me to contribute to the RDA Ryde Centre, especially through a project that raises awareness and uniquely documents its wonderful history.

Ryde centre, NSW.

Upon discussing what I can do to help the organisation, we arrived at the idea of a promotional video that showcases the diverse activities and stories of the RDA Ryde Centre. The volunteers explained to me that many people do not know the centre exists so this project would help to spread awareness. This video could feature interviews with participants, volunteers, and instructors, sharing their experiences and the positive impacts of the RDA. I also intend to incorporate oral history into this project, capturing the voices of long-time volunteers and riders. This initiative would not only document personal experiences but also the history of the RDA Ryde Centre in a way that is widely accessible. By gathering these personal narratives, I could create an overview of the centre’s evolution, showcasing its commitment to serving the community for current and future generations. Ultimately, my goal is to create a project that not only promotes awareness of the RDA Ryde Centre but also documents its history in a way that has not been done before. By utilising visual technology, I can reach a wider audience, inspiring more people to engage with this vital organisation.

The RDA is not just about riding; it is about building confidence, independence, and creating lasting connections through the power of horses. As I embark on this project, I hope to honour the legacy of the RDA while highlighting the incredible work they do for individuals with disabilities.

https://rdaryde.org.au/
https://www.facebook.com/rdaryde/

A Story of Strength: Kinchela Boy’s Home Aboriginal Corporation

I acknowledge that I write on stolen land, the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and I pay my respects to elders past and present. For over 65,000 years, before British colonisation, this land has been a place of storytelling. As a history student at the University of Sydney, it is imperative to recognise the significance of this past and the enduring impact of colonialism on the stories and histories of Australia today. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

On Dunghutti land, not so far from where I grew up in Port Macquarie, lies what used to be Kinchela Boys Training Home – an Aboriginal Children’s Home established in 1924 by the Aboriginal Protection Board. For more than 400 boys, KBH was a site of incarceration. It was justified as a protection act, yet it was anything but that. The boys who passed through the gates of Kinchela were not known by their names but by a number. They endured conditions that were hostile and dehumanising, no home for any child or person.

The stories of KBH are just one in countless others from the Stolen Generation, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across Australia were forcibly removed from their families by the Australian Government with the intent of assimilation and cultural destruction.

However, this story of pain and trauma is also a story of strength. In 2002, the survivors of KBH established Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation, an organisation “built on and informed by the guidance and unique insights offered by survivors and which, contributes to the social and emotional wellbeing of survivors, their communities, and culture.” KBHAC offers services such as:

  • Kin Connect Program, created to support the healing of KBH survivors, and address the intergenerational trauma faced by their descendants and families.
  • Connecting Abilities Program, which provides NDIS registered services for Indigenous or non-Indigenous Australians with a disability.
  • Education Program, to further First Nations truth telling on the Stolen Generation. Initiatives include the Mobile Education Centre and Educational Resources available to schools for History, English and Aboriginal Studies curriculum across NSW.
  • Support for those eligible to gain access to the National Redress Scheme

As a proud Gamilaraay women, and niece of a survivor of the Stolen Generation, the work of KBHAC is powerful and so important to everyone it reaches. KBHAC not only advocates truth telling, preserving the stories and memories of survivors, but it also is making the meaningful steps needed for healing and rebuilding cultural connection and community.

If you would like to learn more about the KBHAC, have a read of their website here: https://kinchelaboyshome.org.au/. Additionally, if you are interested in offering any support, you can email: office@kinchelaboyshome.org.au for more information on volunteering or you can provide a donation at https://www.givenow.com.au/kinchelaindigenousstolengensupport.

Indeed, there is the opportunity to get involved and help out this October on the 18th – 19th! This October will mark one hundred years since Kinchela Boys Home first opened. KBHAC invites KBH survivors, their descendants and families as well as you, your families and the wider community to “honour the spirits of the children who walked through the gates of KBH.” If you would like to volunteer on the day, contact 100kbh@kbhac.org.au.

The Sydney Convicts History Project

My rugby career was longer than it had to be and ended with a whimper on a cool summer’s morning in 2020 in a something-nil loss against another GPS schools’ socials team. My Father’s was far more prestigious, from the Chevaliers First 15, to Woollahra Colleagues Rugby, to the Bowral Blacks, and finally coaching the Sydney Convicts in their 2004 debut year.

This connection with the Convicts turned into a meeting with one of its founders, Andrew ‘Fuzz’ Purchas, who returned to Sydney from San Francisco in 2003 intent on establishing an inclusive gay rugby team after his own experiences of exclusion from the sport after coming out as gay some years earlier.

In that meeting it was found that despite having won the International Gay Rugby Bingham Cup 5 times in its 24 year history, and hosting the 2014 Cup in Sydney, the Club’s activities on and off the field have been subject to an irregular amount of documentation. It seemed that the stars had aligned. I had several months of experience in the Australian Museum’s archives as part of their digitisation program and was already familiar with the front-end and user experience of an archive.

Archives are trickier than just shoving a bunch of folders into a cabinet in a cool & dry attic. The actual physical and digital storage of data that needed to be reliable enough to survive years without seeing the light of day but also accessible enough that that same data can be found at a moment’s notice. Especially because I had already dropped the word ‘digital’ in my meeting with Andrew.

A hard drive will last about 5 years with regular use, a SSD will last between 5-10, and that’s before considering the computer that goes with them. Hypothetically hard drives can actually last forever if the disk-reading mechanism remains intact and no one drags a magnet over the disk. Another option is 3rd party storage, with its own problems, what if the service stops in 7 years? Or someone forgets to change the card for the payment plan? What’s worse, human or technical error losing what could become the only copies of items of Sydney Convict history?

Aside from the logistics of archives, the act of retrieving the items themselves poses its own challenge. Media coverage by the likes of the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC is simple enough thanks to their digitised articles, but from more local and queer specific sources recovery can be more spotty. Doubly so for items that only exist in physical form, did anyone keep a copy of the program of the 2014 Bingham Cup for 10 years?

Regardless of these difficulties, the club and its members have so far been very enthusiastic about the history project and a pleasure to work with. I’m looking forward to what can be achieved by the end of semester.


The Sydney Jewish Museum

 Sydney Jewish Museum’s Sanctum of Remembrance

Since its founding the Sydney Jewish Museum has played a significant rule in the remembrance and education of the Holocaust. The Sydney Jewish Museum was founded in 1992 by Holocaust survivor and philanthropist John Saunders. According to the museum’s website, Mr Saunders desired the museum to be a “place to share their memories, commemorate the six million Jewish people who were murdered and provide important messages to future generations.”

Despite its relatively short history, the Sydney Jewish Museum has become well known for the vital service it provides in education on the Holocaust as well as in the history of antisemitism and the persecution of the Jewish people.

The museum provides a variety of educational opportunities for varying age groups, from school children to adults. The Sydney Jewish Museum could appear from the outset to be a “normal” museum where you just glance at objects without considering them. However, from my own personal experience I would say this is not the case. This is because the museum always ensures that the stories that are being told are human focused. This is what makes the experience of going to the Sydney Jewish Museum different and emotive.

Sydney Jewish Muesum’s Holocaust exhibt

The museum has demonstrated its ability to convey the story of one of the darkest moments in human history, the Holocaust. This is done in way that makes visitors reflect and consider the story of the people who once owned the artefacts they are now viewing.

 I have always loved going to museums, but no museum has ever had such an emotional impact on me in the same way that the Sydney Jewish Museum has. I remember vividly on both occasions I had the privilege of going to the museum when I was 14 and 16 with school.  I had tears in my eyes when I listned and considered the stories I heard. This was something I must admit was not common for the teenage me to do.

The museum has exhibits that tell the story of both the survivors and victims of the Holocaust through traditional curatorial means. This is done in a very powerful and emotive way and ensures that the appropriate respect is shown considering the very serious subject matter. However, the museum is also lucky to have several volunteers who are Holocaust survivors and generously give talks about their experiences. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to listen to Dasia Black-Gutman on two separate occasions, her story of loss and survival has always stuck with me.

For that reason, I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with the Sydney Jewish Museum as I hope that by volunteering I may assist in the important work of Holocaust remembrance. Next year will be 90 years since the end of the 2nd World War and by extension the Holocaust. Whilst the Holocaust might have ended, antisemitism continues to be a stain on our society. For that reason, I strongly believe that it is important that we as historians and patrons support the work of institutions like the Sydney Jewish Museum that promote education on antisemitism and the commemoration of the Holocaust.  

The Australian National Maritime Museum: A unique perspective on Australia’s past

The Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney is Australia’s national centre for maritime history collections, exhibitions and knowledge. Opened in 1991, it is one of six museums directly administrated by the Australian Federal Government and the only one located outside of the ACT. The museum also plays a key role in supporting local maritime museums and smaller historical organisations across Australia. The Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme, which began in 1995, has given over $2.53 million to support smaller historical organisations, and provided funding for more than 551 projects and over 85 museological training opportunities. 

The museum’s collection includes a huge variety of objects significant to Australian and international maritime history, varying from photographs, paintings and models of ships to the 4 ships displayed on the water outside the museum. The Museum’s exhibitions and programs include topics as diverse as immigration, colonial history, Indigenous Australian history and maritime archaeology.

Photo from The Australian National Maritime website: https://www.sea.museum/en/whats-on/our-fleet/hmb-endeavour-replica

I had visited the Maritime Museum many times when I was younger, but Peter and Roland’s tour of it for our class gave me a new perspective on it.  Hearing their insights about the process of acquiring objects for the collection and designing exhibitions at this museum gave me a glimpse into a particular way of producing history that I hadn’t encountered before in my History degree.

Unlike many of the organisations that students are working with in History Beyond the Classroom, the Maritime Museum’s entire purpose as a national museum is to engage with the public. Museums are a space where the skills of academic history are used to write and present quite a different form of history, addressing the general public with concise object based histories. I was immediately interested in the process behind this way of producing history, which could be limited by the fragility of certain collection objects, or the architecture of the exhibition space, but which offers unique opportunities to bring together varied physical objects from the past to educate the public.

Maritime history offers a particular lens on Australia’s history, cutting through the chronological periodisation, geographical and cultural partitions I am familiar with. The sea and human societies lives on and around it has always been a part of Australia’s past, and has played a pivotal role in Australia’s recent history. Maritime History appears narrow in its focus, but it is expansive in the varied themes it can encompass.

After the tour Peter Hobbins mentioned there were volunteering opportunities at the museum and I was keen to get involved in volunteering there, even though at that point I had already contacted another organisation to work on a project for History Beyond the Classroom. I wanted to learn more about the kind of historical work the museum did, and I also found their approach and purpose interesting. 

When I realised that my previous choice of organisation wasn’t going to work due to the lack of response, I chose to contact the Maritime Museum to find out if I could work on a historical project there. The topic of my project is still undecided, but Peter Hobbins has proposed two suggestions of projects focused on presenting either photographic primary sources or archaeological reports to the public. I am still planning on volunteering at the Museum alongside this, either now, or in future.

More Than Just A Game: The Importance Of Community Building At My Local Netball Club

One of the first West Ryde Rovers Netball Teams. 1969.

At some point or another, every child dreams of being a famous singer… or an astronaut… or a film star. Well, as a girl, my biggest dream was to one day play professional netball for the NSW Swifts. A little unconventional, I know, but as an 8-year-old nothing could be better. So it goes that my Saturdays (and my parents’) were spent running around Meadowbank Park where I played for my local club, the West Ryde Rovers. 

West Ryde Rovers began its life in 1956 when Lester Waud travelled to the Olympic Games in Melbourne and watched Australia defeat Japan in the men’s football (soccer for those of you who may be confused). With co-founder, Perce Rouse, he coached two boys football teams in the Hornsby-Epping Association that same year. Of course, some credit must be given to Mavis, Lester’s wife, who helped to hand sew the first teams’ jerseys. 

It wasn’t until 1967 that Rovers’ first netball team emerged, although at the time the sport was known as ‘women’s basketball’. It went from strength to strength and by 1971, the West Ryde Rovers Netball Club had fourteen teams. I don’t know what was more impressive; the rapid development of teams in the netball club or the perms of the ladies who played in them! As of the 2024 season, the Rovers Netball Club has over 25 teams ranging from Under 6’s to Open Ages. As well as this, in 2015, Rovers was proud to introduce an All Abilities training program which aimed to encourage girls and women living with disability to participate in a team sport. Since then, the program has flourished and there are now three All Abilities teams in the Eastwood-Ryde competition. 

While I eventually grew out of my dream to play professional netball, the importance of West Ryde Rovers in my childhood has not been lost on me. More than this, I can now see the importance of the club to the development of my own community. Although West Ryde Rovers has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1956, its evident that the values upon which the club was built are still at its core today. The club is primarily a community organisation and it relies purely on the hard work of volunteers to keep running. This is evident if you ever go down to Meadowbank Park on a Saturday morning where you will see an army of volunteers; there is Ruth coaching her team, and over there is Despina in the umpires room, and there is Karen making the rounds. Alongside them are the many more committee members as well as parents and friends who coach, manage, score and come to cheer on the teams. Nowhere will you see a greater show of community spirit and I believe that this is what makes Rovers’ history worth telling. I hope you’re as excited as I am to hear these amazing peoples’ stories!

A busy Saturday at Meadowbank Park. 2024. 

The Power of Community Netball

For as long as I can remember, a winter Saturday morning has only meant one thing: netball. Ever since primary school, my mum, my sisters and I have spent countless Saturdays down at our local netball association, where we play, coach, umpire, and, every so often, enjoy a bacon and egg roll from the community-run BBQ. It’s often an all-day, if not all-weekend, affair. As juniors, Mum and Dad would cart us all around Sydney for representative carnivals, and we’re now avid fans and members of our national league team, the NSW Swifts, and frequently head out to Olympic Park to watch their matches in person. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to have your weekends not taken up by the all-consuming force that is netball. But despite the commitment, there’s something about it that keeps us coming back every year.

For many girls and women across the country, their winter Saturday morning plans mimic mine. For decades, women and girls have flocked in droves to their local netball courts every weekend. Netball is Australia’s leading team sport for female participation, ranked only just behind AFL for overall participation across men and women. At its core, netball is a sport that was built for women, by women. In fact, Super Netball is the only professional league in Australia where the female code is the main event.

Perhaps that’s what makes the sport so special, and part of the reason I’m so passionate about it. It’s a sport where women have paved their own path, carving out a space for girls to thrive. And at the very heart of the sport is local associations. It’s here where a community is built, where friendships are made, and where the netball superstars of the future are born.

Community netball at Hills District Netball Association.

That’s why I have chosen to complete my public history project with Hills District Netball, my local association. Originally founded as the Hills District Women’s Basketball Association, it has been a thriving community organisation since 1968. Each year, HDNA runs a Winter Day competition which takes place every Saturday, as well as Spring and Summer Night competitions, which also involve mixed teams with both men and women. These competitions are run by a group of passionate and committed volunteers, some of whom have been involved in the association for decades. They’ve even had former players go on to become national league players, including Cath Cox, who played with HDNA and went on to captain the Australian Diamonds.

HDNA netballers in action.

Throughout my project with HDNA, I hope to use my passion for netball to delve into the association’s rich history. Having been a part of the association’s netball competitions for years, I’d love to give back to the organisation through using my knowledge and skills to create an engaging public history project. Along the way, I hope to uncover how HDNA has evolved over the years into the netball-loving community it is today.

Levelling the Scales: Marrickville Legal Centre

This post was written on Gadigal land, and discusses an institution developed on Wangal and Gadigal land. I pay my respects to the traditional owners. This land was stolen, but sovereignty was never ceded.

In 1979 ‘Little Greece’ sprawled along the Cooks River and up Illawarra Rd, consumed by the scent of hot bread which plumed from Vietnamese bakeries. The ever-exotic ‘cappuccino’ was just making its debut. Marrickville was considered a recognisably migrant community in Sydney at the time, and was a broadly working-class area. The Marrickville population did not have easy access to legal aid. A group of University students recognised that this lack of legal aid, alongside differing literacy levels and greater economic vulnerability, meant that a pro-bono community legal centre had to be developed, and so Marrickville Legal Centre (MLC) was established in the Town Hall.

Despite humble beginnings, MLC now has a catchment area of over 1.5 million people, and has expanded its service to advise and advocate in several different areas of law, including:

  • General legal services
  • Family and domestic violence (FDV) services
  • Youth legal services
  • Strata services
  • Family law
  • Tenancy services

MLC’s services are not isolated purely to direct legal action, as the Centre runs several community workshops and education efforts to give the communities they serve the knowledge and dignity to act. It is this demystifying approach that has been instrumental in generating lasting impact – in precedent and spirit.

Information cards created by the Law Foundation of NSW, featuring MLC as a point of contact for young clients.

The passion with which MLC approaches its work is palpable, and it is evident that the Centre thrives on the stories of hope and solidarity that emerge from it. So, to mark its 45th year, I will be facilitating an oral history project (with video) for MLC, focusing on the impact of the organisation on migrant communities. This will involve interviewing prominent community members, community organisations, and significant individuals directly involved in past matters. The integrity of the project lies in providing space for the people that MLC was established for, to be the people who tell the organisations history.

MLC represents a shifting attitude in legal spaces towards education and power, posing direct questions to the traditionally guarded institution surrounding who deserves advocacy, and how legislative dignity can be derived from immediacy with the communities that the legal system dictates and serves. While access to legal aid is significantly less difficult today, the proverbial road is still long. It was only this year (2024) that visa workers saw genuine protections be brought into their workplaces – reforms like this will save lives.

Please click here to learn more about the work of MLC, educate yourself on your entitlements, or otherwise engage with the Centre.

The Sound of Sydney: FBI Radio’s 30-Year Legacy

In the age of streaming and podcasts, has video really killed the radio star? fbi 94.5FM, a community-led radio station based here in Eora/Sydney would suggest otherwise.

In 1995, as the Keating government sought to allocate the remaining radio licenses in Sydney, fbi Radio was established. After several years of test broadcasts, fbi finally gained its permanent, full-time license in 2003 and has been broadcasting ever since. Their aim was simple, but radical: to showcase the diverse music and cultural scene of Sydney with a focus on independent artists. This was made explicit in their policy to play 50% Australian music, with half of that from Sydney.

Over their 21 years of broadcasting, fbi’s impact had spanned beyond the radio waves. In showcasing local and international music talent, with a breadth that defies the constraints of commercial radio, fbi has been integral in keep alive a local music culture trammelled by lock-out laws and corporate interests. No artist, song, or genre is too obscure or ‘left-of-field’ for fbi and they not only showcase, but celebrate subaltern identities and experiences

The shows on fbi range from quintessential breakfast radio to in-depth explorations of subculture and specific music genres. This ranges from shows such Race Matters which involves in-depth storytelling and interviews to explore modern racial identity, to Mosaic which celebrates Middle Eastern, Asian, and African culture and music co-hosted by the University of Sydney’s very own Jonathan Chalouhi. One of their flagship shows, All the Best, is a nationally syndicated program which curates and showcases community submitted documentaries, stories, and interview, demonstrating their commitment to representing the local community – in every form it takes.  From the vast array of shows and content the station produces, at any rate, remains to have its finger on the pulse of Sydney’s culture.

Just some of the many photos taken in the infamous music library. Source: www.fbi.radio.

It is because of this that fbi is perhaps the ultimate organisation for a historical project. With thirty years in local scene, their importance spans beyond simply the local acts they have been integral in helping make ‘big’ (Flume, Julia Jacklin and Nina Las Vegas to name a few), but their continual support of the independent acts whose oeuvre may range from krautrock to Detroit house, ambient to grime. Not only is fbi’s local significance undeniable, but their capacity as a treasure trove of Sydney’s cultural history is an unmissable opportunity for a historian.

My work with fbi is centring on their mammoth CD archive of over 46,600 CD’s that they have acquired since their start in 1995. Anyone familiar with fbi will recognise their extensive shelves of CD’s, backdrop to many a photo op across their marketing and social media. This library is a physical manifestation of fbi’s almost thirty-year history. Accumulated over numerous music opens days (monthly events where the station invites local artists to hand in demos), personal collections, and demos from labels, this CD archive tells a story of the many lives of Sydney’s musical scene. By looking at the very history of this library, I hope to be able to help tell a story of the many lives that have walked through fbi’s doors, and the many lives its impacts beyond them.

‘Unlocking our past to free our future’: Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land from which I am writing, and pay my respects to the Elders both past and present. I would also like to acknowledge the Dunghutti and other First Nations peoples of this country who were victims of the Australian Government policies that created the Stolen Generations.

To understand Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC), one must first understand what Kinchela Boys Training Home (KBH) was, and its continuing impacts. KBH was built on the stolen land of the Dunghutti people, 20km north-east of Kempsey in New South Wales. This ‘home’ housed young Aboriginal boys who had been forcibly removed from their families by the NSW Government for almost 50 years (1924–1970). While at KBH, the boys, who received numbers instead of being referred to by their names, were stripped of their childhood and Aboriginality, enduring a forcible assimilation project.

The nature of KBH makes this site a place of deep importance for survivors, their families and the community, with the site and the memories of survivors acting as a historical record of destructive policies implemented by the Australian Government, and also an opportunity for the education of Australians today. If you would like hear more about KBH, I would recommend the video created by KBHAC for NAIDOC Week 2022 called We Were Just Little Boys, narrated by KBH survivors and illustrated by Uncle Richard Campbell, #28.

KBHAC emerged from the survivors KBH as a way to help with the restoration and reconstruction of the ‘identity, dignity and integrity of survivors.’ Another of the key aims of this organisation is to address the impacts of intergenerational trauma that is experienced by the families and descendants of the survivors of KBH. This mission becomes clear in the motto of the organisation:

‘Unlocking our past to free our future’

As such, this organisation is incredibly active within its community, striving to achieve positive outcomes, evident in the numerous programs and services offered by KBHAC such as: Kin Connect, Connecting Abilities, Redress Support Service and Education Programs. If you would like to hear more about the work done by KBHAC please visit their website and/or their social media pages.

Finally, I would like to mention that October of this year marks 100 years since the gates of KBH were opened. As such, from the 18th-19th October, KBHAC invites KBH survivors, their descendants and families to honour the spirits of the children at KBH and to celebrate the past, present and future of KBHAC. I feel privileged that I will be able to volunteer at this event, and if you would like to offer your own form of assistance, you can donate here, or volunteer by emailing 100kbh@kbhac.org.au.