Welcome to Redfern 2013, Reko Rennie in collaboration with young local Aboriginal artists.
In The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History published in 1995, Dolores Hayden opened a new perspective on the relationship between history and memory.
Public art is political, Hayden wrote, but also it is often deeply personal. It plays an important role in ‘making visible some of [history’s] forgotten parts.’
Preservation and public art interrogates and redefines how we see our cities by creating an awareness of the personal histories of the people who have lived there.
City of Sydney’s Redfern Terrace project restates the significance of preservation and public art in Australia’s urban centres. Now in its second stage, the project calls for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to activate a significant terrace in Redfern.
The project falls under the umbrella of the Eora Journey Recognition in the Public Domain, an initiative addressing the need for better recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage in Sydney.
Such initiatives are essential in recognising the continuing vitality of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community in the history of Sydney.
For the development of the Redfern Terrace initiative, City of Sydney’s Eora Journey Curatorial Advisor Hetti Perkins drew inspiration from a variety of global public art projects.
‘We looked at the Tenement Museum in New York, there is Susannah Place Museum in The Rocks, but there are also things like Rachel Whiteread’s house in the UK, which was a temporary project. Projects like that are really about the fine-grain of lived experience in our urban communities, and in this case it is the Indigenous experience in Redfern.’
Welcome to Redfern 2013, Reko Rennie in collaboration with young local Aboriginal artists.
The first stage of the Redfern Terrace project was completed in 2013 by Reko Rennie, who worked with young local Aboriginal artists to create Welcome to Redfern – an artwork covering the exterior of the terrace house.
‘Redfern has a very particular and special place in the Aboriginal community. It’s known nationally as one of the key, if not the key hub, of Indigenous activism. It has been the site for many positive initiatives in the Australian community, such as the first health services, legal services, children’s services, and housing services. It’s a place where activism has borne positive fruit,’ said Perkins.
‘But, like a lot of inner Sydney, it is a neighbourhood that is changing rapidly.’
The conservation of the end terrace presents an opportunity for artists to creatively respond to the social and personal histories of the location before it became known locally as the Block – and there are a lot of stories to draw from.
Chicka Madden and Joan Honeysett, Elders in the Aboriginal community, recall extraordinary tales of living in the terrace in the 1940s. Mum Shirl visited the terrace and went on to become leader and political activist in the Redfern community.
Inside the terrace in its current state pre-conservation – for an artist to activate.
The expression of interest to artists has been intentionally left open to interpretation. Artists are invited to bring new ideas to the table and the council can work out the best way to support them.
‘We don’t have a particular way we want it done. That’s the artist’s job – we’ll leave that to the experts,’ said Perkins.
But it is a complex project, explained Perkins, and interested artists need to show they have experience including that of working closely with communities.
Involving the local Aboriginal community is essential for the success of the project, which Perkins anticipates will become a lasting and enduring legacy that tells the history of people who lived there.
‘When we were doing the first stage of the project a lot of the aunties and grandmothers who came and watched the project unfold were saying, “We really want to tell our stories, we want our experiences to be preserved in some way for our grandkids and future generations because it is changing so quickly”.
‘I think it is going to be a great chance for people to hear about men going to war, the working lives of women, how children were raised, day trips to La Perouse – things like that are all fascinating.’
‘We’re really trying to keep it as open as possible,’ concluded Perkins.
For more information or to make a submission visit http://www.cityartsydney.com.au/opportunities/expressions-interest/redfernterrace/
