Meet the couples... again!
Getting Married: a celebration of love, life and culture in Australia today, an online Migration Heritage Centre project, is now an exhibition at the Museum of Sydney until 15 May 2005. It was launched by Brett Sheehy, the Director of the Sydney Festival, on 12 January 2005 in the presence of some of the featured couples.
Based on research by the Marrickville Community History Group, the exhibition documents experiences of courtship, marriage rituals and traditions. Oral history interviews are brought to life by a series of colour photographs that express the values and meanings surrounding the institution of marriage in Australia's diverse society. The original project can be viewed on the Migration Heritage Centre website.
EXHIBITION INFORMATION:
Museum of Sydney
Opening hours: daily 9.30am-5.00pm
Admission prices: adult $7;
concession/child $3; family $17
Exhibition closes 15 May 2005
Sharing the Lode
The Hon. Bob Carr MP, NSW Premier, Minister for the Arts and Minister for Citizenship launched the book Sharing the Lode: The Broken Hill Migrant Story at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery on 23 November 2004.
L-R: Barbara De Franceschi OAM, the Hon. Bob Carr MP and Christine Adams at the launch of Sharing the Lode Photographer: Don McKinnon
Researched by local and family historian Christine Adams, the book was published by the Broken Hill Migrant Heritage Committee Inc. with support from the Migration Heritage Centre and the Community Relations Commission.
By Barbara De Franceschi OAM, Chairperson, Broken Hill Migrant Heritage Committee Inc.
As a young woman from a predominately Irish background, I married an Italian migrant in 1960. This union exposed me to the fascinating stories of courage, humour and endurance centred on migration.
Many years later I became acutely aware that these stories were dwindling, so too were first generation migrants. Within the written historical account relating to the settlement of Broken Hill, there was little or no mention regarding the influx of migrants, nor their contribution to the social, economic and cultural development of the city. My urge to address these matters was fired. In June 2000 the Broken Hill Migrant Heritage Committee Inc. was formed.
By the end of 2003, local and family historian Christine Adams had recorded a large volume of oral histories. The next logical step for the Committee was to work towards having these stories transcribed into book form.
Our publication, Sharing the Lode: The Broken Hill Migrant Story, adds another dimension to the written record of Broken Hill through the voices and experiences of people from a diversity of cultural backgrounds; it is a celebration of the simple fundamentals of ?ife.
This year the Committee aims to establish a Migrant Heritage Museum in Broken Hill which will document local migration heritage collections. Proceeds from the book are committed to this permanent display.
Sharing the Lode is a fine example of what can be achieved by a small group of dedicated people with a few clear goals and a great deal of persistence.
By Christine Adams, local and family historian and Project Officer, Broken Hill Migrant Heritage Committee Inc.
Sharing the Lode puts the soul in the city’s history. Seventy-four people and their descendants from eleven non-English speaking backgrounds willingly shared their life experiences with us.
We now look at Broken Hill’s magnificent buildings with greater interest; we now know the people that built them and lived in them.
Older Broken Hill residents remember ‘Bundle Mary’ (Marina Boulus Kuram) as an old woman wandering the streets of the city selling her wares to all and sundry in the first half of the last century. We now know she courageously left Lebanon with her young daughter and joined her brother in Broken Hill because she was looking for a better life.
‘Bundle Mary’ (1868-1955) Photograph held by Ramon Ware
We know men walked to the mines looking for work and were told to come back the next day because there would be a vacancy if someone died - and there was.
We hear about the little girl who dreamed of walking over the skimp dump (a mountain of ore sediment) to visit her grandmother because she believed Greece was on the other side!
We now empathise with the women who cried when they saw our bush - it was nothing like the bush they left behind in Italy or Greece.
We acknowledge the men who worked on the Menindee Lakes Scheme to provide our city with a permanent water supply and those who travelled great distances and worked long, tiring hours to supply fresh fruit and vegetables to the community of Broken Hill.
Most important of all, we read about a merging of cultures; a welcoming community with a willingness to share the triumphs and trials with newcomers equally willing to accept such offers.
We have all ‘Shared the Lode’- and it has been a privilege for us to record it.
PURCHASE INFORMATION:
Broken Hill Migrant Heritage Committee Inc.
Price: $44 plus p+p
Address:
370 Kaolin St, Broken Hill NSW 2880
Tel: 08 8087 4609
Email: pc.adams@bigpond.com.au
Germantowns, Germanstories
German migrants from South Australia and Victoria were attracted to the Riverina’s free selection policies in the mid-19th century. Did you know in 1858 the town of Holbrook was locally known as the Germans and officially changed to Germantown in 1876?
Germantowns, Germanstories is a thematic study of German places, collections and associated histories in the Museum of the Riverina’s local areas of Holbrook, Jindera, Ganmain, Lockhart, Milbrulong, Temora, Trungley Hall, Tumbarumba, Wagga Wagga and Walla Walla.
The study is designed to support the Museum’s work in documenting local heritage collections associated with people of German backgrounds.
Stage One includes an illustrated short history of German migration and settlement in the Riverina from the 1850s to the present - the development of local commerce, agriculture and wool industries and the local impact of internment and post-Second World War settlement through Uranquinty migrant hostel. It will be managed by the Museum with advice and assistance from the Migration Heritage Centre.
PROJECT CONTACT: Annette Brown,
Researcher, Museum of the Riverina
Address:
PO Box 20, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
Tel: 02 6925 2934
Email: brown.annette@wagga.nsw.gov.au
THE MENNEKE BELL
August Menneke was born in 1838 in Bakenem, Germany and arrived in NSW around 1858. One of the hundreds of German migrants who made the Riverina home in the 19th century, he established his own blacksmith business in North Wagga immediately after his apprenticeship.
August Menneke (1838-1904)
By the 1870s Menneke had won fame, particularly for the goods he manufactured for bullock drivers. He had a perfect ear for the sound of a bell. They were used on a leader in a bullock team or on other stock so they could be easily located.
A bullock team on Fitzmaurice Street, Wagga Wagga
According to legend, a test was carried out on top of Mount Kosciusko to find the best bell maker in Australia. Menneke won when his bell could be heard ten miles away.
Menneke Bell donated to the Wagga Wagga & District Historical Society in 1970 by Fred Menneke (son
of August Menneke)
August Menneke died in Wagga in 1904 and is remembered as a legendary bell-maker and fine blacksmith.
In the 1940s, Dame Mary Gilmore immortalised Menneke in Australian folklore through her poem Bells and Bullocks:
Once in a while we ask if he hears
The sound of Mennicke's (sic)
bells
Deep in the pits of his ancient
ears
Repeating their olden spells
'Mennicke's bells?' … Then
he'll say
Never heard none like 'em
Mennicke, he had the way
No one else could strike 'em
? Photographs
courtesy of the Museum of the Riverina