Rich Rewards: Cultural Diversity and Heritage Practice

11.7 Report on the Migration Heritage Community Consultation

Broken Hill Workshop

September 23 1999

Council Chambers, Broken Hill City Council

9.30am - 400pm

Present: Brian Anderson, Elanore Blows, Margaret Burin, George Coomblas, John De Franceschi, Barb De Franceschi, Bruna Genoa, Fan McKinnon, Don Mudie, Peter Oldson, John Reed, Liz Vines, Albert Woodroofe,

Kate Rea, Convenor

Introduction

On Thursday September 23 1999 representatives of Broken Hill's ethnic communities and history and heritage organisations took advantage of a unique opportunity to create greater recognition for the cultural diversity of heritage in their area at the Broken Hill Migration Heritage Community Consultation and Workshop.

Kate Rea, project coordinator, Migration Heritage Community Consultation Program, welcomed the participants and thanked them for supporting this initiative which would work to create a greater focus for the heritage of all communities in Broken Hill. She then introduced the Hon. Ron Page, Mayor or Broken Hill, to make the Welcome address.

Welcome address - Hon. Ron Page, Mayor Broken Hill City Council

The Mayor outlined the important role that migrants had played in the economic, cultural and social development of Broken Hill. He noted that their skills had made enormous contributions to mining, building and engineering in the area. Given the importance the Council and community of Broken Hill placed on heritage he expressed his delight that the focus of heritage in the area would better reflect the areas diversity.

What is Heritage?

Kate Rea explained that heritage tells the story of our history. Showing a range of slides depicting heritage items, she loosely defined heritage as those places, sites and items that are important or significant to our communities. These might be places of work or worship; they could also be places of recreation, such as a social club, dance hall or park. They might reflect one group's contribution to the development of the community or a skill that is specific to your community. Heritage is not only expressed in buildings. It may be a park or garden, a collection of everyday objects, such as tools, or the interior of a shop. Heritage is that which the community values and wants to keep and protect for future generations.

Heritage in Broken Hill

Heritage advisor Liz Vines described the history of heritage practice in Broken Hill. She touched on the role of the Broken Hill City Council and the NSW Heritage Office in developing and managing the city's heritage and showed a range of heritage items and approaches to restoration and conservation.

The Migration Heritage Community Consultation Program

Introducing the Migration Heritage Community Consultation Program Kate Rea noted that this pilot program has been introduced to ensure that the experiences and contributions of migrants to the development of New South Wales is reflected in its heritage. Currently, the experiences and contributions of migrants are not well recognised in heritage listings by state and local government or within regional museums.

The program, initially consisting of three workshops, is a first step in developing heritage practices that celebrate the cultural diversity of the state's community.

The NSW Heritage Office, the government agency responsible for heritage in this state, is managing the project. Its roles include

• Assistance to local government and state government agencies
• Administration of the NSW Heritage Act
• Maintaining the state heritage register

It is a project of the Migration Heritage Centre, the Centre being a NSW Government initiative through a partnership of Premier's Department, Ministry for the Arts, Ethnic Affairs Commission and the Heritage Office.

The Broken Hill Workshop & Community Consultation

Kate Rea explained that the Broken Hill Workshop was being held as the second of three workshops in the Program. The aims of the workshops are three fold:

• To encourage awareness, identification and preservation of the heritage of ethnic communities from their own cultural perspectives.
• To develop partnerships between individuals and organisations across the community that have valuable contributions to make to heritage.
• To recommend models of consultation methods for application in further programs.

The day had been planned so that participants could develop skills to begin the process of identifying and assessing the heritage sites or items important to them from their own cultural perspectives. She continued that the workshop has been designed to provide a point of consultation between members of Broken Hill's ethnic communities and heritage practitioners.

Outputs for the workshop

Kate Rea explained that the workshops could have a range of outputs. Ethnic communities may like to use the skills and partnerships developed through the workshop to develop a heritage initiative through one of the museums. Broken Hill City Council could use the workshop as a starting point for updating its local environment plan and thematic history. Or the local history society could use the experiences of the workshop to develop an oral history project that told the story of cultural diversity and migration in the area. It was emphasised that culturally diverse heritage practices offered a range of opportunities and outcomes.

Identifying Heritage Items

Following these presentations participants were invited to form pairs, go out, and photograph the items or sites that are important to their communities. They were asked

• to photograph places and items that are important to them and their community;
• to photograph of the places, items or characteristics that reflect their contribution to the history of Broken Hill and its surrounds and;
• to take photographs of places that are significant to the process of migration.

All of the photographs were developed over lunch, where the participants talked about heritage in the area and some of the things that they had seen during the photography session.

Exhibition and Assessment of Photographs

The photographs showed a wonderful range of items. The process assessing the items began after the lunch break. This involved pasting the photographs onto board and writing a short caption underneath. Kate Rea suggested that the caption could state why the item was significant to the community or why it was significant to migration. In this way participants began to assess the significance of the items to their communities. Each pair displayed their findings to the group, talking about the importance of the place to them and their community. Some of the sites identified included:

• Community clubs were identified as important places for communities to meet. These included the Greek, Italian, Napredak (Yugoslav) and German Club (destroyed 1915). Some of the clubs houses a range of pastimes including dancing, cards and bocce.
• Items that illustrated the skills that migrants had brought to Australia were among the items identified. This included the Charles Rasp monument, built for the 75 anniversary of Broken Hill, the terrazzo work was done on a voluntary basis by the Italian community in 1958 and a method for building rock walls used by Yugoslavian builders prior to World War 1.
• Houses with column styles particular to Broken Hill were identified as significant because they represented some of the building skills that migrants had brought with them, these columns had had a strong influence on the domestic architecture of the area.
• Domestic architecture also illustrated the impact of a diverse range of people within the community. Houses with 'mediteranian' elements, both old and new, illustrated the ways in which migrants had made their homes in the area.
• Broken Hill mosque, a very modest 'tin shed' is a place of religious significance to Muslim people, including the Afghan cameleers if the past and visiting Muslims of today.
• Other places of religious significance included, the Franciscan Friary and St Peters Catholic Church, a place of worship for the Maltese and Italian Communities and the Synagogue.
• The Cemetery illustrated the cultural diversity of Broken Hill's past, showing Muslim, Jewish, Italian and Yugoslavian gravesites and burial practices. The gravestones also illustrate that face of Australian mining is multicultural.
• The Imperial Lake and a range of areas around the town were identified as sites used by the Afghan cameleers.
• Sturt Park was identified as an historically significant site. The park had hosted a rally, held by migrant workers, to protest discriminatory employment practices on the mines.
• A number of sites were identified as past Chinese Market Gardens, including the current site of the Broken Hill Entertainment Centre.
• Crystal Street and South Broken Hill in general were identified as important precincts for ethnic communities. These areas contained houses, boarding accommodation, businesses, clubs, and pubs owned and patronised by migrants.

Recommendations

Culturally diverse heritage practices add depth to our understanding of the history of the community. They are inclusive and ensure that the experiences and contributions of the whole community are recognised and celebrated within its story. They create positive identities for people from non-English speaking backgrounds and help generate greater perception of cultural diversity with broad community identity. All of this works to create a stronger sense of community identity and belonging for the community as a whole.

Broken Hill has a rich cultural and built heritage that reflects its diversity, both past and present. The workshop has begun to uncover these items. It is recommended that the focus of heritage practice throughout Broken Hill's cultural network seek to represent this diversity.

Culturally diverse heritage projects could have a range of outcomes across the cultural and heritage network. They could be undertaken by ethnic communities keen to develop awareness of their community's contribution to the development of Broken Hill. They could underpin a tourism project or a museum exhibition. A heritage project focusing on cultural diversity could be adopted by local government, historians or documentary makers in partnership with ethnic communities in the area.

One approach may be to form a committee heritage. The committee could undertake the important role of ensuring that heritage items significant to ethnic communities, be they places, sites, items or objects are recognised and protected for future generations to enjoy. It would also serve as a point of consultation, to ensure that the perspectives of ethnic communities are considered in all relevant heritage decisions.

The committee members should represent the ethnic communities of Broken Hill as thoroughly as possible. The Multicultural Women's Group would provide an important link to the communities. It should also include members of organisations that contribute to heritage. The committee could be formed at a public meeting, with a structure to suit the members.

The committee could build on the findings of the first workshop or use it as a model to consult with ethnic commentates to develop new initiatives. Some activities could include

• Using the photography and discussion sessions of the workshop as a starting point for a history project in partnership with the local historical society. This could record the contribution and experiences of migrants in the development of the social, cultural, urban and economic development of the area.
• The workshop could also have application in the local library for identifying places and items for inclusion in resource and materials kits for school projects and local studies research. The photographs could be deposited with the library to ensure that themes of migration and diversity are included in all area of local studies.
• The library ould also use the model to identify collections of photographs, records or ephemera for their collections to ensure that they properly reflect the cultural diversity of the area.
• It could also be a mechanism for identifying moveable heritage items for the regional museum collections and exhibitions. This is the basis of a culturally diverse register of collections that would ensure that cultural diversity would be a feature of any exhibition. Alternatively the register could be a point for curating ethno-specific exhibitions.
• Local Government could also use the findings of the workshop as a starting point for developing cultural diversity as a central aspect of the community's heritage.

The Broken Hill Migration Heritage Workshop and Community Consultation was an important step toward establishing consultative, culturally diverse heritage practices that recognise and celebrate the experiences and stories of Broken Hill's ethnic communities. It has provided the basis for more comprehensive research and investigation of migration heritage in the area. This success emerged from the enthusiasm for the task of those who participated in the workshop and this enthusiasm should generate further gains in a range of areas.

Kate Rea
Facilitator
12.10.992