REDFERN: For those of us who remember when the 40,000 years mural was completed in 1983, it has been a great joy to watch as a wonderfully varied team of artists worked on restoring it to its former clarity and brightness. On Friday April 27 there was a fairly informal gathering at the mural to recognise all those responsible for this significant event.
Jenny Leong MLA, a strong supporter, spoke of the involvement of her office staff; Councillor Philip Thalis, and Jenny Trinca who was Grant Relationship Manager for the project, represented Sydney City Council; Duncan Reid was there from Urban Growth, strong supporters of the work; Peter Lonergan, who supervised the project, spoke briefly; Donna Ingram brought back memories of The Block’s past; and Danny Eastwood spoke on behalf of all the artists who worked during hot and sometimes windy weather the bring the mural back to life.
The following day a wider community celebration at the Redfern Community Centre allowed time for memories of the mural and storytelling to be shared. In thanking all involved, including the Eora students involved in painting the restoration and their teacher Chico Monks, Desley Haas, who co-ordinated the Redfern Station Community Group throughout the five years the project has taken, outlined the hurdles that needed to be overcome to ensure that the mural can also be maintained into the future. After lunch together, the day ended with a walk up to the mural wall for a cleansing smoking ceremony.
It’s a genuine restoration of the original, so it retains “40,000 years is a long long time, 40,000 years still on my mind”, a quote from Joe Geia’s song, but we now know that the oldest living culture in the world has been here for more than 60,000 years. The restoration of the mural comes at a time when, in spite of the federal government’s failure to respond to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the recommendations of the Referendum Commission, there is strong support for constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations around the country.
The nationwide grief at the death of Dr G Yunupingu, the huge response to the Songlines exhibition at the National Museum, the impact of Richard Flanagan’s Press Club address and Prof. Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay all suggest that a referendum would be much more successful that the Prime Minister thought!
The Uluru Statement invited us to “walk with [First Nations people] in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.” As Richard Flanagan said: “The gift we are being offered is vast; the patrimony of 60,000 years, and with it the possibilities for the future that it opens up to us. . . But this gift needs honouring in a ‘meaningful way.’ It needs honouring with institutions, with monuments, with this profound history being made central in our account of ourselves.”
Redfern’s restored mural is our honouring of all the footprints of those 60,000 years, our monument. Maybe its restoration, and all the other signs of hope we see and hear around us, indicates that we can and will honour that wonderful gift in a meaningful way.
