A message from Hazel Hawke
Chair of the Heritage Council
Ethnic communities and heritage
Australia is a country
with a population made
up of immigrants from
all
over the world.
New South Wales has
the largest number of
overseas-born
residents,
with one in four of us born overseas. The different aspects
of
the cultural heritage
of all who live here are what makes Australia so
unique. |
 Mrs Hawke who recently visited Lismore and Tenterfield for the October
meeting of the Heritage Council presents a cheque for the North Coast
Children's Home to Eric Bostock and Geoff Moreton at Spinks Park, Lismore.
Photograph by Maxwell Gray
|
In NSW, we are gradually beginning to appreciate the physical evidence of
our culturally diverse heritage. From shops and migrant camps to temples,
bridges, dams and mines, the contribution of migrants has greatly enriched
our history.
In this last issue for 1998, I am pleased to report on the progress made by
the Heritage Office with the Ethnic Communities Consultation Program. The
Program was launched by the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning, Hon.
Craig Knowles MP and me in April last year at the Fairfield Heritage
Centre.
The main aim of the Program is to create greater awareness of heritage
conservation within ethnic communities and to ask them to identify places
and objects of importance to them for inclusion in the State Heritage
Inventory. With only a handful of ethnic heritage items on the Inventory,
it is essential that we work together with the communities to provide a
more accurate picture of the variety of heritage items in NSW. This also
means including the histories of ethnic groups within the general histories
of already identified heritage items.
The approach by the Heritage Office has been to select five initial pilot
communities with which to work. These are the Italian, Greek, Chinese,
Ukrainian and Indian communities. Through the ethnic media, community
consultation meetings and participation in events such as the Chinatown
Carnivale, the Heritage Office is building connections with communities who
have not been included in heritage issues or discussions before. A major
step forward has been the appointment of Chinese and Italian speaking
project staff to further develop the work with these two communities.
As we move towards the year 2000 I encourage all of you to become aware of
heritage items in your own community which tell the story of our diverse
history and to work towards ensuring this inheritance is preserved for
future generations to enjoy.
