1

Merimbula ndashImlay

Historical Society The Old School Report February 2018

Diary - Sat 10 February 2018

SEHGI meeting - Bermagui

Mon 26 February 2pm - M-IHS Meeting RSL

Mon 26 March 2pm - M-IHS Meeting RSL

Wed 18 April - begin-ning of National Trust Heritage Festival

Mon 28 May 2pm - M-HIS Meeting RSL

Committee members - President - Don Bretherton

V-P 1 - Garry Moorhead

Secretary - Shirley Bazley

Treasurer - Gary Selman

Curator - Liz Bretherton

Committee members - Andrew

McManus Brigitte Kestermann

Geraldine McCann

wwwmerimbulahistoricalsocietywebhivecomau

From the Editor - The above quote is by a little known Scottish writer Anna Buchan sister of author John Buchan who wrote under the pseudonym O Douglas I think the quote must apply to readers of this newsletter as no matter how many times I ask for articles very few people respond Surely you must have some interesting little tit-bits of news that yoursquod like to share A photograph of a place you visited on holiday A museum yoursquove seen A joke Anything to make my task of presenting this paper easier Anyway February is here already - where did January go As you can see with great relief the committee has welcomed Society member Gary Selman to the position of Treasurer Thank you for stepping up Gary And many thanks to Brigitte Kestermann who has been doing the books for the past five years - even though she though she was only taking over temporarily Brigitte remains on the committee now in the role of Organiser of Fundraising The committee also wishes to recognize member Val Russell who left the committee last year following an accident during which she suffered a complicated leg fracture Val was a committee member for ten years and her input and catering abilities are sorely missed Gary and Kerry Selman have been busy researching and formatting a new First Fleet Chart which is on display at the Old School Museum There are also copies for sale for $10 each The first meeting for 2018 of the Society is on Monday 26 February and the speaker is Andrew McManus who will talk about Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Fundraising will be a priority this year as there are moves afoot to modernize the Old School Museum and money will be needed More on this in future editions Olwen Morris at olwenmorrisgmailcom - hint

ldquoIt is wonderful how much news there is when people write

every other day if they wait for a month there is nothing

that seems worth tellingrdquo

SEGHI meeting The next meeting of South East History Group will be on Saturday 10 February in Bermagui Gather at Bermagui Country Club auditorium at 930am for 10am start Following the meeting Dave Cotton Archivist will present a slideshow of the William Corkhill photo collection After lunch we will visit various heritage sites around Bermagui If therersquos time the museum located in the Bermagui Community Centre Bunga St will be open for anyone wanting to visit Morning tea is provided but BYO lunch Please note the new venue Auditorium Bermagui Country Club Tuross Street Bermagui The Country Club is in the main street If coming north along Bunga Street turn left and club is on the left past Shell service station If coming from Wallaga Lake road travel over main bridge past wharf and club is on the right

National Trust Hertage Festival - Every year during April - May thousands of event organisers and volunteers across Australia manage around 1200 events to celebrate our fantastic heritage history and culture This year the focus is on what makes a place special encouraging us all to embrace the future by sharing the strengths of our cultural identities The 2018 Australian Heritage Festival theme is My Culture My Story celebrating the diversity of cul-tures that have shaped our shared heritage The Festival is an opportunity to reflect on the places where we live work and travel and why they are special celebrating our many diverse and distinctive cultures So the National Trust is calling on communities to treasure their local cultural heritage by telling their stories and celebrating their traditions including story-telling music food dance traditional games and crafts The Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society hopes to discover the cultures of our region and how they are celebrated at the Old School Museum What are the stories of our community Do you know an untold story that should be shared What is the role of new generations in celebrating and protecting our heritage The committee will present more details about this event in the near future but we hope members of the society and the community will help to discover what makes our area special

2

Massacres and protest Australia Days undeniable history The 26 January debate started with Indigenous people wanting the brutal past acknowledged On 26 January 1838 a group of mounted police under the instruction of the colonial government led a surprise attack on a camp of Kamilaroi people at Waterloo Creek in northern New South Wales killing at least 40 It was the 50th anniversary of the planting of the Union Jack in Sydney Cove As the massacre took place a celebratory regatta was held in Sydney 480km away to mark the colonyrsquos jubilee One hundred years later on 26 January 1938 a date by then called Australia Day a group of 100 mostly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples led by the Aborigines Progressive Association met at Australian Hall in Sydney for a day of mourning protest and passed a resolution calling for equal rights On the harbour the city welcomed tall ships to mark the sesquicentenary of British coloni-sation The day of mourning began an annual tradition of protest By the time of the bicentenary celebrations in 1988 50000 people from all over Australia came together in Sydney for ldquothe long march for justice freedom and hoperdquo Michael Anderson a Kamilaroi man and one of the founders of the Aboriginal tent embassy in 1972 was more blunt on its message ldquoIt was about the fact that they stole our landrdquo The celebration of Australia Day has always been fraught The mounting push to change the date has dominated headlines in January for the past few years and this month led to the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull declaring himself ldquodisappointedrdquo in anyone who supported shifting the national holiday The campaign Turnbull said would ldquotake a day that unites Australia and Australians and turn it into one that would divide us A free country debates its history it does not deny itrdquo His comments drew criticism from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who say 26 January has always been a divisive date based on a selective celebration of history To claim it as a day of unity is to remember the regatta and not the massacres to mark the official celebrations and not the protests that occurred alongside them ldquoA lot of stuff gets erased in order to celebrate this nationrdquo Celeste Liddle an Arrernte writer and union organiser says Liddle is one of the organisers of the Melbourne Invasion Day march which was attended by more than 20000 people last year An even bigger crowd is expected this Friday with similar marches held in every state and territory It is the work of grassroots Indigenous activists standing on the shoulders of an opposition to occupation that dates back 230 years to the arrival of the first fleet ldquoTo celebrate Aus-tralia Day requires a denial of historyrdquo Liddle says ldquoIt requires a denial not just of the fact that it was invasion that sovereignty was never ceded by Indigenous groups hellip Wersquore not actually talking about those things in any great detail in the context of the country I donrsquot see Turnbull engaging in those sorts of debates I see him actively trying to avoid themrdquo The Waterloo Creek massacre is one of 150 mass killings recorded in a mapping project by the University of Newcastle The entry lists the motive as ldquoopportunityrdquo Major James Nunn had left Sydney several weeks earlier with instructions from the acting governor Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass to track down Aboriginal people who had reportedly killed five stockmen in separate incidents on the new pastoral runs on the Gwydir river and ldquouse the utmost exertion to suppress these outragesrdquo Nunn rode with 20 troopers and two sergeants On the morning of 26 January after pursuing a group along the Namoi for three weeks they were attacked by men armed with spears The troopers gave chase and found the camp a mile upriver at Waterloo Creek Nunnrsquos two sergeants were later questioned at an inquiry in Sydney One who rode at the back of the group said four or five Aboriginal people were killed The other who rode at the front listed the death toll as 40 or 50 The troopers were ldquowelcomed like heroesrdquo on their return journey to Sydney the Australian Museum notes The official inquiry was dropped It was just six months before the Myall Creek massacre where 11 stockmen rounded up and slaughtered a group of 30 Aboriginal men women and children After two trials and a fierce public debate over whether the killing of Aboriginal people was even consid-ered a crime seven stockmen were hanged An anonymous correspondent to the Australian newspaper published on 8 December 1838 claimed that one of the jurors who ac-quitted the men at the first trial had said ldquoI know well that they were guilty of the murder but I for one would never see a white man suffer for shooting a blackrdquo Changing the date of Australia Day wonrsquot change that history or other injustices done to Australiarsquos first peoples but supporters of the movement say it would acknowledge that the establishment of modern Australia was more contested and bloody than the na-tional mythology has previously held Both the government and the opposition have used the immutability of history as an argument for continuing to celebrate Australia Day on 26 January because to do otherwise would be a denial of history Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander views on Australia Day range from acceptance to abolition with those who want to change the date occupying a broad swath in the middle Liddle says that if the full spectrum of Australiarsquos post-1788 history was acknowledged including the many and ongoing injustices to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Australia Day would not be celebrated at all Itrsquos a catalogue of issues that shifting a public holiday will not fix ldquoAboriginal people donrsquot march because wersquore unhappy with the date of celebrationrdquo she said ldquoWe march because wersquore strongly opposed to our invasion being celebrated hellip Just changing the date is not going to address the deep social issues that wersquore f ighting for here I think that people who are promoting the change the date thing need to be really really cautious that itrsquos not just the chang-ing of a nationalistic celebration to another day without concern for the real reasons why it is that wersquore out thererdquo Labor MP Linda Burney the first Indigenous woman elected to the federal House of Representatives had a similar concern She said a recent push by the Australian Greens to encourage local governments to support changing the date following a number of councils voting in 2017 to move their celebrations to a less contentious day was ldquoa very narrow way to look at the issue of Indigenous af-fairsrdquo Instead she said the focus should be on making progress to implement the ideas in the Uluru Statement the principal recom-mendation of which was rejected by the Turnbull government in October for being unpalatably ambitious Burney echoing Labor party policy does not support changing the date but says 26 January is a day of reflection to ldquothink deeply about the truth and true history of this countryrdquo (continued next page)

2

Massacres and protest Australia Days undeniable history The 26 January debate started with Indigenous people wanting the brutal past acknowledged On 26 January 1838 a group of mounted police under the instruction of the colonial government led a surprise attack on a camp of Kamilaroi people at Waterloo Creek in northern New South Wales killing at least 40 It was the 50th anniversary of the planting of the Union Jack in Sydney Cove As the massacre took place a celebratory regatta was held in Sydney 480km away to mark the colonyrsquos jubilee One hundred years later on 26 January 1938 a date by then called Australia Day a group of 100 mostly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples led by the Aborigines Progressive Association met at Australian Hall in Sydney for a day of mourning protest and passed a resolution calling for equal rights On the harbour the city welcomed tall ships to mark the sesquicentenary of British coloni-sation The day of mourning began an annual tradition of protest By the time of the bicentenary celebrations in 1988 50000 people from all over Australia came together in Sydney for ldquothe long march for justice freedom and hoperdquo Michael Anderson a Kamilaroi man and one of the founders of the Aboriginal tent embassy in 1972 was more blunt on its message ldquoIt was about the fact that they stole our landrdquo The celebration of Australia Day has always been fraught The mounting push to change the date has dominated headlines in January for the past few years and this month led to the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull declaring himself ldquodisappointedrdquo in anyone who supported shifting the national holiday The campaign Turnbull said would ldquotake a day that unites Australia and Australians and turn it into one that would divide us A free country debates its history it does not deny itrdquo His comments drew criticism from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who say 26 January has always been a divisive date based on a selective celebration of history To claim it as a day of unity is to remember the regatta and not the massacres to mark the official celebrations and not the protests that occurred alongside them ldquoA lot of stuff gets erased in order to celebrate this nationrdquo Celeste Liddle an Arrernte writer and union organiser says Liddle is one of the organisers of the Melbourne Invasion Day march which was attended by more than 20000 people last year An even bigger crowd is expected this Friday with similar marches held in every state and territory It is the work of grassroots Indigenous activists standing on the shoulders of an opposition to occupation that dates back 230 years to the arrival of the first fleet ldquoTo celebrate Aus-tralia Day requires a denial of historyrdquo Liddle says ldquoIt requires a denial not just of the fact that it was invasion that sovereignty was never ceded by Indigenous groups hellip Wersquore not actually talking about those things in any great detail in the context of the country I donrsquot see Turnbull engaging in those sorts of debates I see him actively trying to avoid themrdquo The Waterloo Creek massacre is one of 150 mass killings recorded in a mapping project by the University of Newcastle The entry lists the motive as ldquoopportunityrdquo Major James Nunn had left Sydney several weeks earlier with instructions from the acting governor Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass to track down Aboriginal people who had reportedly killed five stockmen in separate incidents on the new pastoral runs on the Gwydir river and ldquouse the utmost exertion to suppress these outragesrdquo Nunn rode with 20 troopers and two sergeants On the morning of 26 January after pursuing a group along the Namoi for three weeks they were attacked by men armed with spears The troopers gave chase and found the camp a mile upriver at Waterloo Creek Nunnrsquos two sergeants were later questioned at an inquiry in Sydney One who rode at the back of the group said four or five Aboriginal people were killed The other who rode at the front listed the death toll as 40 or 50 The troopers were ldquowelcomed like heroesrdquo on their return journey to Sydney the Australian Museum notes The official inquiry was dropped It was just six months before the Myall Creek massacre where 11 stockmen rounded up and slaughtered a group of 30 Aboriginal men women and children After two trials and a fierce public debate over whether the killing of Aboriginal people was even consid-ered a crime seven stockmen were hanged An anonymous correspondent to the Australian newspaper published on 8 December 1838 claimed that one of the jurors who ac-quitted the men at the first trial had said ldquoI know well that they were guilty of the murder but I for one would never see a white man suffer for shooting a blackrdquo Changing the date of Australia Day wonrsquot change that history or other injustices done to Australiarsquos first peoples but supporters of the movement say it would acknowledge that the establishment of modern Australia was more contested and bloody than the na-tional mythology has previously held Both the government and the opposition have used the immutability of history as an argument for continuing to celebrate Australia Day on 26 January because to do otherwise would be a denial of history Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander views on Australia Day range from acceptance to abolition with those who want to change the date occupying a broad swath in the middle Liddle says that if the full spectrum of Australiarsquos post-1788 history was acknowledged including the many and ongoing injustices to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Australia Day would not be celebrated at all Itrsquos a catalogue of issues that shifting a public holiday will not fix ldquoAboriginal people donrsquot march because wersquore unhappy with the date of celebrationrdquo she said ldquoWe march because wersquore strongly opposed to our invasion being celebrated hellip Just changing the date is not going to address the deep social issues that wersquore f ighting for here I think that people who are promoting the change the date thing need to be really really cautious that itrsquos not just the chang-ing of a nationalistic celebration to another day without concern for the real reasons why it is that wersquore out thererdquo Labor MP Linda Burney the first Indigenous woman elected to the federal House of Representatives had a similar concern She said a recent push by the Australian Greens to encourage local governments to support changing the date following a number of councils voting in 2017 to move their celebrations to a less contentious day was ldquoa very narrow way to look at the issue of Indigenous af-fairsrdquo Instead she said the focus should be on making progress to implement the ideas in the Uluru Statement the principal recom-mendation of which was rejected by the Turnbull government in October for being unpalatably ambitious Burney echoing Labor party policy does not support changing the date but says 26 January is a day of reflection to ldquothink deeply about the truth and true history of this countryrdquo (continued next page)

3

(contined from overleaf) Meriki Kalinya a Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman and one of the Victorian convenors of the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance a grassroots activist group behind the resurgence of large-scale Invasion Day rallies is an abolitionist The organisation was founded in Brisbane ahead of the 2014 G20 summit and held its first national Invasion Day rallies in 2015 Kalinya says the change the date campaign has brought more non-Indigenous people on to the street to join Invasion Day marches but it should not co-opt their original purpose which was to call attention to substantive rights-based issues such as land rights repara-tions deaths in custody and the call for a treaty ldquo[Changing the date] would just be a feelgood thing that will pacify the masses and as soon as the date is changed no one wi ll want to talk about what is really happeningrdquo she says ldquoIf politicians are caught up with white Australiansrsquo feelings we wi ll just get token gestures like Sorry [the national apology to members of the stolen generation] in 2008rdquo Rod Little a Yamatji and Wadjuk man and co-chair of the National Congress of Australiarsquos First Peoples supports changing the date ldquoWe canrsquot undo history but the naming and the celebrating of us as a unified nation the 26th isnrsquot that dayrdquo Little says National Congress is a peak representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations Initial responses to a survey of its members last week found that 83 supported changing the date and 50 said doing so was important for reconciliation The Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion said last week that no Indigenous person had raised the issue of changing the date of Australia Day with him Little says perhaps that was because he had not bothered to ask ldquoWhen people are steadfast on not changing the date they are either not having the conversation or are not prepared to have the conversation and for me that might come from their position of privilegerdquo Little says He says support for changing the date comes from a growing awareness of the full history of Australia including atrocities and in-justices done to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Naming an alternative date is more challenging which is one of the reasons Liddle and others advocate abolition rather than change Australia has yet to do anything that could be marked by a unified celebration she says ldquoWhen you have got a country whose constitution is based on the idea of terra nullius celebrating that is never going to sit right with Aboriginal peoplerdquo she says ldquoRecognising sovereignty and moving toward some kind of agreement that would be something worth celebratingrdquo [Calla Wahlquist The Guardian Wed 24 January 2018] What do you think Should we keep the date change the date or abolish it completely Please email me your comments at olwenmorrisgmailcom and Irsquoll publish them in the next newsletter OM

Curatorrsquos Corner - CURATORS REPORT DECEMBER 2017 amp JANUARY 2018 With our Social Meeting in December there was no report so December activities are included here with January The Covington display was removed except for a small corner board and the writing desk Added to that was a small amount of information about Ladies Travelling Cases and our case on display The large display for the holiday period as you all know is about Australias conversion to decimal currency We have some great examples and I think Don has done a very good job with the photographs on display Thanks to Colette and Garry for loaning some of the exhibits We have been very fortunate to have had a visit from two of the MAASPowerhouse people in January A detailed re-port has been prepared regarding their advice There have been no changes in displays in January but we have received a wonderful donation from Colleen Elton who studied at East Sydney Tech in the 1950s and has donated her course notes samplers half size models and her final year evening gowns This will make a wonderful exhibition as well a being a comprehensive exercise for helping Vanessa understand how the cataloguing and Mosaic system works Vanessa will be starting with me this week and as her preferred volunteering job is curating I am very grateful for the dedicated help Looking forward to a very happy and productive 2018 Elizabeth Bretherton

Shirley Bazley and President Don Bretherton with the

new projector gratefully acquired with funding from

Mumbulla Foundation

The super new Benq projector bought for the Old

School Museum with funding from

Mumbulla Foundation

4

Our 50th Anniversary ndash cause for congratulations Nobody knows why in September 1967 Mr Noel Fisk placed a notice in the Magnet Voice newspaper suggesting that the people of Merimbula establish a Historical Society and that a meeting be held to that end Perhaps he felt that the visible evidence of Merimbularsquos history was under threat Perhaps he thought simply that our history needed to be preserved Whatever his reasons his initiative was successful Approximately 20 people attended a public meeting on October 7th in Twyford Hall and it was decided that such a society should be formed The Imlay District Historical Society (IDHS) was founded with the following objectives

lsquothe study of history in the area the compilation of records relating to the district and the acquisition where possible of books manuscripts records and relics that may be considered to have a bearing on the history of the arearsquo

Fifty years later the Society is still going strong incorporated and under a new name It has held nearly 500 meetings since its founding and these meetings have generated over 1500 pages of minutes all of which have been preserved The Societyrsquos achievements are considerable It restored the 1873 Merimbula Public School building which is now the Old School Museum and contains a collection of over 1000 artefacts over 3000 photographs over 8000 documents and more than 90 taped interviews with older local residents It is highly likely that these records would have been lost without the Societyrsquos efforts The MIHS has also worked with schools to enhance pupilsrsquo knowledge of their heritage hosting school visits and donating funds for school prizes The Society has created displays to show visitors and locals how our region has developed and been influenced by world events The Society has always taken an interest in local historical sites and has campaigned to preserve them with varying degrees of suc-cess Matthew Munnrsquos original cottage the old Merimbula wharf the Cherry Tree Inn have all been lost despite the Societyrsquos (and often the communityrsquos) best efforts However there have been some successes The Museum itself the Pambula Courthouse the old Eden post office the old bank in Pambula St Columbarsquos church the Back Lake tramway the Munn Street quarry and the Pam-bula town well have been preserved due in great part to the efforts of the MIHS The Society has maintained contact with other historical societies most notably the Royal Australian Historical Society of which MIHS is still a member having joined in 1968 Links with the Eden Killer Whale Museum the Bega Valley Historical Society the Bega Valley Genealogical Society and the many societies which form the South East History Group have been maintained to the benefit of all parties The Society has always been active in the community It has set up displays for History Week and Heritage Week and has lent re-sources to organisations celebrating anniversaries It has supported local events such as Merimbula Spring Festival and Pambula Day in the 1990s and events linked to national and international celebrations such as the Year of Darwin in 2009 celebrated with a dinner at Covingtonrsquos restaurant in Pambula and the Centenary of Merimbula in 2012 commemorated by displays in the Museum Twyford Hall and the RSL club In 2010 the Society provided photos for display on the Rotary walk from Rotary Park to Bar Beach Merimbula and the same year saw the visit with the support of the RSL of Mr Bill Minton the sole remaining survivor of the sinking of the William Dawes in 1942 An important development was the establishment of the Community Cultural Showcase in the RSL club in 2005 This museum out-reach project involves working with a wide range of community groups and up to 7 displays are mounted each year featuring topics of local and wider relevance This brief list of the Societyrsquos interaction with the community is not inclusive MIHS was involved in community activities in almost every year of its history and in return the community both local and regional has supported the Society Very little of the MIHS objectives could have been achieved without the support via grants from the local council and various state government bodies or donations from local businesses and clubs The Societyrsquos relationship with the community has been mutually beneficial In its fifty years the Society has made major contributions to the heritage of the local area The achievements outlined above speak for themselves and it could be argued that without the Society there would be no record of local history The mere fact of its exis-tence ensured that there was always a point of contact for research preservation collation recording education and interaction with the community However the Society would have made little progress had it not been for continuous public support at the national regional and local levels The preservation of our heritage has been therefore a joint effort on the part of the community and the Society a fact which was recognised in 2012 when the Secretary of the Society Shirley Bazley was appointed Australia Day ambassador in recognition of her services to the community Andrew McManus

Display of Trench Art in Community Cultural Showcase at

Merimbula RSL

Stop Press Angela George has offered to look

after our facebook page Thank you so much Angela itrsquos a big ask

and very time consuming but such an important communication

method these days and will really help to put us lsquoout therersquo

A lsquoback to the futurersquo look at our general meetings is happening this

year with the possible re-introduction of Show amp Tell and

perhaps a quiz What do you think

5

Flowers Remembrance and the Art of War - Before 1914 flowers in everyday life spelt beauty femininity and innocence they were seen as part of womenrsquos cul-ture But during the first world war that changed Men gathered posies of flowers on battlefields and dried them in honour of the dead they turned to wild flowers as motifs for paintings and photographs and they recognised in blue cornflowers and red poppies the fragility of life Historian Paul Fussell referred to the red poppy Papaver rhoeas as ldquoan indispensable part of the symbolismrdquo of WWI When on November 11 those who fought and died in WWI are commemorated the sanguine colour of the red poppy a flower that grew in profusion on Flanders Fields is a vivid reminder to the living of the cost of sacrifice in war At the end of the conflict artificial replicas of the Flanders poppy were sold in Allied countries to be worn in honour of the dead Their resistance to decay became an embodiment of everlasting memory However the red poppy was not always adopted without criticism After 1933 in opposition to the symbolism of it peace ceremonies appropriated the white poppy Each flower expresses a different view on war red embodies commemoration of sacrifice white opposes political violence and remembers all war victims As living forms as art and as symbols the wildflowers that soldiers encountered in WWI Europe help us negotiate the unimaginable enormity of war and deepen the solemnity of remembrance

Among the most affecting but least talked about Australian war paintings that officially commemorate and remember the fallen soldiers of the First World War is George Lambertrsquos Gallipoli Wild Flowers (1919) Painted while Lambert served as Official War Artist the work is unusual for the absence of soldiersrsquo bodies shown in action or in death Yet it alludes to both by the inclusion of an empty slouch hat and a cluster of battlefield wildflowers At the centre of the array of blossoms is the Flanders poppy The painting is a floral still-life It exudes the melancholy of life stilled and challenges popular conceptions that flowers are feminine passive and beautiful If the flowers in Lambertrsquos painting are beautiful it is beauty tempered by the knowledge of human suffering And they break with convention by relating to men not women The dark centres of the poppies stare at us like the eyes of men who

fought at Gallipoli The message they communicate is the same one relayed by poppies in the lines of John McCraersquos mournful poem In Flanders Fields (1915) ldquowe are the deadrdquo Other Australian artists deployed by the Australian War Memorial tried to render the same power and the same symbolisms as George Lambertrsquos wildflower still-life although with less intensity Will Longstaff for example painted Menin Gate at midnight (1927) a monumental commemoration to men who were buried in unmarked graves on the Western Front in which the ghosts of the dead rise up among blood red poppies that grow in the same soil where their bodies decayed On churned up war landscapes masses of wildflowers covered derelict tanks and blanketed the ground where the dead lay juxtaposing cold metal and the destructive power of men with the organic growth and regenerative power of nature

Such contrasts presented Frank Hurley Australiarsquos Official War Photographer working in Flanders and Palestine from August to November 1917 with many of the warrsquos most powerful images Hurley could not ignore the cruel irony of all that fragile beauty growing free in the midst of industrialised warfare mass killing and the corpses of the dead Hurleyrsquos Lighthorseman gathering poppies Palestine (1918) is a rare colour photograph from the period Hurley well understood the power of the poppy He knew that for the image to become a national icon of comradeship the flowers had to be coloured red because it is the poppyrsquos redness that made it the official symbol of sacrifice Yet

5

Flowers Remembrance and the Art of War - Before 1914 flowers in everyday life spelt beauty femininity and innocence they were seen as part of womenrsquos cul-ture But during the first world war that changed Men gathered posies of flowers on battlefields and dried them in honour of the dead they turned to wild flowers as motifs for paintings and photographs and they recognised in blue cornflowers and red poppies the fragility of life Historian Paul Fussell referred to the red poppy Papaver rhoeas as ldquoan indispensable part of the symbolismrdquo of WWI When on November 11 those who fought and died in WWI are commemorated the sanguine colour of the red poppy a flower that grew in profusion on Flanders Fields is a vivid reminder to the living of the cost of sacrifice in war At the end of the conflict artificial replicas of the Flanders poppy were sold in Allied countries to be worn in honour of the dead Their resistance to decay became an embodiment of everlasting memory However the red poppy was not always adopted without criticism After 1933 in opposition to the symbolism of it peace ceremonies appropriated the white poppy Each flower expresses a different view on war red embodies commemoration of sacrifice white opposes political violence and remembers all war victims As living forms as art and as symbols the wildflowers that soldiers encountered in WWI Europe help us negotiate the unimaginable enormity of war and deepen the solemnity of remembrance

Among the most affecting but least talked about Australian war paintings that officially commemorate and remember the fallen soldiers of the First World War is George Lambertrsquos Gallipoli Wild Flowers (1919) Painted while Lambert served as Official War Artist the work is unusual for the absence of soldiersrsquo bodies shown in action or in death Yet it alludes to both by the inclusion of an empty slouch hat and a cluster of battlefield wildflowers At the centre of the array of blossoms is the Flanders poppy The painting is a floral still-life It exudes the melancholy of life stilled and challenges popular conceptions that flowers are feminine passive and beautiful If the flowers in Lambertrsquos painting are beautiful it is beauty tempered by the knowledge of human suffering And they break with convention by relating to men not women The dark centres of the poppies stare at us like the eyes of men who

fought at Gallipoli The message they communicate is the same one relayed by poppies in the lines of John McCraersquos mournful poem In Flanders Fields (1915) ldquowe are the deadrdquo Other Australian artists deployed by the Australian War Memorial tried to render the same power and the same symbolisms as George Lambertrsquos wildflower still-life although with less intensity Will Longstaff for example painted Menin Gate at midnight (1927) a monumental commemoration to men who were buried in unmarked graves on the Western Front in which the ghosts of the dead rise up among blood red poppies that grow in the same soil where their bodies decayed On churned up war landscapes masses of wildflowers covered derelict tanks and blanketed the ground where the dead lay juxtaposing cold metal and the destructive power of men with the organic growth and regenerative power of nature

Such contrasts presented Frank Hurley Australiarsquos Official War Photographer working in Flanders and Palestine from August to November 1917 with many of the warrsquos most powerful images Hurley could not ignore the cruel irony of all that fragile beauty growing free in the midst of industrialised warfare mass killing and the corpses of the dead Hurleyrsquos Lighthorseman gathering poppies Palestine (1918) is a rare colour photograph from the period Hurley well understood the power of the poppy He knew that for the image to become a national icon of comradeship the flowers had to be coloured red because it is the poppyrsquos redness that made it the official symbol of sacrifice Yet

6

(continued from previous page) Hurleyrsquos photo is pastoral and in its vision of ideal life suggests the antithesis of war It may also be that flowers have a particular power over our perception Elaine Scarry argues that the high colouration of a flowerrsquos face is more perfect for imagining and storing images to memory than the faces of people Official (and unofficial WWI records lend support to Scarryrsquos theory When Cecil Malthus a New Zealand soldier at Gallipoli in 1915 found himself under attack it was not the faces of the soldiers around him that he remembered but the faces of self-sown poppies and daisies on the ground

Ann Elias Associate Professor Department of Art History University of Sydney Article taken from The Conversation November 10 2017

Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses buildings defence works and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemalarsquos Peten region suggesting that millions more people lived there than previ-ously thought The discoveries were announced on Thursday 1 Febru-ary by archaeologists working with Guatemalarsquos Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation The study estimates that about 10 million people lived within the Mayan lowlands which required an intensive and sus-tainable agriculture [From The Guardian 3 Feb 2018]

lsquoSonglinesrsquo at the National Museum of Australia - If anyone has not seen this exhibition you need to go now before it closes on 28 February I went recently and it is one of the best Irsquove seen anywhere full of story knowledge and brilliant colour

Songlines Tracking the Seven Sisters asks the big questions What are songlines How do they work Why are they significant to Aboriginal peo-ple today And what is their relevance to Australian history and identity This Aboriginal-led exhibition has sought to provide some of the answers Traditional custodians of the Seven Sisters Tjukurpa take us on a journey along parts of their songlines across three deserts in the lands of the Martu the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara and the Ngaanyatjarra peoples Visitors move from site to site along the Seven Sisters songlines walking from west to east in their footsteps engaging in the sistersrsquo many escapades as they flee from one water source to another in advance of their relentless pursuer the lustful man known as Wati Nyiura or Yurla He

is a shape-shifter who transforms himself into a range of desirable food sources or shade trees to attract the sisters to consume him or move close to him The exhibition incorporates a strong sense of theatre emphasising the role of performance in passing on knowledge in a traditionally non-text based society On entering the visitor is introduced to the main characters - life-sized three-dimensional woven tjanpi (grass) figures of the Seven sisters and Wati

Nyiuru seated on the ground In the background a haunting soundscape of voices sing across cultures Stop at videos of people telling the story in their language illustrating the features of country that arise from the story Paintings in vivid colours done with country in mind are portals of place through which travellers learn fragments of the storyline Place is palpably present all through the exhibition country connects everything and kinship place and paintings are inseparable from it Ecological knowledge is intrinsic to the culture the knowledge of plants and animals of seasons and fire of permanent water soaks and underground seepage is taught and learned and passed through generations in story painting dance and song

An impressive feature is the Dome a world first developed by a team at the University of New South Wales The visitor lies back looking into the six metre dome above and is virtually transported to Walinynga (Cave Hill) where the Seven Sisters story is played out in 360deg vision as if standing beneath the rock art of what is possibly the only known rock art site to depict the Seven Sisters You follow a time-lapsed transit of Orion and the Pleiades across the night sky juxtaposed with the Sistersrsquo earthly activities There is so much more to this exhibition than I have told here Please make an effort to see it It will be worth your while OM