Australia Free Web Directory

Write Your Story | Professional service



Click/Tap
to load big map

Write Your Story

Phone: +61 413 748 919



Reviews

Add review



Tags

Click/Tap
to load big map

20.01.2022 My latest project has been to research the history of a cottage in Paddington which will be put on the market in May for only the 4th time in 134 years. The 133 year old cottage retains many of its original features including floorboards with tapered iron nails; 3 metre ceilings; doors and windows (including their hardware); fretwork breeze panels; ornate timber awnings; corbels; and probably most amazingly the iron of the verandah roof which is still in excellent condition ...and sports the trademark of the manufacturer on each iron sheet. The galvanised iron was imported from the manufacturer, Gospel Oak, situated just outside London. It has been an intriguing journey from the first time the original area of just over 24 acres (approx. 10 hectares) was sold in 1860 as a Deed of Grant, to the first sub-division of the entire 24+ acres in 1883 and then the first sale of Lot 81 in 1885 to the family who built the cottage and owned the property until 1936 when it was sold to the second owner. It was owned by this family until 1995 when it was sold to the current owners. Over the next few weeks I will be posting regular updates on different areas of research which may be of interest to you. Please feel free to share this post with your friends. See more



20.01.2022 Thank goodness for the ABC and their in-depth interviews with people such as Bruce Pascoe. Having listened to an interview with Bruce Pascoe discussing his book DARK EMU Black Seeds: agriculture or accident? first published in 2014 I knew this was a book that I had to read. The size of the book - 156 pages plus 12 pages of references - belies the expanse of knowledge it contains. Using the diaries, notes and reports written and in some cases illustrated by various explorer...s, settlers, government officers, anthropologists and archaeologists he charts the complex and sustainable culture and lifestyle of indigenous Australians for thousands of years prior to European settlement and then the impact of European settlement not only on the original inhabitants but on the very land itself. The book covers agriculture, aquaculture, population and housing, storage and preservation, fire, language and the law. The first Europeans to explore the country detail the existence of extensive villages, sweeping grasslands, crops and storage of these crops, water management (not just wells but irrigation for crops), fish management etc. Sturt, Mitchell and other explorers describe in detail that ‘large populations of Aboriginal people were manipulating the Australian environment and husbanding plants to produce surplus foods of such great quantity that populations could lead more or less sedentary lives in the vicinity of their crops.’ p78. The husbandry of animals and crops and the land itself by Aboriginal people would appear to have been purposefully written out of European settlement history to strengthen the narrative of a land inhabited by simple hunter gatherers with no ‘real’ link to the land which would then strengthen a settler’s ‘right’ to such ‘unoccupied’ land. Once again I ask myself ‘why did I not know this’! So if you are involved in any capacity with education at any level please read this and get the book into as many hands as possible. http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2014/03/17/3965103.htm

14.01.2022 A few days after finishing Stan Grant’s book ‘Talking To My Country’ I listened to an interview by Ellen Fanning with Dr Michael Kimmel (an American sociologist specializing in gender studies) who was in Australia to speak at several events including the Sydney Writers Festival. His description of ‘privilege’ and how it works seemed particularly relevant to the issues raised by Stan Grant in his book. Dr Kimmel described how as a white, middle class man when he looks in the... mirror he sees a person he doesn’t see race, class or gender. In Australia today I would posit that very few, if any, indigenous people could do the same. This difference was illustrated to him many years ago as the difference between ‘privilege’ and ‘oppression’ To paraphrase Dr Kimmel, ‘privilege is invisible to those who have it. It distorts our version of what we see .. as it gives us the luxury of NOT having to think about race, gender and class all the time’. http://www.abc.net.au//everyone-wins-with-gender-e/7429328

09.01.2022 I have just finished reading Stan Grant’s book ‘Talking To My Country’, a book that I found deeply emotional and informative. Reading this book has given me a deeper understanding of the concept of ‘country’. For many non-indigenous people the term ‘country’ is interchangeable with ‘land’. Not many of us have a link with a place that extends back for tens of thousands of years and an oral history that ties us irrevocably to that place. If we move away from that place we may... take our religion, our language and our culture with us to a new place. But if our ‘country’ is our life our culture, our history, our language, our spirituality and gives meaning to our very existence then it is to be expected that to be denied our ‘country’ would have dire consequences for us as a people. This book challenges the reader to confront their preconceptions of what it means to grow up as an indigenous person in Australia today. I cannot recommend this book highly enough http://www.abc.net.au//stan-grant:-talking-to-my-c/7188330



Related searches