The land on which one of the first institutions to take Aboriginal children from their families was situated is being commemorated and healed with an art project called The Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, hear, think – The Place Speaks).
The Blacktown Native Institution, a boarding school that moved from Parramatta to Blacktown in 1823, “educated” young Aboriginal and Maori children who had been removed from their families.
Artist Sharyn Egan (centre) and architect Linda Kennedy (left) with the crew from Productivity Bootcamp, Quakers Hill, in front of a sculpture called the Flannel Flower.
Photo: Jazz Money
Camps quickly grew around the school's boundaries as families moved to be near their children. These informal settlements and the surrounding area became known as The Blacks Town.
Australias first Aboriginal land grant was issued in 1816 on land next to the site, which is in Darug country, on the corner of Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road.
The Blacktown Native Institution Project, in its third iteration, opened on Saturday with works created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists Tony Albert, Sharyn Egan, and the Moogahlin Performing Arts.
Advertisement
Egan is from the stolen generations and her work aims to a bring attention to the site.
"Im working on flowers, as flowers are used for all occasions, sad, happy, joyous – it seems to cover all the emotions that are involved in this project," she said.
Tony Albert installing Gubangala Gumadangyiningi (Lets Honour His-Her Spirit) (2018) for the Blacktown Native Institution commemoration.
Photo: Jazz Money
Albert said he was working with local community member Julie Jones and 10 local children and their families to reimagine 10 of the children originally at the institution.
People can "gift a memory" to the reimagined children by writing it down on paper, which will be buried onsite to help heal the area, he said.
Museum of Contemporary Art director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor said the long-term project, on which the MCA is collaborating, brings artists together with the community to remember the sites history and create a future for the place.
“[We] celebrate the sites importance both as a place of ceremony and culture for the Darug people and as the location of the Blacktown Native Institution," she said.
Nigel Gladstone is The Sydney Morning Herald's data journalist.
Most Viewed in Entertainment
Morning & Afternoon Newsletter
Delivered Mon–Fri.
