Living Histories

Wow! the Living Histories project has finally got underway..........................it has been a long time (about 2 and a half years) in the development of this project...................................and I'm glad to say that things are going well. So without further ado here is a quick background on the project.

The project will employ two artists (lead artists) as cross cultural community development professionals and an indigenous cultural advisor (the creative team) to facilitate comprehensive consultation and participation with community members from the regional town of Serpentine in the design, development and making of the Serpentine Heritage and Culture Trail/public artworks. Project participation will be promoted to all Serpentine community members and in particular our local regional youth in an extensive series of free design, development and art making workshops over a 6 month period, commencing mid October 2010 with project completion planned mid March/April 2011. The workshops will be conducted at the Serpentine CWA Hall, Serpentine PCYC building, Serpentine Primary School and other locations as deemed appropriate.

The historical Serpentine cemetery will be utilised as the catalyst to underpin community connectedness with the project and to provide the foundation and starting point for a broader community focused enquiry into the Serpentine cultural identity. Community enquiry will be centred within a cross cultural context and explore the cultural and historical significance of the Serpentine cemetery and other locations throughout the Serpentine environs. The cemetery contains a number of very old indigenous and non indigenous grave sites; it has also been designated as "Bush Forever site 371" in recognition of its remnant vegetation and diverse indigenous flora.

The community workshops will generate the source material for the design and making of the public artworks, celebrating indigenous and non indigenous historical and cultural values. The artworks will be installed at each of the various identified sites and will include artist designed interpretive plaques incorporating Nyungar and English language.

An important aspect of the community workshops will be the exploration of identified sites and their place within the contemporary community conscience. The community workshops will explore and highlight the interconnectedness of cultural diversity within the community and its contribution to the development of the town of Serpentine. The oral histories of community members will be translated and integrated into celebratory community artworks.

A key emphasis of the Design Stage will be the determination by community members of the content to be incorporated into artworks and the type of artworks most suitable? Workshop participants will explore and determine how the identified elements of cultural and historical significance can be incorporated into artworks. Additionally, community members will determine how those artworks will function in an interpretive context and the appropriate locality for installation within the cemetery environment. The lead artists will facilitate community participation in the artmaking process and ensure skills exchange and enhancement is achieved in the making of final artworks.

Importantly, in regard to stories of Nyungar cultural significance, the lead artists will negotiate distribution guidelines with the particular community members to ensure correct cultural protocols and recognition is achieved.

Project community partnerships include:

• Serpentine Historical Society,
• Southwest Aboriginal Land and Sea Council,
• Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale,
• Serpentine PCYC,
• Serpentine Primary School,

Project funding partners include:

• Community Arts Network WA
• LotteryWest
• Regional Arts/Country Arts WA
• West Australian Department of Culture and the Arts

The grant applicant body - Serpentine Historical Society.

Project lead artist - Robert Ewing.

Indigenous artist - Mrs Gloria Kearing.

Indigenous cultural advisor for the project - Mrs Karrie-Anne Kearing- Salmon

Project coordinator - Robert Ewing

The project steering committee includes:

• Mrs Myra Baldwin – Serpentine resident and representative of the Serpentine Historical Society Inc,
• Julie Sansom - Community Development representative - Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale,
• Mark Warner - President, Serpentine PCYC,
• Youth representative - Serpentine PCYC
• Mr Athol Wigg - Serpentine resident and representative of the Serpentine Historical Society Inc,
• Mrs Karrie-Anne Kearing- Salmon – Indigenous Cultural Advisor