Reflections on ICOMOS GA 2023

The Heritage of Moon Shadows

By Dr Bronwyn Hanna

On Thursday afternoon (7 September) Alice Gorman (Associate Professor in Archaeology at Flinders University) gave a fascinating presentation entitled “Lunar heritage and shadow ecologies”.

In recent years, Alice has been turning her archaeological skills towards considerations of how to identify, assess and conserve the ever-increasing remnants of human activities in space—entertainingly discussed in her 2019 book “Dr Space Junk Vs the Universe”.

In this session, Alice explained that because the moon has no life forms, it is considered “dead” and therefore NOT a natural environment—meaning no environmental protections can be applied to it. The moon is wide open to exploitation by any nation or corporation that can get there.

"She gently pointed out how vulnerable our beautiful moon has become to opportunistic exploitation."

So Alice is working on how to establish heritage protections for the hundred or so sites of human cultural activity now found on the moon’s surface. Her idea is to advocate for the significance of both the tangible fabric left behind by the lunar expeditions, and the intangible long sharp shadows that travel around each object as the moon turns in the sun.

Her clever combination of pragmatism and whimsy was entrancing while gently pointing out how vulnerable our beautiful moon has become to opportunistic exploitation.

Conservation Planning for Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Home

By Dr Bronwyn Hanna

One of the most moving sessions at ICOMOS GA was on Tuesday morning (5 September), Alan Croker’s presentation about the Conservation Management Plan being developed for the notorious Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Training Home near Kempsey, on the NSW mid-north coast.

Kinchela was listed on the State Heritage Register in 2012 along with Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls’ Home and Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home as three sites that bear witness to the sufferings of the Stolen Generations - places of ‘dark heritage’ or ‘traumascapes’.

Throughout the first two thirds of the 20^th Century, Aboriginal children could be taken from their families at any age between newborn and teenager, purely on the basis of their skin colour and no matter how competent and loving their parents. (For a shocking demonstration of the effects of this policy on one woman and the people around her, see the documentary currently available on Netflix, The Last Daughter).

Some children were placed with loving white parents, many were fostered with careless people but perhaps the most unlucky found themselves in one of these ‘homes’, which have since been heavily criticised for their cruel management.

Kinchela (operating between 1924 and 1970) came closest to the descriptor ‘concentration camp’. Here, boys were assigned numbers rather than being called by their names, and they could be deprived of food and chained to a tree overnight for the smallest infractions. Kinchela is currently in the news because of the possibility of unmarked graves being found in its grounds (See the recent Guardian article ‘Taken to hell’: even today survivors of Kinchela boys’ home are known by their numbers. 

"If we were allowed just one word to explain the need for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament, it would be ‘Kinchela.'"

Croker is writing the CMP for Kinchela Boys’ Home in close collaboration with the surviving few dozen Kinchela boys (as these elderly men have become known). Croker’s emphasis is on conserving Kinchela as a means of enacting justice for the Kinchela Boys, rather than on simply conserving the buildings.

Most of the presentation was given by Uncle Widdy Welsh, who had spent much of his childhood at Kinchela and cried as he explained some of the terrible things that happened there. He hadn’t been able to talk about it until late in life but in doing so now, collaborating with the other Kinchela boys on this project and sharing his story, he felt he was beginning to heal.

Tracing the History of Sydney’s Water Supply

By Dr Bronwyn Hanna

Expertly led by Sydney Water’s heritage specialist, Phil Bennett, heritage infrastructure enthusiasts were treated to a full-day tour of the NSW government agency’s Upper Nepean Water Supply Scheme on Friday 1 September, as one of the ICOMOS General Assembly many side events.

Phil explained that the upper Nepean River behind Wollongong has long been channelled through a system of canals which lead to Prospect Reservoir in Blacktown LGA. The reservoir was created in 1888 with an earth-filled embankment dam two km in length, and the extensive picnicking grounds around it still feature many of the 1888 structures and historic machinery.

"The system works cleverly to bring water all the way to Circular Quay with only gravity to drive it"

This system continues to supply the vast majority of Sydney’s demand for water, as it has for nearly 150 years, working cleverly to bring water all the way to Circular Quay with only gravity to drive it (although there are now pumping stations everywhere to help distribute the water around the network of suburbs)

Warragamba Dam waters have been supplementing this established system only since 1960. The lower canal system, also constructed in 1888, fed the water from Prospect to millions of thirsty Sydney-siders but has been redesigned to include more treatment of the water and to contain it in pipes for better security as it moved throughout the urban area.

The group also visited the decommissioned Guildford Pipe Head & Screening Deck, the Potts Hill complex with both elegant modern offices and historic heritage, and paused outside the historic reservoir at 285 Crown Street Surry Hills. Built with waterproof bricks imported from England, the Crown Street Reservoir was part of the early Botany Swamps Scheme from 1859, and is probably the oldest working reservoir in Australia.

Youth Forum

By Monika Sakal and Katherine Chalmers 

The Youth Forum took place over three days from Friday 1 to Sunday 3. We arrived on Friday afternoon to Cockatoo Island / Wareamah (part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property).

Just after arrival the Harbour Trust presented the Masterplan for the Island, we were able to ask questions and look through various parts of the document that was set on display. We were then sorted into small groups and given a question to ponder throughout the forum, which we would present our findings on.

The night began with a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony, followed by welcome speeches and dinner on top of the Island illuminated by fairy lights. This setting gave us the perfect chance to mingle and meet others and we were lucky enough to witness the last moment of the super moon above the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The second day of the Forum was divided into three themes and session groups: Stain, Grain, Reframe. Each session had three activities for the day and we got to spend the time talking about various parts of the Cockatoo Island masterplan. The sessions included but weren’t limited to: First Nations Resistance into the 21^st Century, Cultural Organisations and Audience, and Designing for Country. Afterwards, the delegates came together for a cocktail party and dinner within the convict workshops building. The group presentations took place on the final morning.

The questions the Harbour Trust presented to us on the first day of the forum required us to think about key issues facing many heritage sites across the world including the impacts of climate change, maintaining audience engagement; and how heritage sites with multiple historical layers could be acknowledged and conveyed to the public.

Katherine’s group had to focus on how digital technology could be used to engage with new audiences and support best practice heritage management, to which the group produced the concept of a georeferenced website with augmented reality and associated visual displays throughout the island to highlight the thousands of historic narratives that make Cockatoo Island significant.

All 16 presentations saw delegates drawing from the discussions had in the Grain, Stain and Reframe sessions to generate thoughtful, creative and practical answers that the Harbour Trust could incorporate into the Island's Masterplan.

On the following Tuesday, the delegates were asked to present their concepts to other GA attendees at the Youth Forum Rostrum, and the Harbour Trust representatives awarded Katherine’s group with the chance to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge!