The creation Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme in the early 1900's included the establishment Leeton in 1912 and Griffith in 2016. Narrandera which was already well established has continued to grow, though often as a poorer second or third cousin.
Both Leeton and Griffith share a unique bond with our national capital, all three cities were designed by American Walter Burley Griffin and his partner Marion. All feature the linked circular roads and linked avenues. It's interesting looking at these designed today, because they reflect the strong geometric patterns found in the Wiradjuri People culture and story telling.
100 years and a planned city means that we have within this city spaces and places set aside for cultural expression and we had an openness with wide avenues and the canal running through the town. That we don't make full use of ease features continues to an anomaly and hopefully over time that will shift. The canal though is significant, water is the life blood to the community, while some may talk about it being turned off with decisions around water conservation with the Murray Darling Management Authority and the Plan for the basin, the reality is the water won't be turned off, but those who access the water are much more efficient and conservative about its use today than ever before and this will roll out across system. Innovative thinkers will resolve the dilemma of a system that saw water rights over allocated, these people will create water saving systems that deliver water to crops in more efficient systems, plants will get the amount of water they actually need to produce the best product and the farmer will reap the reward by better prices for ho product and the community will benefit ultimately from that.
The nations building investment in building this Murrumbidgee Irrigation System has been critical in the wealth and diversity that sits within our community. The building of the canal systems attracted the workers from Broken Hlll and other mining communities, these people came from around the world, Germans, Italians, Greeks, Irish, English and the rest of western Europe. They build the canals, and some stayed on and developed their farms alongside their new Australian friends.
These people built the early Griffith and then waves of migrants after the two world wars have continually added to the Ethnic and cultural mix that is pretty unique in regional Australia. This diversity has also added to the uniqueness of our retail sectors, which is predominately still small independent stores, and these are often smart and stylish.
Over the short history of the town, music, story telling, arts culture was kept alive by the partners of the men who built the irrigation system and others who began to build the towns. The women created the drama societies, the concerts and art shows, they yearned for cultural pursuits and worked hard at it.
The planning of the city also means that thought has gone in to facilities to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle that the Mediterranean like weather gives the people who live hear. Its also meant a big investment in sport facility, which often appears to be the only cultural temple the citizens worship at.
The Arts though has been the struggling cultural component, even at a national level we appear to struggle with how see and celebrate ourselves. What art or cultural components define us beyond our shores, we have no cultural dress unless you count the thong, stubby shorts and blue singlet! Maybe this blandness is comes form the recent history, with beth European colonisation being established around a convict prison, people banished to end of the earth because of a crime they had committed. This sad settlement based on punishment maybe makes it harder for us to celebrate what is unique and special. Maybe the one thing that does offer a very unique and special place in our cultural heritage is also the one we have most difficulty to come to terms with.
Our nation has struggled with coming to terms with the fact that colonisation displaced a strong and culturally rich people who had lived on this continent for at least 40,000 years and possibly 100,000 years (based on new research findings). These various nations, defined by language group, had strong and sophisticated cultures, education pedagogies and agricultural practices that had sustained them for 1,000's of years. Our problem was that we looked at these people from a European perspectives and viewed ways of knowing and being from a Euro-Centric viewpoint only.
The nations building investment in building this Murrumbidgee Irrigation System has been critical in the wealth and diversity that sits within our community. The building of the canal systems attracted the workers from Broken Hlll and other mining communities, these people came from around the world, Germans, Italians, Greeks, Irish, English and the rest of western Europe. They build the canals, and some stayed on and developed their farms alongside their new Australian friends.
These people built the early Griffith and then waves of migrants after the two world wars have continually added to the Ethnic and cultural mix that is pretty unique in regional Australia. This diversity has also added to the uniqueness of our retail sectors, which is predominately still small independent stores, and these are often smart and stylish.
Over the short history of the town, music, story telling, arts culture was kept alive by the partners of the men who built the irrigation system and others who began to build the towns. The women created the drama societies, the concerts and art shows, they yearned for cultural pursuits and worked hard at it.
The planning of the city also means that thought has gone in to facilities to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle that the Mediterranean like weather gives the people who live hear. Its also meant a big investment in sport facility, which often appears to be the only cultural temple the citizens worship at.
The Arts though has been the struggling cultural component, even at a national level we appear to struggle with how see and celebrate ourselves. What art or cultural components define us beyond our shores, we have no cultural dress unless you count the thong, stubby shorts and blue singlet! Maybe this blandness is comes form the recent history, with beth European colonisation being established around a convict prison, people banished to end of the earth because of a crime they had committed. This sad settlement based on punishment maybe makes it harder for us to celebrate what is unique and special. Maybe the one thing that does offer a very unique and special place in our cultural heritage is also the one we have most difficulty to come to terms with.
Our nation has struggled with coming to terms with the fact that colonisation displaced a strong and culturally rich people who had lived on this continent for at least 40,000 years and possibly 100,000 years (based on new research findings). These various nations, defined by language group, had strong and sophisticated cultures, education pedagogies and agricultural practices that had sustained them for 1,000's of years. Our problem was that we looked at these people from a European perspectives and viewed ways of knowing and being from a Euro-Centric viewpoint only.
Today, and maybe this is an outcome of the Apology to the Stolen Generation and the commitment of the nation to, and outcomes painful, realisation that the establishment of the penal colony at Sydney in 1788 was in fact an act of invasion, we arrived and settled without permission, we displaced people off there traditional homelands, we interrupted sophisticated trade systems between these people, introduced pathogens that killed off people as they came into contact with diseased colonists, and in many places were murdered and massacred for land, we did this without treaty and with an air of superiority.
We denied this happened for 200 plus years, believing the notion that because the existing people didn't or hadn't progressed along the same development track as other societies or civilisations had (western civilisation is marked as beginning with the Sumerian Empire in Tigris and Euphrates Delta and the establishment of the first settlements together.)
Now we thats we look at the richness of the various and very different Aboriginal 'nations" we see how complex they were, their footprint on the land, was sustainable, they created their "farmlands" through fire management, creating open areas within their clan areas to provide places to encourage the game they needed to survive places to eat,. they nurtured Bush Tucker, and across the seasons, moved around the clan homelands following well established trails that followed food and water.
This rich cultural history is now melding into the introduced cultures and maybe our cultural icons we are identified with from around the world will be this new and ancient mix.
Sorry I digressed, maybe its lack of self confidence about cultural expression that has been so hard to break in Griffith. This community sees a monster truck as an art experience and yet the theatre can be half empty when a major theatre company puts on a work by Shakespeare. We struggle with public art, often the first thing that happens to it is high profile people denigrating the work which gives the underlying message to others its not valued so i can damage it.
This blog is part of the conversation about the value of creative expression and the visual arts in our community and how they tell our story. This story is told in many ways, the story is of each persons own unique viewpoint and is their truth. It will be different from the viewers and may create outrage or disharmony, but that in itself is the role of art.
Its also about how we as a society place huge value of traditional educational underpinnings, math, science, literacy as being the only things of value within our education system, they don't see maths and literacy in music, or design, our in painting, etc. These disciplines cross over into every area of our lives. Playing an instrument is pure math and is painting onto a canvas. This blog is about seeing the value in the creative moment and how this is expressed through performance.
We denied this happened for 200 plus years, believing the notion that because the existing people didn't or hadn't progressed along the same development track as other societies or civilisations had (western civilisation is marked as beginning with the Sumerian Empire in Tigris and Euphrates Delta and the establishment of the first settlements together.)
Now we thats we look at the richness of the various and very different Aboriginal 'nations" we see how complex they were, their footprint on the land, was sustainable, they created their "farmlands" through fire management, creating open areas within their clan areas to provide places to encourage the game they needed to survive places to eat,. they nurtured Bush Tucker, and across the seasons, moved around the clan homelands following well established trails that followed food and water.
This rich cultural history is now melding into the introduced cultures and maybe our cultural icons we are identified with from around the world will be this new and ancient mix.
Sorry I digressed, maybe its lack of self confidence about cultural expression that has been so hard to break in Griffith. This community sees a monster truck as an art experience and yet the theatre can be half empty when a major theatre company puts on a work by Shakespeare. We struggle with public art, often the first thing that happens to it is high profile people denigrating the work which gives the underlying message to others its not valued so i can damage it.
This blog is part of the conversation about the value of creative expression and the visual arts in our community and how they tell our story. This story is told in many ways, the story is of each persons own unique viewpoint and is their truth. It will be different from the viewers and may create outrage or disharmony, but that in itself is the role of art.
Its also about how we as a society place huge value of traditional educational underpinnings, math, science, literacy as being the only things of value within our education system, they don't see maths and literacy in music, or design, our in painting, etc. These disciplines cross over into every area of our lives. Playing an instrument is pure math and is painting onto a canvas. This blog is about seeing the value in the creative moment and how this is expressed through performance.
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