| Community Heritage Project: Wattan Report |
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A special public event was organised in Redfern to facilitate community participation and to raise the profile of the Project. Publicity was distributed widely in order to access a broad range of Lebanese and Arab Australians, including an interview on SBS Arabic Radio and a flyer (see Appendix 3). The Project invited Anne Monsour to speak about her research work (see Appendix 4). The Project has both visual and audio documentation. The following is a report after the event.
Report on wattan: a special Sunday afternoon in Redfern
The Performance Space
November 14, 1999
“The Stories Jiddi Didn’t Tell ...”:
exploring documentary evidence to understand the experience of Syrian / Lebanese immigrants in Australia: 1880 to 1947
The afternoon was highly successful on a number of levels, and there has been much positive feedback and constructive follow up after the event.
Approximately 40 people participated, and though the atmosphere was informal, it was charged with interest and engagement. The participants were diverse in age, generation of migration and specific cultural background. Alissar Chidiac gave an introductory welcome, and warmed up the audience with slides and commentary from a recent photoshoot in Redfern. (Slides by Nitsa Yioupros, who also documented the Sunday afternoon gathering.) The presentation of the guest speaker, Anne Monsour, was accessible and informative (using OHTs) – uncovering Lebanese and Arab Australian historical ground that most people were unaware of, so there was animated discussion, which continued throughout afternoon tea. The gallery space in Redfern was most suitable, and the copies of old maps of Redfern on the walls added another layer of discovery and connection.
May Chidiac (Alissar’s mother) organised the catering and Mary Gissing helped in the setup. Pat Townley and Paul Donnelly also participated, as well as members of the project Focus Group (Nuha Saad, Ihab Shalbak and Nicola Joseph).
“Mapping Out Arab Australian Histories”
Alissar Chidiac with three generations of the Malek and Nahlous families.
Lena Nahlous, her mother, Angela Nahlous, and grandmother, Sofie Malek, point to a laneway of significance in Alexandria.