| Community Heritage Project: Wattan Report |
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As a means of grounding the Project in the site of Redfern, a personal walking tour was organised with the generosity of several women, who are previous residents of Redfern. The following is an unpublished press release written after the day. The Project has both visual and audio documentation.
November 10, 1999
with
Adel Moriarty (nee Maroon) 71 years
Marie Sharah (nee Betros) 74 years
May Chidiac (nee Betros) 61 years
and
Nitsa Yioupros (Photographer)
Alissar Chidiac (Project Officer)
The process of walking and talking through some of the streets and down some the lanes of Redfern made the term “oral history” come to life. Just a few hours of sharing stories of Walker, Cooper, Cleveland, Elizabeth, Great Buckingham and Redfern streets scratched the surface of those memories of the 30s, 40s and 50s.
Adel was born in Great Buckingham Street, living all her life there (until she moved 5 years ago). She can remember the names of families who lived in every house in some of those streets, and she refers to people who moved in to Redfern during the 50s and 60s as “newcomers”.
She played in Redfern Park as a child, remembering episodes with neighbours and cousins – “climbing the fence, jumping into the fountain and getting into trouble for cutting your feet on glass in there!” She brought her own children to play there, and years later, amused her grandchildren with outings there. Three generations crossing Redfern Street from Great Buckingham Street into Redfern Park!
Marie and May, who had spent their early years in Elizabeth and Walker Streets, found that their memories came to life as they passed specific front yards and laneways – “we played with the neighbours kids here... and look, here’s the side door to the cinema!” The building on the corner of Cleveland and Walker Streets had been a cinema in the 30s and 40s – threepence for those black and white afternoon sessions. “...and here’s the main entrance!”
For all people, accessing memory is always an amazing thing. Alissar had felt that this would animate the process, by walking and talking through the actual sites of several blocks in Redfern. An informal afternoon became an almost intense filmic experience. Those streets and laneways became inscribed with other landscapes of language and family – Lebanese and Arab Australian landscapes.