Friends of Millers Point

For the first time this year Friends of Millers Point participated in Global Earth Exchange. Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks (Tallowallodah) in the centre of Sydney, Australia was until recently a socially diverse, inclusive (of children, people with impairments and others at risk of marginalisation) and well functioning community. Residents, including descendants of the first Europeans settlers were connected by long term residency and knowledge of each other, manual and related work in the maritime services and an ethic of working hard and looking after each other and their neighbours. There has been a deep and abiding connection to the physical place where many spent their entire lives: the harbour and foreshore where they lived, schooled, played and worked, all in this one place. In 2014 the State Government declared that they would sell all of the assets that made this stable, diverse and unique community possible and all of the tenants, including indigenous Australians, people with disability and elderly, evicted. Most have been very traumatised, made ill and some even moved to death and suicide. The community that remains has been leached of its social history connected to every square space and it is very difficult for those relocated to return to the place they loved but is now a source of great hurt, rejection and grief. We continue to keep others aware of the fact that this social injustice occurred here but also need to face our wounded community, reclaim our abiding connection to the place and express our enduring love. So for today that is what we did. We acknowledge the original custodians of this land, the Gadigal people, and those that made it their treasured home following European settlement until it was taken again in 2014. We want them to know that they will always belong here as long as they want to, that we remember them and their contribution and that we welcome them always as we continue to seek social justice. It was a way to find joy, a radical thing in this situation and to help with healing. We recommend it to everyone and thank you for the invitation to participate. Images include pebbles outside the local community centre; a golden heart and ribbon for Sirius; real people live here in homes that are built not bought; a heart made of found leaves, flowers, berries, sticks bearing names of many of those who have been forced away.