SURVIVAL EXPRESSO BAR

opened 30 March 2007

Newly appointed MP for Fair Trading, Youth and Volunteering, Linda Burney opened the Survival Expresso Bar on the corner of Redfern and Renwick Streets. Co founders are Bonnie Briggs, a Gamilaroi woman, and Margaret Roberts of the Yuin Nation. Marge said, ‘ I’ve been in this community since 1989 and Bonnie has been here since she was 15 years old. This is our community.’ According to the Koori Mail on April 25, the women left full-time university courses to start the business. They will also cater for functions, meetings and events, and local artists will be invited to hang their work on the walls.

Upstairs in Studio 137, Adam Hill predicted it will become: ‘A space where kids can come and create. We want to hold workshops.’ Homage and respect was paid to Dr. Mick Asher who owns the building and supported the business’ establishment.

Read Aletha Penrith’s full report in the South Sydney Herald.
A new space for coffee, kids, creative arts .. Also available at REDWatch

Debra Beale's Bush Berri Cafe was short-lived but sweet.

Australian Aboriginal art exhibition opens in Sydney
 
Singer Marlene Cummins of Marloo's Blues gave a beautiful performance singing the blues as part of the opening ceremony. Lyall Munro, veteran Original Australian human rights campaigner, launched the exhibition with a welcome speech. [Mathaba]

A b o r i g i n a l    D e c o r a t i v e    A r t s 

Welcome to Sue and Collin Vincent, and their stunning staff.

This much loved cafe location has had another revamp and it is looking G R E A T !!! It is once again welcoming and inviting. Come in and check out the painted pots, vases, dishes and artwork for sale - they would make fabulous gifts - if you could bear to part with them. And of course the coffee !!!!!!!!!!!!! It competes with the best in Sydney.

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SSH Café of the Month: Bush ’n’ Berry Indigenous Art Café

Scott Winter reports on Bush ’n’ Berry Indigenous Art Café in the SSH of Sept 2008.

The Bush ’n’ Berry Indigenous Art Café, located at the corner of Redfern and Renwick streets, Redfern, has just come under new management. It is now a colourful dot on the community landscape, thanks to the combined efforts of four local individuals: Dr Mick Asher (landlord), Adam Hill (local artist whose incredible work is being displayed and whose walk-in studio is located upstairs from the café), and new managers Colin and Sue Vincent.

All four are passionate about keeping Indigenous art alive within the area.

Dr Asher, of Hungarian descent, whose influence has been most instrumental in the community over the years, set about championing Aboriginal art, primarily at Boom Malli, a co-operative of artists once based in Leichhardt. The local GP, whose health practice was once located next door to the café, wanted the building to be an Indigenous social one-stop shop.

Both Adam Hill and the Vincents are keeping true to Dr Asher’s wishes by delivering not only original-tasting bush tucker, mighty fine burgers, café food, and unforgettable Aroma coffee, but some of the finest examples of modern and classic Indigenous art that the area has to offer (alongside Gallery Gondwana in Danks Street).

There are colourful Indigenous symbolic creations on the ubiquitous clay garden plant pots, on the sugar bowls, tea-pots, light-shades. Each pattern tells a tale, and truly brightens up the café.

It could be viewed that the use of common household items is poignant and iconoclastic: traditional Dreamtime art deserves to be recognised within today's society, and should have a more prominent place in the homes and gardens of modern Australia – a constant reminder of the true history of the soil we all walk on.