Set up as a fairground expo-style event complete with bunting, a magician and films projected onto the wall, the celebration showcased the numerous projects that the Glebe CDP has made happen and provided an opportunity for guests to learn about these projects from the community facilitators, groups and members themselves. This included the Concerned Older Women’s Group and their recently published historic booklet, photos from the archives from events such as Mitchell Street Fete and NAIDOC week, as well as a presentation of the Stop Motion Animation films made with students from Glebe Primary School. The event also highlighted the project’s important role supervising social work students from Sydney University on their placements. Students, past and present, were in attendance to join in the festivities. The event was kicked off with a beautiful and moving Welcome to Country by long-term Glebe resident Aunty Millie Ingram. Guests enjoyed an exhibition within the Cultural Space of photographs and paintings by children from Centipede at Glebe Public School, which were created as part of workshops with local photographer, Barb McGrady and resident painter Aunty Kath Farawell. HSC students from Sydney Secondary College also submitted works for display, creating an exhibition in which artworks by local people of many ages were celebrated, as well as works from the recent Glebe Community Photography Competition. The Cultural Space emerged last year as an initiative of the Glebe CDP and a group of Aboriginal residents of Glebe. Community workers from Sydney University hope the space will be accessed and utilised by a broad range of people from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, as there has long been a need for Aboriginal people to have their own space in Glebe. It is somewhere people can hold events, workshops, meetings and run programs, as well as have free access to the resources and space of the recently refurbished Glebe Town Hall. This year the Cultural Space has been running a Women’s Yarnin Group meeting at 4pm every Thursday, a Koori Murri Men’s Group meeting every Wednesday at 3.30pm and is hosting a weekly meditation session and regular film nights. The anniversary and launch was a fantastic celebration of Glebe’s resilience and diversity. Community members reminisced with workers about projects they had collaborated on together and reflected on future work to be done. In this very important year of acknowledging 40 years of community housing in Glebe and when threats to public housing are being felt very strongly throughout the inner west, it is more important than ever to band together as a community to celebrate our strengths and recognise the power in the work we do together.
Tenth anniversary for Glebe Community Development Project and launch of the Cultural Space
