Page 1220 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
profoundly altered by the experience of this residency program, which allows precious stillness, solitude and space for investigation, reflection and the generation of new work.
In 2019 we are honoured to have the Australian National University Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, RSAA, as our research partner. Artists-in-residence will have the possibility to do research with the team from RSAA, with a special focus on themes surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. The research period will be followed by the residency period at Namadgi National Park, where the artist will have the use of a living and working space at Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage. Artists will be asked to engage with the community and participate in a public program, including an open day at the cottage. Resulting work from the artist-in-residency program will then be displayed in an exhibition in 2020.
As I have outlined, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing is considered to be very exciting and important. We have already put in place some actions to highlight this and continue to work with stakeholders on ways to commemorate this important event and to remind Canberrans and the world that the ACT played a part in this momentous event.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (10.39): I rise to support Ms Lawder’s motion in principle, but I will be agreeing to Minister Gentleman’s amendments. This motion is about heritage, so I think it is important that we start by acknowledging the Indigenous heritage of the sites at Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek and Orroral Valley. These places are on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people, who have lived on the lands around the tracking stations for 25,000 years. The Birrigai rock shelter, a warm refuge from the cold blusters of spring and autumn in the Australian Alps, has been a warm-weather hunting camp for nearly 20,000 years, and it is not far from the Honeysuckle Creek site. This is a much longer heritage than the European heritage, and it is really important that we acknowledge that.
The tracking stations are also really important, as they are tangible representations that our city loves science, innovation and learning. They are physical sites, and they are important, obviously, as physical sites and physical representations. But it is really important that they are there, because they are a manifestation of a shared cultural heritage. It is a shared cultural heritage that brought my family to Canberra. I do not quite have the level of connection that Minister Gentleman has, but my father came to Canberra, to the ANU, to be the founding Professor of Theoretical Physics. It was science that brought us here, and he had an involvement with the tracking stations and the people involved with that.
It was an amazing moment when man landed on the moon. There are those of us who are old enough to remember that. I agree that those who are not old enough and have learnt it all from The Dish did not really get the full story, but at least it is better than nothing. I look forward to what would seem to be, on the basis of Ms Lawder’s and Mr Gentleman’s speeches, a very fulsome celebration next year of this scientific, historical and cultural place that is in our vicinity.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video