Teaching Heritage - Dialogues for Reconciliation

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	Focus questions

	What do Tranby and Mutawintji National Park reveal about the influences on life in contemporary Australia?

	How do the influences revealed by these places contribute to our understanding of: reconciliation; native title; self-determination; issues of Aboriginal heritage; past and present relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians?

	What is being preserved in these places; who decided what was important and should be kept; and how is it being done?

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Reconciliation is defined by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation as ‘healing the ruptured relationships’. The right for self-determination is an element of reconciliation central to approaches taken at Tranby Aboriginal College and Mutawintji National Park.

Kevin Cook, Executive Adviser at Tranby, comments:

Over the years Tranby students and staff have struggled together for the right to develop independently, to pursue self-determination in education for Aboriginal people, education on our terms, according to our communities’ needs and aspirations. We have paved the way for courses to be developed by our Elders, according to criteria that remains spiritually, culturally and educationally Aboriginal.

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Originally known as ‘Toxteth Cottage’, Tranby was situated in the grounds of Toxteth Park Estate and was home to members of the Allen family between 1858 and 1931. In 1931 it became a hostel for the University if Sydney. In 1957 the Australian Board of Missions Christian Community Co-operative gained control of Tranby. The first and only independent, Aboriginal controlled adult education centre in Australia was established here.

Tranby provides a venue for discussions around issues of importance to indigenous people – this includes meetings that lead to the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. Initiatives involving the Tranby community have contributed to government policy development in areas such as self-determination and reconciliation.

Click on the icon on the left to hear Paula Hamilton's views on heritage.

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Mutawintji National Park – occupying 70,000 hectares of land – is located 130 kilometres north-west of Broken Hill, in western New South Wales. The park was the first of five National Parks in New South Wales to be handed back to local Aboriginal communities. Mutawintji was leased back to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) by the Mutawintji Land Council, to be managed by a joint committee of Aboriginal community members, the local Land Council and the NPWS.

The hand-back of National Parks to local Aboriginal communities is seen as an important step in reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Recognition and appreciation of indigenous culture is a key feature of the approach to managing Mutawintji National Park. Crucial to the approach is recognising indigenous groups as the cultural owners and managers of information relating to their heritage.

Source: NSW State Heritage Inventory

Focus questions