Event explores the courage of migration

POETS, historians and storytellers will uncover the courage it takes to migrate at the Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections next month.

Presented by the Ballarat and District Irish Association, the event will explore the fortitude of Irish women who ventured far from home to build a new life in Australia.

“What we are looking at to investigate both historically and emotionally is the courage that it took for Irish women to step on the boat and to reach Australia,” event organiser and local film-maker Erin McCuskey said.

“We have lots of dates for things, we have names, but I think often we leave the emotion behind, so the event is really about investigating the courage.”

It will include short film, poetry, historical readings, and live music and be set at a time of Samhain, which is an occasion in Irish mythology where the veil between two worlds is thin.

“We hope that when that veil is thin, we can actually reach through to the other side and make that connection with our ancestors,” McCuskey said.

“What did it feel like to give up home, to give up country, to give up your night skies, to give up everything that you knew… and step on a boat for a new world?”

McCuskey said she hopes the event evokes an emotional understanding of immigration.

“We really would like people to have an emotional understanding of what immigration means, of the incredible boldness and bravery it takes to immigrate,” she said.

“At the moment in the world there are so many things going on where people are unable to move, we have lots of border control, we have all these limits on us but as humans, we have a right to move.

“That is at the heart of this work.”

What Kind of Courage? will be on Sunday 2 November from 2pm until 3.30pm.

To purchase a ticket, visit the Sovereign Hill website.