THE exhibition space beneath Cafs\u2019 Lydiard Street headquarters has been reborn with a new purpose.<\/p>\n
Relaunched last week as the History and Memory Centre, the renovation aims to rewrite the history on the depiction of the Ballarat Children\u2019s Home, previously the Ballarat District Orphan Asylum, then the Ballarat Orphanage.<\/p>\n
Cafs CEO Wendy Sturgess said the redesign is about presenting the orphanage\u2019s history through a different perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first started here four years ago, I was with a former resident and they said \u2018this doesn\u2019t represent life in the orphanage in any way, shape or form\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe space used to be more about the people who founded the orphanage and we\u2019ve really shifted the focus entirely to be about the children who were in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to capture the spectrum of experiences and own our ugly past with some of the staff being perpetrators of sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The redesign was carried out over two years by Ashtree Projects in collaboration with institution\u2019s past residents.<\/p>\n
The centre features nine artworks from five orphanage residents<\/p>\n
Alec Cimera who lived at the institution in the early 1960s and later worked there as a cottage parent.<\/p>\n
He started one of his two pieces, A Road Travelled, in 1988 and said it\u2019s a reflection of his upbringing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a collection of discarded and unwanted things in life I\u2019ve picked up over the years, things that are getting stepped on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fantastic that people have kept this history alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of people, this is their family and if that history wasn\u2019t kept alive, it\u2019d be forgotten like the building nearly is except by the people who were there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exhibited artefacts include ledgers and historic documents, clothing, and furniture.<\/p>\n
Ashtree director Ember Parkin said the centre\u2019s rebranding was about giving as much of a voice as possible to the orphanage\u2019s past residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 4000 kids would have gone through that place and we\u2019ve had a core team of about six actively-contributing residents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also had conversations at reunions with about 30 to 40 people at a time and we\u2019ve had open exhibition days and gathered from the public domain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The History and Memory Centre will be open for former residents and their families and will occasionally be made accessible for the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE exhibition space beneath Cafs\u2019 Lydiard Street headquarters has been reborn with a new purpose. Relaunched last week as the History and Memory Centre, the renovation aims to rewrite the history on the depiction of the Ballarat Children\u2019s Home, previously the Ballarat District Orphan Asylum, then the Ballarat Orphanage. Cafs CEO Wendy Sturgess said the […]<\/p>\n