Stolen Generations Memorial, Sydenham Green Park

In a corner of Sydenham Green, a green space in Marrickville, Sydney, stands a sandstone and
concrete wall. Its surface is covered with boomerangs, an easily recognised Aboriginal motif that maybe in this context can be a metaphor for return. Two niches contain water bowls. A metal plaque is inscribed with these words of testimony from Link Up (NSW), an organisation that supports Aboriginal people separated from their families:

We may go home, but we cannot relive our childhood's. We may reunite with our mothers, fathers,
sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles, communities, but we cannot re-live the 20, 30 40 years that we spent
without their love and care, and they cannot undo the grief and mourning they felt when we were
separated from them. We can go home to ourselves as Aboriginals, but this does not erase the attacks
inflicted on our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, by caretakers who thought their mission was to
eliminate us as Aboriginals.

A post on Monument Australia identifies the artist as Joe Hirst. However, despite its image being used on the cover of the Sydenham Green Draft Plan of Management in September 2013 the artist is not acknowledged in the document, and no mention is made of this work on the Marrickville Council's Public Art web page.

The wall seems to have been created as a memorial to the Stolen Generations, those Aboriginal people who were taken from their families as children as part of a Government policy of assimilation. The water bowls are a traditional memorial device, representing pools of tears shed. However, rather than simply a place of mourning, the text on the plaque makes this memorial challenging and confrontational. Nonetheless, the Marrickville Council describes it simply as part of telling the story of the local area.

Questions:

Is this memorial used for Sorry Day (26 May) or other local commemorations of the Stolen
Generations?
Why was this sculpture created in 1999?

Illa Kuri Sacred Dreaming Track, East Perth

Winding along the edge of the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River), near the entry of the Claisebrook Inlet in East Perth, Illa Kuri by Toogarr Morrison is generally understood as a public artwork rather than as a memorial. Nonetheless, Morrison has made use of many elements used in other memorials looked at on this site to tell the story of the loss of land and culture since colonisation. 

A plaque on the one of the stones at the beginning of the bath reads: 

This sacred path representing the Illa Kuri journey is where initiates walked through the Claisebrook valley on the way to their homes. The path leads from one freshwater lake to another. These are represented by the twelve granite rocks that stand as silent sentries.

The names of the tribes and totems are there to guide you through the sacred Illa Kuri dreaming and the sacred totem emblems which gave the indigenous people their identity.

The sacred dreaming path is never ending.

Despite the hopeful note at the end of the plaque, I understand Illa Kuri as a memorial to a lost landscape. This area of Australia is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, but most of these lakes and wetlands have been filled in or polluted since the arrival of Europeans. 

The Nyungar people are the traditional owners of the South West corner of Australia, although Morrison favours talking about the Bibulmun nation rather than the Nyungar people, since Nyungar is the name for ‘man’ in the language of his people. He is a well respected local artist and Elder. 

One of the reasons the East Perth area has a strong connection with Aboriginal people is because it was a camping ground on the edge of the city at a time, at the beginning of the last century, when they were banned from Perth after curfew. That connection has been maintained throughout the 20th century. 

The area around the East Perth foreshore has been renamed Ngango Batta’s Mooditcher, translated as ‘Sunshine’s Living Strength’ and, according to the City of Perth, is now seen as a place of reconciliation and renewal.

"World Within, World Without" memorial for Forgotten Australians

"World within, world without" is a mosaic work that site low to the ground, taking over a space on the grassed area between the Yarra River and the Southbank Promenade in central Melbourne. Funded by federal and state governments and the City of Melbourne, the work serves as a memorial to the Forgotten Australians: people who spent time in state care (including privately run institutions) during the 20th Century.

Rather than trying to directly depict the experiences of care leavers, artist Helen Bodycomb has instead taken as her starting point the moment of the Prime Minister’s apology, 11am on 16 Nov 2009. On a large black granite slab, low to the ground, a pattern of coloured ‘blossoms’ reflects the constellations of stars that were above Victoria at that moment. According to the inscription, each star/blossom represents 100 children who spent time in care. The inscription also, simply, states: “Many were frightened, abused and neglected.”

The artwork connects with a moment that might be seen as one of healing, and at the same time it gives representation to the scale of the tragedy.

The mosaic is housed within grey rock, and sits less than a metre above ground. Covered by the dust of the city, it doesn’t reflect the light as much you might expect, but is the perfect height for small visitors exploring the area while their carers enjoy a coffee at one of the many nearby cafes.