Enterprise Tribute Garden, Springvale,Victoria

The Enterprise Tribute Garden is located in the grounds of Lexington Gardens aged care facility in Spingvale, an outer suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The 'tribute' remembers the site's prior use as the Enterprise Hostel, an Australian Government reception facility for migrants and refugees.

Marking a mid-point between the post-war programs that saw non-British migrants housed in ex-army barracks in remote locations, the Enterprise Hostel was seen as a new approach, where migrants were offered up to 12 months of supported hostel-style accommodation (depending on need) to assist their transition to life in Australia. The Hostel opened in 1970, initially housing mostly migrants. From the mid-1970s onwards, many of the residents were refugees, and for a short time it also operated as a detention facility for a group of Cambodian refugees. Closing for a short time 1985-1988, the Enterprise finally shut its doors in 1992.

The idea to create some kind of acknowledgement came from long-term Springvale residents who had been connected to the Hostel in various ways - through the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau and the Neighbourhood House, as teachers and in local government. They wanted to pay tribute to the important role the Hostel had played in the development of their community, which they see as being enriched and transformed by the people who came through the Hostel. The project originally began as an exhibition titled "A Worthwhile Enterprise" developed for the Victorian Immigration Museum's community program. The exhibition developed into an oral history collection and online exhibition now accessible at www.enterprisehostel.org.

The title of this site is "Not a Celebration"; the memorial is certainly a celebration in many ways. However, the Tribute Garden marks the point of arrival for people who were leaving behind homes and families, often in difficult or even traumatic circumstances. For those people, it marks not only a new beginning, but a place to reflect on the events or reasons leading to their migration. For members of the Enterprise Migrant Hostel History Project team, it also serves as a reminder of the stark difference between the ethics of care and welcome shown to migrants and refugees arriving at that time, compared to current policies.

Clockwise from top: Heather, Betty and Merle
worked with migrants during the Enterprise years,
and want the story to be told. 

The Tribute Garden was developed after by landscape architecture firm Sinatra Murphy, and involved extensive community consultation. A circular path through a bed of roses, representing the often winding path of migration. The rose itself is a specially developed hybrid called the Enterprise Rose, significant because the well-tended rose beds at the front of the Enterprise Hostel were often part of migrants' first impressions of Australia, and became a symbol of the care they received.

The path leads to a central area where a wooden bench lists the number of migrants received. Two digi-glass panels shaped like rose petals are printed with a map of the world. Bubbles/droplets run in streams between two opens hands and the various countries from which migrants were received.

The Tribute Garden is part of the larger, ongoing project to tell the story of the Enterprise Hostel and how "how strong, cohesive, vibrant communities can be built when migrants and refugees are warmly welcomed through unique, innovative settlement programs based on welcome, support and respect." 

Another smaller rose garden and plaque are located outside the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau, and eventually the plan is to have a path of remembrance running through Springvale from Lexington Gardens to a newly developed community space at the local library.

Child Migrants Memorial, Melbourne Migration Museum, Victoria

A welsh love seat in the garden of the Victorian Migration Museum is a memorial for child migrants who were sent to Australia as part of child migration schemes during the twentieth century.

The design of the seat, made of Australian timber by Damien Wright, allows two people to sit almost side by side but facing in opposite directions. As well as referencing the heritage of some of those who were sent to Australia, the seat perhaps suggests the split in identity experienced by some child migrants, some of whom still do not know their full history.

A plaque embedded in the paving around the set reads:

This memorial is dedicated to thousands of innocent children removed from their families and loved ones and sent to Australia between 1912 and 1972 under the British and Commonwealth Child Migration Schemes. 
Funding for this memorial provided by the Australian Government. 

The funding came in the wake of the 2001 Australian Senate Report, known as the “Lost Innocents”,  which recommended memorials as a sign of acknowledgement by the Australian government of its role in the child migration schemes and acknowledgement of the contribution child migrants have made to Australian society.  However, neither the plaque not the love seat itself does much to tell this story to visitors without background knowledge.

The Migration Museum is located near Melbourne's Flinders St Station, and just  over the road from one of the bridges leading acrosss the Yarra River to the popular Southbank, where a memorial to Forgotten Australians is located.

Despite the busy location, the love seat courtyard is quite secluded. This could be a good thing for child migrants or their families who might want to spend some quiet time there. On the other hand, it also means the memorial is not well known.

The Reuniting Family, Melbourne, Victoria

"The Reuniting Family" is a figurative sculpture that tells a story common to Italian migrants in the post-war years. It depicts a family about to be re-united after years of separation - a common story at a time when young men would travel to Australia to set up a new life, bringing their family later when they could afford it. This artwork captures the ambiguities of the migrant experience - the sense of hope and new beginnings along with the pain of separation and the fear of what is and may be lost. 

An extended plaque reads: 

The battered trunk and suitcase represents the family`s past and future.  They have taken all their belongings to start anew.  Although more importantly this luggage holds the hopes, ambitions and dreams for a successful future together.

The bunch of flowers consists of the Calla Lily, a common white flower that grows profusely around Northern Italy, symbolic of the common people that migrated to Australia from Europe.  The Eucalyptus branch, native to Australia symbolises and recognises the Indigenous people, the traditional owners of this land.

The Rialto site is most appropriate for these sculptures as this was the busiest area of commerce in colonial Melbourne. 

The scuplture was funded by the Grollo Ruzzene Foundation, the charitable arm of the Grollo Group, which was responsible for the redevelopment of the Rialto in the mid 1980s. 

Peace Park Mosaic, Noble Park

The Peace Park Mosaic began life in 1994 as Landcare Environmental Action Program (LEAP) community art project. Lead by Artist and museum curator Kitty Owens, then a recent university graduate, led an oral history project working with young refugees and migrants from the local area, Christine Mae Chua, DC June Isiderio, Carlo Rivas, Hawaa Fikak, Wajesta Ezadyar, Chan Chiem, Siemchou Vongsikeo, Liam Chi Dang.
The mosaic mural that grew from the project is a war memorial with a difference, expressing the experience of conflict from the perspective of civilians.
A printed tile plaque reads:

This mural is dedicated to the friends and relatives of this area who died in war and to those people we have been separated from in the process of migration.
It is also a celebration of peace.

So, although it is dedicated to people who died, it also acknowledges another form of loss, that caused by separation. Behind this story, is also the story of the traumatic experience of living through war.
Originally attached to the wall of the Noble Park RSL (Return Services League), the mural needed to be removed because of building renovations in 2003. Ann Clark and Libby McKinnon had also been involved as leaders in the original project, and Libby was engaged to undertake restoration work.
The memorial is now four separate panels, with parts of the original mosaic on each panel. Although it does not have the same sense of story-telling as the original artwork, it still manages to convey the sense of loss and the pain of separation caused by war.

On thing that is really nice about this memorial is that it is located within the same space as the local war memorial. In fact, it takes up the space between the traditional war memorial and the Noble Park RSL building. In this sense, it is an ongoing reminder that war has consequences for ordinary people, not only for soldiers. This seems like an important thing to emphasize in Australia. The 2003 restoration project was undertaken because the RSL recognised the significance of this memorial. 

The Enterprise Migrant Hostel in nearby Springvale had only closed a few years before this project began, connecting this project to a more recent memorial project, the Enterprise Tribute Garden. One of the aims of that memorial is to draw attention to the difference between the welcoming, supportive refugee policies of the 1970s and 80s and today's punitive offshore processing regime. 

Coming and Going Child Migrants Memorial, Sydney

"Coming and Going" by Sydney sculptor Sasha Reid,  is a playful aluminium cut-out, like a paper chain that sits on a section of grass near the entrance to the National Maritime Museum. It is close to a circular driveway used by buses, and is visible from Murray Street. The area is reportedly used as a meeting place for school groups, but it is certainly not a prominent location.

This memorial was installed by the NSW State Government (with funding from the Australian Government) to acknowledge the experience of children who were sent to Australia from the UK and Malta during the 20th Century. Often the children were given inaccurate information about their birth families (including being told parents were dead when they were not) and many suffered various forms of institutional abuse.

The memorial plaque reads: 

This memorial is dedicated to child migrants from the United Kingdom and Malta who had to leave their families and country of birth during the years 1912 - 1967. After arriving by ship, these children faced an unknown future in New South Wales. Many endured personal hardships, some experienced great suffering. They and their families have made and continue to make a valuable contribution to their communities and to Australia. 

"Coming and Going" is similar to Judith Forrest's "Unfolding Lives" sculpture in Perth, which acknowledges Forgotten Australians, in that it references a childhood toy that might have been available to children with little else. But apart from the words on the small plaque, there is nothing to disrupt the sense of fun. So for many people who see it in passing, it is just another piece of playful public art. This seems strange for a sculptor who has experience in creating memorial art; Sasha Reid was also responsible for the memorial to victims of the Bali bombings at Coogee, NSW. 

The memorial is located near the 'Welcome Wall' which leads down to the harbour. The Welcome Wall was created as a way to acknowledge people who have migrated to Australia. Like the wall, and despite the title of the sculpture, which suggests movement, this memorial seems to be more focussed on marking the arrival of the child migrants than on telling the story of before or after.

Questions:

I wonder what brief the artist was given? Were they asked to acknowledge the pain and suffering caused by child migration, or simply to create something relating to 'childhood'?