Something to add?

That the history of the The Dirty Mile is so little known in the non-Indigenous population is almost criminal. As is the lack of knowledge and education about Australian Indigenous history in general.

(I say 'almost' because it is not by choice - a large part of Australia's population are starting to recognise this huge gap in our education system.)

As the stories of numerous individuals whose lives are connected to the history of Charcoal Lane disappear with the slow 'gentrification' of Fitzroy, and the disappearance of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population,  it is imperative that something be done before it is all forgotten. Archie Roach has made a lasting (global) contribution by writing and performing several songs about Fitzroy and Charcoal Lane, as did the Ilbijerri Theatre Co-op by writing, producing and performing The Dirty Mile in 2005 and again in 2008. But it is becoming ever more important for something permanent to be constructed in Fitzroy to acknowledge the history/ies of The Dirty Mile, and preferably as close to the centre of the stories - Gertrude Street - as possible.

During my site analysis/research for this project, I came across Stephanie Glickman's 2008 review of Ilbijerri's production of The Dirty Mile for Australian Stage, and her similar view to preserve some presence of Gertrude Street's Indigenous history:

(The play's) immediacy and intimacy... offers to the public interesting and little-known information (about the history of The Dirty Mile. Even though a large audience would detract from the experience of walking The Dirty Mile, it’s a shame that more people will not see this show, as it has much to offer both adults and children of all races and cultural backgrounds. Let’s hope The Dirty Mile will get a much longer life than this current second season to continue getting its message and history out to the wider public.

(go to: (http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/melbourne/the-dirty-mile--ilbijerri-1177.html)

This whole blog revolves around the investigation of an idea for an "Art in Public Space" proposal I had about The Dirty Mile some time ago...

If, as Sam Ainsley discusses in his essay "The Building as half the work" (in DECADENT - Public Art: Contentious Term and Contested Practice, edited by David Harding, Foulis Press, 1997), so it is possible that this building - and its context - is more than half the work of this project. Charcoal Lane, its history, its current role, its being in the midst of Gertrude Street and Fitzroy, and the high use of this area by a large number of people who at least pass by the site (from the local community to the artists, art workers, art-lovers and 'connoisseurs of things cultural' and other tourists to the area) all underpin my response to the site - on physical, social, psychological, political and historical levels - and the basis of this proposal.

Unlike the earlier version of the Charcoal Lane building when it was VAHS, the entire building that is now a restaurant and training school for "Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people" to become future chefs and hospitality-industry employees, lacks any external signs of its history - apart from a small oval plaque placed at the left of the front of the building.

But the side-wall of the building, in Little Napier Street, has a large clean, blank area...





















a spot that has potential for an Artwork that is what I would define as being of, and for, the variety of people that comprises the "Public".

In keeping with the building's new look, why not use this wall in a subtle, discrete way to address its lack of association with its own history, the history of the area and broaden the knowledge of interested passers by?

I was inspired by a work I saw at the Ricky Maynard restrospective Portait of a Distant Land at the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Sydney last year (2009). Together with Keith Munro, Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs, Maynard developed a simple and elegant wall-work that chronologically mapped what happened to his people (in Tasmania) after the arrival of Dutch navigator, Abel Tasman (who named the island Van Diemen's Land, which it remained known as until 1855) in 1642:















Working with those who experienced or know the histories of The Dirty Mile  - before they all disappear - it would be great to represent the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history of Fitzroy in a similarly simple and elegant way on this blank wall of what was the VAHS but is now unrecognisable as the restaurant and hospitality-industry training centre called Charcoal Lane.