On Sunday March 5, the fourth Redfern-Waterloo Tour of
Beauty took a mini-bus full of punters and a swarm of cyclists to visit sites
of significance throughout Redfern-Waterloo – that is, sites of local
significance.
The Tour of Beauty stopped at six separate locations, and
other sites were pointed to out the bus window. At each stop, a local told the
story of that particular place to the Tour’s 20 passengers. Members of the art
collective SquatSpace acted as Tour guides, and drove the mini-bus.
As we know, Redfern-Waterloo’s future is passionately
contested.
Competing interests are engaged in complex, high-level power
grabs and counter-moves. Development has already transformed pockets of
Redfern-Waterloo, and the future of the Block is uncertain. But the Tour of
Beauty was not just about the politics of place. It was not just about
conflict, gentrification, government and community racism, or history. The
Redfern-Waterloo Tour of Beauty was about the very particular meanings of
place. It assumed that the ‘experts’ about any given place are the people who
live there, and have a connection to it.
At The Settlement,
Sydney’s oldest
community centre, Lyn Turnbull showed us through a brightly painted hall, which
is, she explained, really owned by the kids that use the space.
At The Block, we heard from Jenny Munro from the Redfern
Legal Service. She spoke of her efforts to use the old courthouse for a local
program of circle sentencing. She also spoke passionately about how The Block
is the indigenous heart of the city and how it needs to be managed properly.
At Redfern Train Station, Trevor
Davies spoke to us about developer interest in the station
and how the RWA plans to sell off assets like the courthouse and the public
school to fund all the developments.
Later in the afternoon, Ray Jackson gathered us in the park,
near the fence where TJ Hickey was impaled. Jackson explained the community’s anger and
its campaign for justice. Jackson
disputes the Police’s account of events, and the Coroner’s report, which
exonerated them. We sat facing a wall that was crammed with painted messages of
love and grief. Faded plastic tulips had been jammed into its cracks.
Across the park, charismatic local activist Ross Smith
talked about proposed changes to the eligibility criteria for public housing, Ross
fears that these will fracture community cohesion, and undermine residents’
sense of belonging.
Finally, we spent some time in the new Waterloo, attracting the attention of
security as we stood in the ‘public’ square by the fountain, outside a brand
new, but deserted apartment block, which glistened in the last light of day.
For more info about joining our tours contact SquatSpace at www.squatspace.com.