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A Gift of Presence - spirit of reconciliation
A Gift of Presence begins | A Gift of Presence grows | A new dimension | More information
Reconciliation was given a new dimension with the State Library of Queensland's Centenary exhibition A Gift of Presence - spirit of reconciliation.
Curated by Wayne Coolwell and photographed by Suzanna Clarke, more than 40 Indigenous and non-Indigenous Queenslanders from all walks of life - politics, small business, sport, education, farming, the arts and the law - are represented by their images and personal statements on reconciliation.
- A Gift of Presence website
A Gift of Presence begins
A Gift of Presence started the first touring component which included Cunnamulla, Mount Isa, Burketown, Cairns and Mackay.
A Gift of Presence grows
the State Library of Queensland was successful in securing a grant from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund to tour A Gift of Presence to five selected remote communities, including two of the newly established Indigenous Knowledge Centres in Aurukun and Pormpuraaw.
The 2004 remote community tour for A Gift of Presence provided a platform for communities to express themselves using images and words to sit alongside the already established exhibition. With this initiative, A Gift of Presence exhibition provided a platform for documentation of presentations of local community ideas about reconciliation and concluded with a display at this years NAIDOC week celebrations at 111 George Street, Brisbane.
The organisation for the remote community tour also brought together internal staff from the State Library of Queensland, utilising their expertise in the areas of exhibition handling, conservation, photography and library services.
With the diverse background of expertise within the State Library of Queensland, the remote community tour, being one of the first to date, was able to provide a skill sharing opportunity to community members in the areas; exhibition handling, small displays and basic photography concepts.
A new dimension
the State Library of Queensland formed a partnership with Education Queensland's e-learning environment, the Learning Place. The resulting online Gift of Presence project with schools was one of the highlights of the new partnership. It involved the use of the State Library Online exhibition: "Gift of Presence" as a discussion stimulus for students. Through this partnership students engaged with the online exhibition and conducted online discussions with notable Australian individuals around issues of reconciliation.
400 students and 22 teachers from metropolitan, rural and remote Queensland participated in a series of online chats with notable Australians: Ray Martin, David Hudson, Senator Aden Ridgeway, Meme McDonald, Boori Pryor and Andrew Slack. The online discussions took place during Reconciliation Week, NAIDOC Week and International Day of World Indigenous Peoples.
Students and guests were encouraged to:
- compare statements and understanding about reconciliation from others
- develop their own personal statements and understanding about reconciliation
- examine ways that students can personally contribute to building reconciliation into the community and what their visions of the future were
- recognise what constructs positive or negative representations of people, places and events.
The Online discussions used the secure communication tools provided through Education Queensland's e- learning environment, The Learning Place website.
Schools participation was supported via:
- a specifically created unit of work - The Access Club (access authorisation required)
- a Professional Learning Community website - Learning Place Mentors & Online Learning Coordinators
- a Learning Mentor team - a group of teachers building capacity in teachers and school staff across Queensland to support the ICTs for Learning initiative and promote effective use of the Learning Place in teaching and learning.
Further information
More information about the joint project can be found at:
Examples of the conversation that took place between the students and online guests can be found in the Gift of Presence.