Arts North West, through their Aboriginal Culture Support Program, heads to Tenterfield next week to record stories of Elders as they prepare a series of documentaries for their “Rivers to Ridges, and the stories in between project” which has been funded by the Federal Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts Program.
“Rivers to Ridges” and the stories in between, gathers and documents the stories of Elders, Artists and the Aboriginal history of the New England North West in multimedia format. It provides Aboriginal Artists the opportunity to translate and share the stories with the broader community through workshops across our region over two years.
Lead artist for the Tenterfield component of the project is well known Elder, Aunty Ronella Jerome, better known as Dolly. Dolly has been working with Creative Consultant/Project Manager, Lorrayne Riggs, Arts North West Aboriginal Arts Officer and Film Maker, Brendan Blacklock from Blacklock media in preparation for recording the stories of other local Elders including Helen Duroux, Rod McIntosh, Grace Binge and Glen Innes’ Adele Chapman-Burgess.
“I’m really looking forward to this deadly project”, said Aunty Dolly Jerome. “Recording our stories is something I am very passionate about, it is paramount for the preservation of our cultural knowledge”
Lorrayne Riggs, Project Manager said “this is the first time that we know of where the stories recorded will be focused on the unique cultural value of our region. Too often Aboriginal culture from NSW is not valued as highly as in our neighbouring states.By translating and sharing the stories from our region we are able to show the world that Aboriginal culture is alive, important and highly valued in the New England of NSW”.
The project team will spend a week in Tenterfield filming before they head to Tamworth, Narrabri and Moree later in the year.