Women have always been leaders and providers in Aboriginal communities. In coastal Sydney, Aboriginal women maintained that role in the wake of the invasion of their lands in the late 18^th century and through to the present day. In this talk we focus on successive generations of Aboriginal women such as Cora Gooseberry, Biddy Giles, Emma Timbery and Ellen Anderson and look at how they developed commercial businesses based around traditional practices to provide leadership and support for their families and communities.

Biographies

Rowena Welsh-Jarrett is a proud Dharawal / Gumbaynggirr woman with multiple links to coastal Sydney clan groups. A member of both the Redfern and La Perouse Aboriginal communities. Current committee member of the cultural heritage advisory committee who provide advice to the minister for Environment and Heritage on Aboriginal cultural heritage issues. Rowena also has an advisory role Placemaking and Infrastructure NSW. She has worked in the Aboriginal Cultural heritage sector for over 20 years in multiple roles as a heritage researcher, Cultural heritage Director Aboriginal Cultural heritage officer and Senior Cultural heritage officer for multiple land councils within her cultural areas inclusive of Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. Rowena is also a current applicant for the South Coast Native Title Claim group which comes into Southern Sydney. 

Dr Paul Irish is an experienced historian and the director of Coast History and Heritage. For more than 15 years he has been collaboratively researching Sydney’s Aboriginal history with researchers from the La Perouse Aboriginal community, including the 2015 NSW History Fellowship exhibition This Is Where They Travelled: Historical Aboriginal Lives in Sydney and his 2017 book Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal people of Coastal Sydney, which won the NSW Premiers History Award for Regional and Community History.

TWC Friends $10 | Non member $15

Add on afternoon tea for $10 each.

Last few days to book! Register by 20 August at 5 pm