Archibald Art winners 2026 in Shepparton

Australia’s favourite and most significant art award opened in Shepparton Art Museum for a Victorian showing of the annual Archibald Prize. Judged by the Art Gallery of New South Wales/NSW trustees, the prize is awarded to the best portrait. Since 1921, it has highlighted figures from all walks of life, from famous faces to local heroes of our times. Australia’s most significant art award is annual Archibald Prize is eagerly anticipated by artists and audiences alike. This touring exhibition is a chance for Victorians to see the 59 finalists, the exhibition's only destination outside NSW.  From 5 Sept–1 Nov 2026, open 7 days a week.

Archibald finalists in NSW Art Gallery, 2026

 
This leading Australian regional art museum is recognised for its Australian nationally significant collection of Indigenous art, its programme designed to be locally relevant while engaging with global contemporary ideas. Via exhibitions, collection & programmes, SAM’s art helps an understanding of ancient cultural Australia AND multicultural Australia.

The Museum announced that it was hosting the Archibald Prize 2026, one of the country’s most beloved annual art events, the first stop after the exhibition closed at the Art Gallery of NSW. From celebrated cultural icons and bold contemporary figures to the artists and activists who shape our national story, the Archibald Prize brings together a compelling portrait collection. They spark talk, reflect identity and invite audiences to look through the eyes of Australian artists. SAM’s commitment to presenting high class art experiences for regional audiences amplifies the cultural vibrancy and creative energy of Central Vic, delivering significant economic impact as well.

SAM Artistic Director said: “We are honoured to be the exclusive Vic host of the Archibald Prize 2026. We are celebrating the extraordinary talent showcased in this iconic exhibition and we’re thrilled to be bringing such an event on the nation’s cultural calendar to the Goulburn Valley.”

NSW’s Gall Director of Collections & Exhibitions said: The Archibald has a long, proud history of connecting audiences over Australia with the best in modern portraiture. Shep AM is an remarkable cultural partner, having hosted the famous Brett Whiteley: Inside the Studio touring exhibition in 2025. See the Archibald Prize 2026 celebrate the extraordinary diversity of artists & sitters from everywhere.”

Shepp City Council Mayor said: “This nationally recognised exhibition is one of Australia’s most prestigious art events. It is attracting visitors from across Australia, boosting local tourism and show casing everything Shepparton has to offer, from our thriving arts scene to our hospitality and culture.” The programme of public events incl artist talks, guided tours, workshops, educational and community activities.

The Museum serves as a dynamic cultural & community hub and houses one of the nation’s key collections of Australian regional holdings of South Eastern Indigenous Art. Through its programmes, events, collection and temporary exhibitions, SAM creates opportunities for creative souls to engage audiences with the stories of our country’s ancient cultures and contemporary multicultural Australia.

Celebrate the Archibald Prize 2026 at SAM with talks featuring artist Richard Lewer, six-time finalist and 2026 Archibald Prize winner, and curator Beatrice Gralton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at NSW Art Gallery. Enjoy insight into the artistic and curatorial sides of the celebrated annual prize.

portrait of Iluwanti Ken 

198 x 198cm.

Archibald Winner Richard Lewer.  Iluwanti Ken is an elder, senior artist & traditional healer. I spent time with Iluwanti at Tjala Arts in Amata, Sth Australia. Although we have known one another for several years through shared exhibitions, being on Country together deepened my under-standing of her presence and the responsibilities she carries. Iluwanti paints with an urgency I recognise. Her work depicts the story of the eagles. Birds are in her drawings, paintings and ceramics as teachers of care, protection, provision and resilience, particularly for women and children. These lessons shaped how I approached this portrait. I wanted to convey her strength and attentiveness, and reflect the way she watches over others. Illuwanti is a small woman, but she carries immense, quiet authority. I painted her life‑size so her presence meets the viewer directly. The yellow ochre background holds the intensity of the heat and light we worked in. She loves bright clothing which feels inseparable from her spirit, and the traces of paint on her arm acknowledge her as a working artist.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. 

oil on board, 114 x 150 cm

 Art Gallery NSW

Packing Room Prize by Sean Layh. This portrait is actor Jacob Collins. It arose after Layh saw him in the title role of the 2024 production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a Melbourne theatre. It was performed by candlelight in a tight physical setting and blended Hamlet’s dark brooding with the plot’s spooky supernatural undercurrent. Layh paints compositions influenced by classical literature and theatre. He asked if Collins would like to repeat the role for a portrait, depicting Hamlet’s death scene in Tragic History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. But they decided that the final painting, stripped of its obvious props eg poisoned chalices, captured more of the character than his final moments.

Peoples’ Choice Winner Michael Zavros said A while ago my mother thought she saw me on tv, but it was Alex Ryvchin. Then a few friends also observed that we looked alike. Following the attacks on Israel in Oct 2023, Alex was often in the media. As CEO of Exec Council of Australian Jewry, this natural leader spoke passionately about his community’s pain and the changes he feared would emerge here. When two gunmen attacked Jewish people on Bondi Beach in Dec 2025, Alex led the nation in a way our elected leaders failed to do. I found common ground with this man-father. When we met earlier this year, I knew I wanted to paint Alex in the sea, symbolising much for all Australians. His tefillin symbols are so important in contemporary culture.

Michael Zavros, Alex with his tefillin in the sea 

oil on canvas 205 x 138 cm

Art Gallery NSW

Canadian history, Hudson’s Bay Co and furs

The C17th fur trade became a major commercial growth in Nth Am­erica, due to Eur­ope’s dem­and for beaver hats. Two French trad­ers pl­an­ned a trad­ing com­pany to reach the inland via Hudson Bay and to gain access to the int­er­ior fur resources. Af­ter not win­n­ing French sup­­port, they went to Prince Rupert in Britain in 1665 where Rup­ert sw­ay­ed cousin King Charles II, mer­ch­­ants and noble men to back the ve­n­ture. Two ships were sent mid 1668 and the royal charter for Rup­ert’s Land. Hudson’s Bay Co./HBC was pr­o­claimed May 1670. The Gov­ernor and Co. of Advent­ur­ers of England received ex­clusive trading rights in Hud­son Bay Terr­it­ory.

Original charter of the HBC, declared in 1670

HBC shareholders at Annual General Court Meeting elected a Governor and comm­ittee to organ­ise fur auctions, order trade goods, hire workers and arr­ange shipping. The London-based Governor set all the basic polic­ies implem­ented in Rup­ert’s Land, using annual reports, journals & accounts supplied by the Bay of­f­icials. 

Prince of Wales and Eddystone, Hudson's Bay Co. Ships

Canadian Encyclopaedia

After trapping beaver pelts when they reached their best quality (win­t­er), Indigenous Peoples trav­elled to the trading posts in sum­m­er. These traders were middlemen, bringing furs from inland communities and trad­ing furs for manufactured goods eg tools, guns, text­il­es, food.

In 1713 France agreed to England’s claim to Hudson Bay with Treaty of Utr­echt. For 60 years, the HBC erected posts largely at major rivers flowing into the bay. This hesit­ance to establish posts in Rupert’s Land all­owed comp­et­itors to out­do the HBC by travel­l­ing into the in­ter­ior to trade with Indigenous peoples. In return, ind­igenous trad­ers extracted greater ret­urns for their furs. 

 

Timber wolf fur sales, Fur Harvesters Auction in North Bay, Ont.

CBC

Until 1763 HBC struggled with the French for control of fur trades in south­ern Rupert’s Land, and naval battles erupted on Hud­son & James Bays. In the Treaty of Paris 1763, the Montreal overland trade network was taken by the British. By 1774 HBC trade had been undercut enough that the Governor designed an aggres­s­ive policy of inland expansion, be­ginning with building facilities on the Saskatch­ewan River.

Intensive competition with the North West Co. spil­l­ed beyond Rup­ert’s Land into the Pac­if­ic slope, combining economic conflict with occasional physical viol­ence. In 1821 the parties merged, and the British Parlia­ment extended the Co.’s monopolies to include the N.W Territories.

Bringing together the different business traditions of the North West Co. and HBC required changes in the new Co’s administrative structure. British North America was divided into trading depart­ments and dist­r­icts. District managers met annual­ly in depart­mental council meetings presided over by the Governor in North Am­erica, Sir George Simpson. Th­ese coun­cils passed reg­ul­ations governing local trade, det­er­mined work­ers’ deployment and established the log­is­tical requirements. The offic­ers also had a vested interest since they shared in the profits, accord­ing to the 1821-71 deed polls. But Sim­pson had considerable power, and the London Governor overruled local decisions. Post-merger, the HBC closed many unprof­itable trading posts, adv­ersely damaging Indigenous groups whose survival relied on fur.

After 1821, independent free Métis traders at the Red River Colony opp­osed the Co’s monopoly rights, which had been renewed in 1838. The issue ended in the famous 1849 Sayer Trial, where Métis man Pierre-Guillaume Sayer was tried and convict­ed of trading with Indigen­ous groups, violating the Co’s legal privileges. The court’s decision to free him effectively opened the trade of Rup­ert’s Land.

To standardise trade between posts, HBC introduced the Made Beav­er as the currency (1857). All furs were valued according to the equivalent of one prime male beaver skin. Hud­s­on's Bay Co. fur trade im­pacted on Indig­en­ous peoples, many of whom ab­andoned th­eir life-styles and economy, and relied on Europ­ean manuf­ac­t­ured goods for survival.

Although the Co.’s primary concern remained the fur trade, it increas­ingly provided government for settlers in Red River Valley and Vanc­ouver Island. Only in 1849 did Britain grant­ the Van­couver Island col­ony to the HBC, to be used as an agricultural sett­lement.

During the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858, the mainland colony of British Co­l­umbia was created out of New Caledonia. Governor James Douglas was requ­ir­ed by the British govern­ment to resign his HBC commission before bec­om­ing Governor of BC. Thus the Co. began to relinquish its colonial res­ponsibilities. It was then Canada’s growing expansionist movement saw the ann­exation and settlement of the NW as essential to Canada’s future.

Expansionists portrayed the HBC as delaying Canada’s growth; they cl­aim­ed that to protect its fur trade interests, the HBC had proclaimed that the NW was a barren waste­land, unsuited to agricultural set­tlement. But this belief was challenged by reports of the Palliser and Hind expedit­ions in 1857-60 which encouraged westward British settlement.

In 1863, International Financial Society bought control in HBC, signal­l­ing a shift in the Co: most new shareholders were less interested in the fur trade than in real estate and economic development in the West. Negotiations held with the Colonial Office and with the Can­adian government DID result in selling Rupert’s Land to Can­ada in 1870. In the agreement the Co retained title to the old trading lands.

Fur trader in Northwest Territories, in the 1890s

Wiki

See the post-1870 growth. By retain­ing large land­holdings on the prair­ies adjacent to its posts, many of which were loc­at­ed in growing ur­ban centres, the HBC became a most im­portant dev­el­opers in western Canada.

As Prairie economic development accelerated post-1870, the Co. expanded retail business with settlers. Initially most of this act­ivity occurred at its trading posts. Since it differed from the trade with Indigenous groups, separate sales shop accounts were kept. Then the HBC’s retail and whole­sale divisions emerged, with outlets separate from fur trade. In 1910 the Co was divided into 1]land, 2]fur & 3]retail. In 1913 HBC helped build new retail shops, recog­nising that this had a greater fut­ure potential than land and fur sales. The first of the 6 stores op­en­ed in Calg­ary and the last in Winnipeg in 1926. From 1965 the shop em­braced the short form of its name, The Bay, and its logo featured the B. And its historic coat of arms nodded to its rich role in Canadian history.

Hudson's Bay Montreal, department store chain acquired by HBC in 1960.

 In 1970, 300th year in HBC history, the Queen formally transferred it from U.K to Canada, with new headquarters in Winnipeg. The Co. owned 239 dep­art­ment stores in Canada and U.S then. But  after failing to secure new financing or buyers, the historic 355-year-old retailer permanently closed its last doors in 2025 and completed liquidation.

Thank you to Canadian Encyclopedia

 

Honours to Helen Suzman, South Africa

                                               

In Parliament, late 1950s

Wiki

Helen Gavronsky (1917-2009) was born in South Africa, her Lithuanian parents having arrived with thousands of Jewish migrants from the Baltic states, desperate for peace. My hero in 1966 was by then called Helen Suzman, the bravest person on whom I might have aimed to model myself. 

Helen studied economics & statistics at Witwatersrand Uni. At 20 she married Dr Moses Suzman and had 2 children, before returning to university as a lecturer in 1944. She gave up academia for politics, being elected to Parliament in 1953 as a member of United Party. She moved to the liberal Progressive Party in 1959 and represented her district as her party's sole member, the sole parliament­arian clearly opposed to Apartheid, from 1961-74.

Progressive Party's House caucus in 1960, prior 1961 election that left Suzman

as the sole parliamentarian opposed to apartheid for 13 years. Wiki

The ruling white government sent the police to watch her every action, whether work-related or private. Her mail was examined and her phones were bugged, largely because she was Jewish, a woman, middle class, liberal and a very vocal opponent of Apartheid. So the National Party put every conceivable hurdle in her way. I am amazed she survived assassins' bullets. The most obnoxious bit of legislation in her time was the Black Homeland Cit­iz­enship Act 1970 which changed the status of the blacks. They would no longer be citizens of South Africa, but would become citizens of one of the 10 autonomous territories.

Freed Nelson Mandela thanking Helen Suzman
1990, NY Times

Robben Island, located off South Africa’s coast, had a long history of being a penal colony but only from the mid 1960s-91 was it was the brutal home to the nation’s maximum security gaol. Nelson Man-dela was imprisoned there from 1964-82 and Suzman visited the island on a regular basis; she reported on the gross indignities of prison life and to get the prison system to reduce the worst suffering of Mandela and other political prisoners.
                              

Dame Helen was the first woman to be awarded the Honorary Freedom of Hull in 1987, but I cannot find her connection to that city. Yet correspondence with Helen Suzman is definitely still held at Hull Uni History Archives.

Later, as parliamentary white opposition to Apartheid grew, her Party merged with the Reform Party and became the Progressive Reform Party. Eventually Suzman was joined in Parliament by equally committed re­pr­esentatives. Altogether her parliamentary career lasted 36 years, leaving parliament in 1989, just in time for the inevitable emer­g­ence of a new South Africa. Very shortly after, in 1991, the government formally repealed all Apartheid laws.

Suzman became Pres. of South African Institute of Race Relations from 1991-3, not bad for a women in her mid 70s. In 1993 the Helen Suzman Foundation was founded as a non-partisan think-tank in Sth Africa, dedicated to liberal democratic values and human rights post-Apartheid via its research, journals, litigation & submissions to Parliament. I knew Mandela rightfully won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, but although Suzman was named twice, she sadly never won a Nobel. Luckily she had the time and energy in 1993 to publish her autobiography, In No Uncertain Terms: A South African Memoir, helping her country and the world to recognise the previous injustices of Apartheid.

For some years Suzman was a member of the statutory Human Rights Commission, excited to be at Mandela’s side when he signed the new constitution in 1996. She remained a much-favoured speaker and newspaper author.

The Liberal International is a global federation based in UK. The Liberal International Prize for Freedom is given to a well-known person of liberal conviction who had made outstanding efforts for the defence of freedom and human rights. In 2002 it was awarded to Suzman, the courageous champion of human rights, who in the dark days of Apartheid did more than any other person to keep liberal values alive in South Africa. They noted that as many African countries were moving to political systems based on democracy, human rights and rule of law, the pioneering work that Suzman did in South Africa could not be underrated. 

Blue Plaque unveiled by Helen's daughters

2017

Conclusion
The anti-Apartheid struggle had many heroes, all of whom rightly deserved commemoration and remembrance; all of their contributions helped in some important way to the ending of Apartheid and the dawn of democracy in 1994. Helen Suzman was one such a hero, and she was honoured late in her lifetime but since she died in 2009, she has been honoured in South Africa and globally. I suppose she was very fortunate to survive the hatred she faced in Parliament and lived long enough to see some of the honours with her own eyes. But most of the honours were greatly appreciated by her two daughters, Frances (b1939) and Patricia (b1943).

In Nov 2017  Johannesburg citizens and family members gathered to pay tribute to her with the unveiling of a blue plaque on the Eton Rd Parktown footpath. The plaque was unveiled by Helen’s daughters, 2017 being the centenary of the birth of South Africa’s amazing Helen Suzman. 

Many thanks to Democratic Alliance, South African History on-line, The Heritage Portal  and Liberal International.

WW2 heroes deleted in Pentagon’s purge, NBC News

References to an American WW2 Medal of Honour recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts to be deletion as the Defence Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press.

The database, which was confirmed by U.S officials and published by AP, includes 26,000+ images that have been marked for removal across every military branch. But the total might be much higher. One official said the purge could delete as many as 100,000 images or posts in total, when considering social media pages and other websites that are also being culled for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/DEI content. The official said it’s not even clear if the database has been finalised.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the military just days to remove content that highlights diversity efforts in its ranks following Pres. Trump’s executive order ending those programmes across the federal government. Most of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, even notable heroes in the military. And it also removes a large number of posts that mention Commemorative Months eg those for women and for Black and Hispanic people.

In 1945, Bob Lewis ferried a modified B-29 to the Utah base where a group was training for its special assignment. 

historynet.com

But a review of the database underscores the chaos that swirled among agencies about what to remove re Trump’s order. In some cases, photos seemed to be flagged for removal because their file included the word gay, including service members with that last name and an image of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay, which dropped the first WW2 atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan.

Photos of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California were marked for deletion because a local engineer in the photo had the last name Gay. And some photos and videos of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated WW2 unit, were listed :( The Air Force briefly removed new Tuskegee recruit training courses. That drew White House’s ire over malicious compliance, and the Air Force quickly reversed the removal. Many of the images listed in the database already have been removed, and it’s not clear if others might be allowed to stay, including those with great historical significance.

Asked about the database, Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said “We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Dept with the directive removing DEI content from all sources. Hegseth declared that DEI is dead and that efforts to put one group ahead of another through DEI programmes threatens mission execution.

Cadets at the Flying School for Negro Air Corps Cadets Jan 1942.

Richmond Free Press

The main page in a post titled Women’s History Month: All-female crew supports war fighters was removed. But note that at least one of its photos, about an all-female C-17 crew, could still be accessed. An Army Corps of Engineers photo called Engineering pioneer remembered during Black History Month was deleted. Other photos flagged in the database but still visible included images of the WW2 Women Air Service Pilots and one of U.S Air Force Col. Jeannie Leavitt, the country’s first female fighter pilot.

Also still visible was an image of Private First Class/PFC Christina Fuentes Montenegro becoming one of the first women to graduate from the Marine Corps’ Infantry Training Battalion and an image of Marine Corps WW2 Medal of Honour recipient PFC Harold Gonsalves. And it was unclear why some other images were removed.

The database of 26,000 images was created to conform with federal archival laws, so if the destroying images was queried in the future, officials could show they were complying with the law. But it may be difficult, because the responsibility was dependent on each unit. Workers might have taken screenshots of the pages marked for removal, but otherwise it would be difficult to restore images.

A Marine Corps official said every one of its images in the database either has been taken down or would be. The Marines were moving on the directive as fast as possible, but as with the rest of the military, very few contractor employees at the Pentagon could perform content removal. In the Marine Corps, one defence civilian had to do the work! He identified 10,000+ images and papers for removal online, and after further review, 3,600 of those were removed. The total excludes 1,600+ social media sites that have not yet been addressed. The Marine official said the service is going through each site and getting new administrative privileges so it can make the changes.

This Feb the Pentagon ordered all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. If they couldn’t do that immediately they were told to temporarily remove from public display all content published during the Biden administration’s four years in office.

Tank officer Jackie Robinson’s heroic career was purged from military site. Then reinstated.

NBC News

A database obtained by CNN shows that 24,000+ articles would be purged, with many gone already. This goes well beyond just the removal of images from the Pentagon’s visual database, Defence Visual Information Distribution Service, and includes articles from across 1,000+ websites hosted by the Dept. Articles about the Holocaust, September 11th, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the Dept has scrambled to comply with the order to scrub diversity content to comply with Pres. Trump’s order.

A Defence Department’s website celebrated six Marines photographed hoisting a U.S flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, including famous Pfc Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian. This was an emblem of the contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the U.S in the military etc. But along with many others about Native American, this page has now been erased amid the Trump administration’s wide-ranging crackdown on what it says are “diversity, equity and inclusion” efforts in the federal government (The Washington Post). Multiple articles about the Navajo code talkers, critical to America’s victory at Iwo Jima and the wider Pacific theatre, were also removed, along with a profile of a Tonawanda Seneca officer who drafted the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox toward the end of the Civil War.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, Feb 23 1945

Reddit

1956 - what a year!

 Budapest Oct-Nov 1956

BBC History Magazine asked historians to select history’s most dramatic year. I expected them to select 476 AD, 1215, 1492, 1914 and 1933, but in my opinion 1956 was by far the most dramatic. Historian George Goodwin also selected 1956 and specified the events that changed the world.

1956 marked  a watershed year, one when we began to see the post-war world that was under challenge. It was a time when austerity and cult­ural deference were being replaced by the triumph of American-style mass consumer culture. The 1956 Suez Crisis, when Britain along with France and Israel invaded Egypt to recover control of the Suez Canal, was arguably one of the most significant episodes in post-WW2 British history. It led to periodic changes of national direction! France, in contrast, was already beginning the process of European consolidation: the negotiations to create the European Community of 1957’s Treaty of Rome were effectively decided in 1956.

Further to the east, the Soviet grip on its European conquests seriously faltered for the first time, as it violently suppressed the Hungarian uprising. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators swarmed through the streets, tearing down statues of Stalin, ripping the Communist emblem from Hungarian flags and dodging the gunfire of the secret police. This bloody revolt against the rulers of the Hungarian People's Republic and its imposed policies led to Soviet tanks entering Budapest. The crisis lasted for 12 days, after which the Soviet leadership agreed to a ceasefire and a reformist government under Imre Nagy took over in Budapest. 2,500 Hungarians had died and 250,000 fled as refugees, mainly through Austria (including my sister in law in Melbourne).

The USA's supreme court’s ruling against bus seg­reg­ation was Rev Martin Luther King’s first great civil rights victory. See a famous photo where Martin Luther King was welcomed by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a drive to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his fine (pending appeal).

Rev and Mrs Martin Luther King Jr
outside the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama 1956

The Anglo-American focus on individual expression and liberation, which dominated the following decades, was highlighted by John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. And the re-election of the conservative US President Eisenhower could not mask the growth of the free spending, rebellious teenagers with a James Dean poster on the wall and rock and roll on the jukebox – a phenomenon echoed across the English speaking world.

Elvis Presley entered the US music charts for the first time, with Heartbreak Hotel. Rock Around the Clock was a 1956 mus­ical film featuring Bill Haley and His Comets in cinemas every­where. It was one of the major box office successes of that year. The Platters hits throughout 1956 included The Great Pretender, My Prayer, You've Got the Magic Touch, One In A Million and You'll Never Know, changing the life of every teenager in the world. 1956 was a good time to be a university student.

Elvis Presley was changing teenagers' lives
Love Me Tender 1956

But George Goodwin omitted one critical 1956 event. The Olympic Games moved to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time ever! Colonial Britain, France and Spain had long understood that the days of empire were over; the dead soldiers from WW2 had been buried and memorial­is­ed, rationing had ended, and economies could start to develop once again. The huge number of baby boomers, who had been born (1946-55) after their fathers were demobilised, filled the primary schools. Millions of migrants, largely from Europe, were shipped to the southern hemisphere where new suburbs were developed with detached houses on large blocks. The eternal cultural cringe was ending.

State budgets were not open ended of course, but neither were the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne full of community conflict, as they had been in other cities. Everyone in Australia wanted the most modern swimming pools, the best athletic tracks and the biggest Olympic Village for the athletes. To this day, people still say the 1956 Games were the crowning achievement of the Melbourne School of Architecture in the post-war period; they were an inspiration to Rome, Tokyo, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and every other city competing for later Games.

The 1956 Summer Olympics Games, Melbourne

attendance of 1.153 million people over the 15 days.

Until 1956 British and Egyptian governments administered Nth and Sth Sudan as separate colonies. When both areas merged into a single administrative region after political pressure from the north, British colonial administration granted the North most political independence in 1956. In post colonial reconstruction, national political and economic issues ravaged Sudan internally. Northern violence against the southern minorities in the first Sudanese Civil War killed 400,000 civilians & 100,000 soldiers. 

Child soldiers, Sudanese Civil War

blackpast

Polio was a highly infectious disease affecting young children that attacks the nervous system, leading to spinal and respiratory paralysis, and even death. In the 1950s Dr Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine which showed the medical profession that tackling polio epidemics was feasible. In 1956 virologist Dr Albert Sabin developed oral polio medication using live, weakened poliovirus, a key step towards global polio eradication. Salk’s vaccine stimulated immunity without causing illness but only Sabin’s oral polio treatment accelerated global immunisation efforts, making polio eradication a medical revolution for millions of children.

 

Saving Tasmania's aboriginals: Truganini

Truganini in shell necklace, 1866 - jpg

in The Australian

Truganini (1812-76) was born on Bruny Island Tasmania near the mouth of the Derwent River, in her tribal territory. Truganini was a daughter of the leader of the Bruny Island peoples, Mangerner. She grew in her people’s traditional culture, even though Aboriginal life had been disrupted by the British colonists arriving in 1803 in Van Diemen’s Land/Tasmania.

Sir George Arthur, the Lt Gov of Tasmania, arranged a plan to deal with the growing conflict between European settlers and Tasmanian Aboriginals. In 1824, Sir George made it a crime to resist British colonisation! He told soldiers and police to raid Aboriginal camps and take them as prisoners; bounties were paid for each capture. Thus Aboriginals were considered as the colony’s open enemies. As the fighting and resistance continued, Arthur suspended ordinary law and declared martial law. The Black Line Military Campaign removed to 200 aboriginals to Flinders Island in 1830 and the Black War was a period of violent conflict (1824-32) between British colonists and Aboriginals in Tasmania.

The tribes were devastated by European sealers, whalers & timber men. When her family met missionaries at Bruny Is in Mar 1829, the soldiers killed her mother and uncle, her sister was taken by sealers and her fiancé was killed by timber men. Only Truganini and her father survived. This Black War conflict saw the near annihilation of Tasmania’s indigenous population which was reduced from c5,000 to c100 people. And it caused immense grief for the survivor Truganini.

The black war
blackwartasmania

 

Yet she laboured to unify what was left of Tasmania’s indigenous communities, working with British authorities to protect other survivors of The Black War. In 1830 George Augustus Robinson, a Christian missionary and Protector of Aboriginals (sic), was hired to move the other 99 surviving people and to settle them on Flinders Island. Robinson might have had his own financial gains but Truganini hoped to resettle and protect the Aboriginals from further violence. Unfortunately the forced resettlement, and the unsanitary state people lived in, proved fatal. The last indigenous people died due to hunger and disease.

She married Woorraddy at Bruny Is Mission. They worked with all the missions that Robinson and his sons conducted inTasmania in 1830-5; the couple acted as instructors & guides in their languages and customs, which were recorded by Robinson in his journal. This was the best surviving ethnographic record of Tasmanian Aboriginal society.

The clash of 2 disparate cultures and the resistance and survival of indigenous Tasmanians was shameful, but Truganini was the faithful companion of Robinson, and assisted in bringing in her friends because she wanted to save them from the British killers.

Truganini, Woorraddy and others from Robinson's mission arrived at the Flinders Island settlement in Nov 1835. With some captured Aborigines still alive, they were to be Christianised, Europeanised and taught to be farmers. She was given a British name by Robinson, but held to her traditional ways. In March 1836 the couple returned to Tasmania to search for the one surviving N.W family, but failed. By July 1837 when they returned to Flinders Is, many had died there and Robinson's programme had failed. Even the island houses built for survivors were not finished. The grim life at Flinders Is was tragic for her.

In Feb 1839, with Woorraddy and 14 others, she accompanied Robinson to Port Phillip. She and 4 others later joined a party of whalers near Portland Bay. where a similar settlement was attempted with mainland nations, again with failure. In 1841 all 5 Aborigines were accused of murdering 2 whalers and in Jan 1842, the men were hanged. Having learnt from the Tasmanian experience, Truganini joined with the Port Phillip people when they resisted Robinson’s plans but she was captured and sent back to Flinders Island. Sadly her husband Woorraddy died en route.

In 1847, Truganini travelled to Oyster Cove with the other Aborigines where they tried to resume their earlier lifestyle. She lived with the Aborigine Alphonso until Oct 1847 when, with dozens of others, she moved to Oyster Cove in her traditional land. She resumed much of her earlier lifestyle, diving for shellfish, visiting Bruny Island and hunting in the nearby bush.

                                    

Residents at Oyster Cove, 1858

National Portrait Gallery

Within 25 years, almost all of the people taken to Oyster Cove had died such that she and William Lanney were the only fullbloods alive. The mutilation of Lanney's dead body in March led Truganini to grieve, for William and for herself.

In 1874 she moved to Hobart with the Dandridge family. She died in their Macquarie St house in 1876 aged 64 with no known descendants, and was buried at the old female penitentiary at Cascades Female Factory. Even in death there was no peace. Her body was exhumed in Dec 1878 by the Royal Society of Tasmania, authorised by the government to take her skeleton on condition that it be not exposed to public view. It had to be decently deposited in a secure resting place accessible by special permission to scientific men for scientific purposes. Yet her skeleton was placed on public display in the Tasmanian Museum from 1904-47.

In 1976, a century after Truganini died, the Tasmanian community wanted her remains be cremated and scattered in the Derwent River. This was a moving occasion that helped Tasmanians recognise the ongoing existence, rights and cultural responsibilities of native peoples.

Tasmania and its islands

Flinders and Bruny Islands marked in yellow

Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse by Cassandra Pybus (Allen & Unwin, 2020) is excellent. But be warned; white Australians will feel mortified after reading about their great great grandparents' behaviour.

Jacques Rogge: surgeon sportstar linguist

Belgium Jacques Rogge (1942-2021) was ed­ucated at the Jesuit Sint-Barbara College in Ghent and Univ­ersity of Ghent. I imagine that because his grandfather (cyc­l­ing) and father (track-field; hoc­key) were both professional sports­men, he was keen to study sp­orts medic­ine. In 1972, Rogge studied muscle activity during sailing using invasive needle EMG to earn his Master degree in Sports Medicine. Then he got his Medical De­gree at Bruss­els’ Free Uni.

Jacques Rogge, Juan Antonio Samaranch,  Vladimir Putin, 

following Rogge's election as IOC President in 2001

What a talented man!! Since the orthopaedic surgeon is a professional who specialises in diagnosing, treating & rehabilitating musculo­skeletal in­j­uries and diseases, it is a spec­ial­ty that requires years of training. The musculoskeletal sy­s­tem incl­udes bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves. The condit­ions dealt with include arthritis, cereb­ral palsy, cong­enit­al disord­ers, degener­ative diseases, sports injuries and tu­m­­ours. Rogge worked as an orthop­aedic surgeon in Deinze near Ghent when he met his future wife Dr Anne Bovyn who did radiol­ogy. Thank­­fully in his busy practice he spoke 5 lang­uages fluently: French, German, English, Spanish and Dutch/Flemish.

Rogge was a Belgian national and international champion in rugby, win­ning 16 caps for Belgium! He was a one-time yachting world cham­p­ion. He also competed in the Finn class of sailing in three Summer Olympic Games; in Mexico 1968, Munich 1972 & Montreal 1976.

Rogge was the president of the Belgian Olympic Committee from 1989-92, and as President of the European Olympic Committee from 1989-2001. He became a member of the IOC in 1991 and joined its executive board in 1998. Rogge became President of the IOC in 2001 at the IOC Session in Moscow as the successor to Juan Antonio Samaran­ch, the for­m­­er Franco-era diplomat who had previously led the IOC since 1980. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Rogge became the first IOC President to stay in the Olympic village, thus enjoying clos­er contact with the athletes. His diplomatic manner and leadership style have been effective in add­ressing problems plag­uing organised sports worldwide, including corr­uption. While Samaranch had been criticised for sloppy control of performance-enhancing drugs, Dr Rog­ge initiated a high-profile zero tolerance policy on their use.

One bit of ugliness. “Allowing women ski jumpers into the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics would dilute the medals being handed out to male ski jumpers” Rogge said “Since there were only 80 women ski jump­ers in the world and the sport had not yet reached the IOC's standard for be­ing included in an Olym­pics”, Rogge loathed the suggestion the IOC was discriminating against women. Oh dear!

Jacques Rogge at the
London Olympic Village, 2012

In July 2011, a year prior to London 2012, Rogge attended a ceremony at Trafalgar Square where he invited athletes worldwide to compete in the forthcoming Olympic Games. Former Olympians the Princess Royal and Sebastian Coe unveiled the medals, and Prime Min­ister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson gave speeches. In Dec 2011, Rogge won an Officer of the Légion d'honneur from French Pres. Sarkozy.

Alas Rogge criticised Usain Bolt's gestures of jubilation af­ter winning the 100 ms in world record time (Beijing 2008) as not be­hav­ing with sportsmanship and questioned whether the Jamaican sprin­ter was a living legend in London. Bolt showed no respect to his oppon­en­ts, he said. In response to his comments, Sports col­um­nist Dan Wetzel contended that the IOC has made billions from athletes like Bolt for years! Did white winners not celebrate with great excitement?

Worse still Rogge rejected calls for a minute of silence to be held to honour the 11 Israeli Olympians murdered in the 1972 Munich Massacre, at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. He did this de­s­pite fam­ilies of the 11 Israeli Olympic team members’ requests & political requests from the U.S, Britain and Germany. Instead Rogge opted for a quiet ceremony at Guildhall London. If the dead sportsmen had not been Jewish, would their murders have been worthy of a minute’s memorial in front of millions of viewers?

Thomas Bach and Jacques Rogge
IOC in Buenos Aires in 2013

In Buenos Aires in 2013, German Thomas Bach (a fencing gold medal­list in Montreal) was elected as Rogge’s successor. In 2014, Rogge was ap­p­ointed Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sport by the United Nat­ions Secretary-General, to help promote sport as an empowering tool for youth from refugee communities towards peace, security, re­­conciliation, health, education and gender equ­al­ity. Rogge saw this as his greatest legacy

In Oct 2016, The British School of Brussels opened their new sports cen­tre in Tervuren, Belgium. It was called The Jacques Rogge Sports Centre. He died in 2021, aged 79.

President FD Roosevelt's museum-library

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) was born in Hyde Park N.Y, son of James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. He att­ended Groton Pre­parat­ory School Mass, and received a BA from Harv­ard. Then he next studied law at Col­um­­bia Uni NY. In 1905 he marr­ied a distant cousin El­eanor Roo­s­­e­velt, niece of Pres Theodore Roos­evelt and had 6 chil­d­ren. When he pas­sed the bar exam­in­at­­ion in 1907, he practiced law with a major NY law firm. He entered politics in 1910, el­ected to the NY State Sen­ate as a Democrat in 1912.

FDR’s Library at Springwood 

reddit

Woodrow Wilson appointed Franklin Ass Sec of Navy in 1913, a position he held until 1920. He successfully specialised in naval admin­istration, res­ul­ting in his being nomin­at­ed for Vice-Pres by the Demo­cr­at­s in 1920. However objections to Wil­son's plan for US’s partic­ipation in the League of Nations made Republican Warren Hard­ing President.

While holidaying in New Brunswick in mid 1921, Roose­velt con­t­racted polio and could never use his legs again. He established a foundat­ion at Warm Springs Georgia to help other polio victims, and dir­ect­ed the March of Dimes project that funded an eff­ect­ive vaccine.

The Roosevelts resumed his political career. In 1928 NY Gov Alfred Smith became Democrats’ pres­id­en­tial can­didate and arranged for Roosevelt's nomination to succ­eed him as NY governor. Smith lost to Herbert Hoover but Roos­evelt was elected governor anyhow. By 1930, Roosevelt began campaigning for himself. While the Depress­ion harm­ed Hoover and the Re­p­­ub­lic­ans, Roosevelt's heroic efforts to combat it in N.Y enhan­ced his reput­ation. In 1932 he stood as the Democr­atic presidential can­d­id­ate, calling for government work­ing on the eco­nomy to provide relief and reform. He easily beat Hoover in 1932.

Roosevelt and Churchill aboard the HMS Prince of Wales

Roosevelt Library and Museum Blog

The Depression worsened before Roosevelt's inauguration in Mar 1933. Factories shutting, farm closures and bank failures incr­eas­ed, while unemp­loyment soared. Roosevelt, who faced the gr­eatest crisis in American history since the Civil War, im­med­iately init­iated his New Deal programmes. He wor­ked with a special ses­sion of Congress during the First 100 Days to pass rec­overy legisl­ation which established agencies eg the Agricultural Adjust­ment Administ­ration to support farm pr­ic­es and the Civilian Conserv­ation Corps to employ young men. Other agencies assisted busin­ess and labour, insured bank deposits, regulated the stock market, subsidised home and farm mortgages, reviving confidence in the economy. Dir­ect relief saved millions from starv­at­ion.

Note that the New Deal mea­sures directly involved government in ar­eas of social and economic life as never before and resulted in incr­eased spending and unbalanced budgets. This led of course to right-wing criticisms of Roos­ev­elt's prog­ram­m­es, but working families and farmers supported Roosevelt, and elected addit­ional Democrats to state legislatures. More New Deal legislation followed in 1935 including the establishment of Works Projects Administration, providing jobs for labourers, artists, writers, musicians and authors. And the Social Security Act which provided unemploy­ment compensation, and old-age benefits.

Roosevelt easily defeated his opponents in 1936, 1940 and 1944, becoming the only American President to serve more than 2 terms. Roosevelt took on the crit­ics of the New Deal, namely the Supreme Court which had declared various legislation unconst­itut­ional. He proposed to add new justices to the Supreme Court in 1937 but crit­ics said he was packing the Court and undermining the sepa­r­­at­ion of powers. His proposal was defeated! This setback, coupled with the new Recession that occurred in his second term, was his nadir.

By 1939 when WW2 erupted FDR con­cen­trated on foreign af­f­airs. New Deal reform legis­lat­ion reduced, and Depres­s­ion crises didn’t fully abate until the nation mobilised for war. When Germany invaded Poland in Sept 1939, although the U.S was neu­t­ral, Roosev­elt did not ex­p­ect them to rem­ain totally inactive ag­ainst Nazi ag­gression. Thus he tried to make Am­er­ican aid available to Britain, France and Ch­ina, and to get an amendment of the US Neutrality Acts. And he tried to build the military, despite isolat­ion­ist opposition

With France’s fall in 1940, Roosevelt's pol­icy changed quickly. Con­­gress enacted legislation for military conscription and Roos­ev­elt signed a Lend-Lease Bill in Mar 1941 to enable the nation to furnish aid to nations fighting the Axis Powers. Though neutral re the war and still at peace, U.S was becoming the centre of prepar­ed­ness as its factories were producing like they did pre-Depression.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in Dec 1941 was foll­owed by Ger­­m­any's and Italy's declarations of war ag­ainst US, inevitably bringing U.S into the war. Roos­evelt exercised his powers as Comm­an­d­er of the Armed Forc­es, making his Day of Infamy Speech in Cong­ress and asking for a formal decl­ar­ation of war.

He co-created a Grand Alliance against Axis powers in The United Nations Dec­l­­aration, Jan 1942, in which all nat­ions fig­hting the Axis powers agreed not to make a separate peace and pl­ed­ged a peace organisation on victory. He gave priority to the west­ern European front and had his Chief of Staff plan for the Pacific; they org­an­ised an expeditionary for­ce for an invasion of Eur­ope. The Allies invaded North Africa in Nov 1942, Sicily and Italy in 1943. D-Day landings on Norm­andy beaches June 1944 were fol­l­owed by Allied invasions of Ger­many and by 1945 victory over Europe.

The endless strain exhausted Roosevelt and by 1944, heart and circul­at­ory problems appeared. And although he was on a st­rict medical regime, he suffered a massive stroke and died aged 63. He was buried in his Hyde Park estate, just before complete mil­itary victory in Eur­ope and some months before victory over Japan.

FDR Presidential Library and Museum built in 1940 and opened in 1941

with his statue in the centre front

As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt considered the future of his vast document collections in 1940, he believed they should belong to the people. So he created the first ever Presidential Library next to his home in Hyde Park. Today, the FDR Presidential Library and Museum is a very fine historic sites in NY, now a collect­­ion of 34,000+ items.

Black Americans, Civil Rights and the Roosevelts 1932-62 is an exh­ib­ition that will be open until the end of 2024. It centres on the histor­ical voices of many Black community leaders, wartime service­men and cit­izens who engaged the Roosevelt administration dir­ect­ly, examining the President’s politics re rac­ial justice. And new ex­hib­its tell the story of the Roosevelt Pres­id­ency from the Great De­pression and New Deal to WW2. The Map Room recreates FDR’s secret White House Map Room where the walls featured projections of maps of key bat­t­les.

By the time he was Presid­ent, Roosevelt had amassed one of the nat­ion's finest collections of naval art, Hudson River Valley art, and hist­orical photos. In the New Deal years, he collected exam­p­les of art and crafts work produced by Works Progress Administ­ra­t­ion.

Best We Forget: WW1 for White Australia

Best We Forget: War for White Australia, 1914–18 was the title chosen by author Peter Cochrane. "Lest we forget" was a phrase commonly used in WW1 memorial services in British countries. “Best we forget” is a sad but clever pun.

White Australia music: march of the great white policy

composed by W. E. Naunton, 1910

 National Library of Australia

The publishers’ summarised the book itself. “In the half-century pre­c­eding WW1 there was a dramatic shift in the mindset of Australia’s pol­itical leaders, from a profound sense of safety in the Empire’s em­brace to a deep anxiety about abandonment by Britain. Coll­ective mem­ory now recalls a rallying to the cause in 1914, a total id­entific­at­ion with British interests and the need to defeat Germany. But there is an underside to this story: the belief that the newly fed­­erated nat­­ion’s security, and its race purity, must be bought with blood. Be­fore WW1, each Federal government was concerned not with European enem­ies in Europe but with Pacific perils. Fearful of an Awak­ening Asia and worried by opposition to the White Australia pol­icy, they prepared for defence against Japan”. It was almost too worrying for me, an Australian, to continue.

Austral­ia's WW1 stories have always concentrated on the heroics of the ANZAC legend. So mixing the terms White Australia and Anzac seemed senseless. Yes, most Aus­t­ral­ians were per­­fectly aw­are of the horrible, racist treat­ment of aborig­in­als in our history, but that had noth­ing to do with WW1 against Germany. The book ripped away the lay­ers of myth to show that for Aus­tralian leaders, WW1 was a White ra­cial str­uggle, with fear of Japan and distrust of Brit­ain, as much as loath­ing of Ger­many at its core.

Being from non-Christian, non-English speaking Europeans who came to Australia to escape oppression, I did not believe Cochrane could est­ab­lish the important motive for sending our lads to WW1 was to pres­erve White Australia from Asian contamin­at­ion. Despite any other crit­icism of this young nat­ion’s his­t­ory, I still believed most Aust­ral­ians rallied to the war cause in 1914, TOT­ALLY identifying with Brit­ish interests and the need to defeat Germany.

Soon after Australia Federated in Jan 1901, the 2nd prime min­is­­ter/P.M Alfred Deakin introduced legisl­at­ion called the Immig­rat­ion Restrict­ion Act aka White Australia Policy. This was a set of historical rac­ial policies that prevented people of non-European ethnic origin from immigrating to Australia. And from staying here.

Cochrane acknowledged that there was no place in the national hist­ory today for 1] Australia’s obsession for race purity or 2] the fear of Japan that drove the national lead­ers’ strategies, before and during WW1. Yet the defence of White Australia was at the core of their an­xieties and politics. The author started with the first official and most influential war historian C.E.W Bean. Bean was as steeped in race fear as were Australia’s second P.M Alfred Deakin; wartime P.M William Hugh­es; deputy P.M George Pearce; P.M  and other Common­weal­th leaders.

Peter Cochrane's book, 

with PM Billy Hughes' portrait on the cover

Bean believed that Austral­ia’s destiny would be played out in the Pac­if­ic. He believed that a formidable challenge facing Australia was the racial challenge i.e the threat of Japan to the survival of White Aus­tralia. And that Australia was the Last Land open to the White man, the last bastion of pure Anglo-Saxon blood. This was a problem for Bean who was well aware that fear of Japan was the strategic motive behind Australia’s preparation pre-war, 1902-14, and its commitment throughout WW1. Yet Japan was a loyal ally, so Bean was cautious writ­ing about safeguarding Australia against race pollution from Japan.

Andrew Fisher, three times P.M between 1908-15, was deeply disturbed by Japan’s expansionist activities in the Pacific, by the diplomatic pressure for trade concessions, by fear of British acquies­cence to Japan, by the recurring worry that Japan might switch sides, and by the weight of that nation’s leverage in London.

Having deep anxiety about abandonment by the Motherland (Britain) was like no longer trusting beloved parents. The Australian government was hugely frustrated by Japan’s rise to power under the aegis of Bri­t­­ain and by London’s lack of understanding of Australia’s peril.

One of the concerns behind the talk of Japanese invasion or British betrayal was the surge of anxieties about the Pacific. There was a rum­­our about the 1915 Anglo–Japanese talks re ren­ewing their Treaty. Renunciation would free the Japanese of oblig­ation to the British Emp­ire, perhaps freeing them to support Germany instead. In fact the prime minister publicly spoke of the issue in 1916, urging his able-bodied country men before his vital conscription referendum: “I bid you go and fight for White Australia in France”.

Racist, anti-German conscription poster, 1916

Pro-British conscription poster, 1916

So commitment to WW1 was driven by White Aust­ral­ia's sense of vulner­ability locally; leaders feared nightmare scenarios in which Australia could be left to fend for itself, unaided by Britain. So when the war arrived in 1914, the strategy was thus: by prom­is­ing tot­al support for the Motherland, the Aust­r­alians hoped to secure Brit­ain's unequ­iv­oc­al sup­p­ort for a safe, White Australia in return.

The last question was why did Australia’s leaders’ obsession with Japan and race purity, stretching from colonial times (i.e pre-Federation) to the Paris Peace Conf­er­ence of 1919-20, disappear from our history books? Simple! No-one wanted to expose and acknowledge the uncomfort­able rac­ial truth at the heart of Australia’s role before/in WW1.

Illuminated address from returned soldiers in Brisbane, presented to P.M Hughes in 1919, 

thanking him for his work for the preservation of a White Australia.

Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights/CMHR in Winnipeg Manitoba was orig­inally conceived by media entrep­reneur Israel Asper, who estab­l­ish­ed a foundation in 2003 to create the museum, and was created via the efforts of members of the Asper family along with many oth­ers. Friends of the CMHR was formed as a registered charity in 2002, a public and private sector partner­ship.

Museum with central city in the background

 

Designed by U.S architect Antoine Pred­ock, the museum was only Canada's 5th national museum, and the first nat­ional mus­­eum to be built outside the National Capital Region. Known for his skill in interpreting regional identity through buildings, Predock created forms that were appropriate to landscapes and to human experience. His designs showed how human beings could interact spiritually with a building, technology, the natural environment and each other. In this unconventional structure of curving lines and bold geometry, the surfaces were irregular and the walls sloped at unusual angles.

glowing, criss-crossing ramps to the galleries

USA Today

Visitors savour the beauty of the architect­ure, esp­ecially the backlit alabaster ramps in the Hall of Hope, pools of water in the Garden of Contemplation and the Asper Tower of Hope, a 100-metre glass spire with views over the city skyline. There is also a coffeeshop with great city views and since the Museum is a pl­ace to learn, the coffeeshop is a peaceful, fine place to reflect on human rights.

The cent­ral concept of the mu­seum was to promote human rights aw­are­ness through innovative teach­ing initiat­ives. Prominent among these was the crea­t­ion of a nat­ion­al stud­ent travel programme that would bring 20,000+ students each year to the museum.

Building started in 2009 and the op­en­­ing cerem­on­ies took place in Sept 2014 for the gall­er­ies in this im­p­ort­ant cultural in­stit­ution. Its goal was to enhance the public's underst­and­ing of hu­man rights, to encourage refl­ect­ion and dialogue. It examined hu­man rights world­wide, focusing on human rights in a Ca­n­adian context.

Opened to the public in 2014, the Museum dominates the city skyline and is a special building architecturally outside and in. Spanning seven floors, the museum is brilliantly curated. There are 11 gall­eries spread across the museum, showing an array of human rights issues: What are Human Rights; Indigenous persp­ect­ives; Canadian Journeys; Protect­ing Rig­hts in Canada; Examining the Holocaust; Turning Points for Human­ity; Breaking the Silence; Actions Count, Rights Today; Inspiring Change; Expressions. 

Indigenous perspectives

CMHR

Winnipeg was a significant choice for the museum's location. This city played a role in important historical events eg the Winn­ipeg General Strike of 1919, that affected Canada’s civil rights move­ment, advan­cement of Indig­en­ous Peoples, women, French speakers and workers. It was home to one of Canada's most diverse commun­it­ies, linking Francophones, First Nations, Métis and immigrant societies.

The Indigenous Perspectives gallery included a commissioned work by Ojibwa artist Rebecca Belmore, a handmade ceramic blanket from a series exam­in­ing the ongoing trauma of Indigenous Peop­les. Canadian Journeys featured res­id­ential schools exhibits, forced rel­oc­­ation of the Inuit, internment of Japanese Can­ad­ians in WW2, Ch­inese head tax, Underground Railroad, Komagata Maru and the Winnipeg General Strike. Examining The Holo­caust also explored other genoc­ides eg Ukrainian Famine 1932-3, Armenian Genocide, Rwandan Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia.

The museum was plagued by controversy from 2 dir­ections. In 2008-12, archaeologists Sid Kroker and David McLeod excav­ated the mus­eum’s building site and recovered c400,000 ancient Ind­ig­en­ous arte­facts. Therefore the site may’ve been an inapp­rop­riate location for the Canad­ian Museum for Hu­man Rights, especially if it was loc­ated right on an Indigenous burial ground.

The second controversy was the sep­ar­ate galleries allotted to the Holocaust and the persecution of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. From 2010, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Canadians for Genocide Educ­ation and German-Canadian Congress stated that it was improper to give special status to two gross violations of hum­an rights over others eg Ukrainians’ internment in camps across Canada (1914-20).

I Helen see two other problems. This Museum is a member of the Can­adian Heritage Portfolio and reports to Parlia­ment through its Min­ister. How would anyone know if a Canadian Her­itage Minister had pressured the mus­eum to cast Can­ada’s human rig­hts record positive­ly. And there is rarely un­an­imity on what de­stroys human rights. I would gaol any father who raped his daugh­t­er, if he wouldn’t allow an abortion. Oth­ers would gaol me for kil­l­ing a foetus.

Alongside the permanent galleries, see the temporary exh­ib­itions. The exhibit Climate Justice highlighted the connections between hum­an rights and climate change, making youth activism stand out. In 2019, youth worldwide went on school strikes, taking over city streets and loudly denouncing inaction on climate change. They fil­led the streets and pro­tested with signs expressing anger and fear about THEIR future, not their parents’. Greta Thunberg (15) went on a school strike in 2018, igniting a gl­obal move­ment. 500,000 people protested in Montreal with her in Sep 2019 and there were more strikes in 150 different cities that day.

There were and are so many people around the world who, for too much of history, have been denied basic human rights, stripped of and persecuted because of their culture, religion and identity. It is absolutely necessary to bring these stories from around the world stories to light. Ultimately, as the museum’s web­site states, the museum strives “to build under­standing, promote respect, and encourage reflection.”

maps

kubikmaltbie

 

The exhibits explore human rights issues such as Indigenous rights, disability rights, gay rights, and stories of war and gen­ocide that people continue to face. And while it is often a moving and emot­ional experience, there ARE many stories of triumph, courage and the human ability to survive. Witness the power of hope and triumph in the face of the greatest chall­en­ges to human rights.

Thank you to Canadian Encyclopaedia.