September 1998

Historic handover at Musgrave Park

FOLLOWING a struggle that has lasted more than 20 years, the Musgrave Park Aboriginal Corporation (MPAC) has finally secured a portion of Musgrave Park in South Brisbane to build a cultural centre.

The Queensland Government has handed over a Deed of Grant in Trust to the Brisbane City Council, which will negotiate a lease with the MPAC.

The handing over ceremony was held on 24 August at the site of the proposed cultural centre at the southernmost end of Musgrave Park adjacent to Brisbane State High School.

The land also includes the tennis courts in Cordelia Street.

Minister for Environment and Heritage Rod Welford said it was a "pleasure and an honour" for the Government to at last observe this historic "handover".

MPAC president Selwyn Johnson commenced by saying, "It's about time".

He said he was "very proud" to accept the long-term lease from the Council but the struggle had "been going on for much more than 20 years" and that the decision was "well and truly overdue".

"After all the kicks in the guts, and after all the opposition", the MPAC had finally been given the go-ahead to develop and establish a cultural centre "on our own piece of land", Mr Johnson said.

"The significance of Musgrave Park to Murri people is well known . . . right throughout this country.

"Every Murri knows that Musgrave Park, in Brisbane, is where you go to meet the Murris . . . It is also spiritually significant . . . as is well known, as is well documented," he said.

Mr Welford also acknowledged "the enormous cultural significance" the land has to Indigenous people and expressed his appreciation for the hard work of the Murri community, the Council and in particular the efforts of the State Member for South Brisbane, Anna Bligh in seeing this historic occasion to fruition.

"We share with you that this is part of our Reconciliation," he said.

The cultural centre will display Aboriginal culture and heritage to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and to international visitors.

The centre will host dance, arts and crafts "and other cultural things like boomerangs and didgeridoos", said Mr Johnson.

He said that because of what white people had done, many Murri children had lost their culture.

"We've got to restore and rebuild that in our own children."

Mr Johnson especially thanked MPAC founder Patrick Murdoch and members of the Cultural Centre Committee.

Mr Welford said that the proposed cultural centre represented "an opportunity for employment to be created" in the Murri community and that it would add to the "diversity and culture" already present in South Brisbane.

"The Aboriginal people can present to the rest of the community, and to their own community, the rich heritage that they bring to this area . . . which they have held in this area even before European settlement," said Mr Welford.

Other Queensland Government Ministers who attended the ceremony were Families Youth & Community Care Minister Anna Bligh, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Policy Minister Judy Spence, and Attorney-General Matt Foley.

FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation
Phone +61 7 3391 4677 • Fax +61 7 3391 4551 • email letterbox@faira.org.au
Post Office Box 8402 Woolloongabba Q 4102 Australia
37 Balaclava Street Woolloongabba