Redfern Community Centre Opening 25 August 2016

SERVING COUNTRY IN REDFERN

Indigenous Australia’s contribution to Australia’s Defence Force to be proudly commemorated on 2016 ANZAC DAY 2016

When:                                 12pm, 25 April 2016 – Exhibition opening

Where:               Redfern Community Centre, 29-53 Hugo St, Redfern

For further details and interviews, please contact: Jenny Muir 02 9212 3888, 0415 401 200

The Head On Festival and the Coloured Diggers March will mark the 2016 ANZAC Day commemorations with the “Serving Country” portrait exhibition, telling remarkable stories of a century of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen and women.

The Serving Country exhibition, by Belinda Mason and Dieter Knierim, exposes the real experiences of many generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and individuals who have proudly served and continue to serve in Australia’s Defence Force. The exhibition serves as a platform for sharing of stories, both inspiring and devastating.­­­

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers have served our nation for more than a century – from South Africa and Gallipoli, the trenches of Belgium and France, and the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam, to the rocky deserts of Afghanistan. The exhibition highlights the fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders served in Australia’s defence forces even before they were granted the most basic rights of citizenship in the 1970s.

Serving Country exhibition forms a part of the Head On Festival, in conjunction with the 2016 Coloured Diggers March. It will open at the Redfern Community Centre at 12pm on 25 April 2016, where it will be displayed for eight weeks. The Coloured Diggers March is one of the largest community events in Redfern, attracting people from across the country and overseas.

The Serving Country exhibition has been previously part of the VIVID Festival Wartime Legends light show, Department of Defence of Department of Veterans’ Affairs NAIDOC week celebration.