After COVID, and a year of not running the ever popular Alphington Open Studios weekend in the last week of November, the artists involved are keen to get going again this year (scheduled for 28-28 November for anyone who likes to diarise such things), but are also rethinking the event somewhat and contemplating new possibilities… and as such they are seeking new artists to join in.

So, if you are:

• a local practising artist (2D or 3D artist or photographer) with a studio in Alphington and would like to have your address on the map,

• a practising artist who lives nearby in surrounding suburbs who would be interested to joining in, or

• a local emerging artist keen to join in a group exhibition over the weekend,

please email us here. And someone from ACC or an artist already participating in the Alphington Open Studios weekend will be in touch. Be brave. How exciting!

Fred Colla was one of the artists exhibiting at ACC as part of the Alphington Open Studios weekend in 2019

If you have always wanted to ride into the sunset, or ride to the shops or ride to work, and never learnt how, now you can book into this workshop at Jika Jika Community Centre (our friends in Westgarth) to build up skills and confidence over 3 sessions. The cost $130/$60. What a great idea! Just call them on 9482 5100 to find out more and book in.

One of the nicest things about the programs run at a neighbourhood house is that they typically emerge from the local community.

We love helping people in the neighbourhood incubate their workshop idea, share their hobby or even share their professional talent with their neighbours, and it’s rewarding to think that our house has helped many people kick off their small business.

Currently Matthew is running regular guitar lessons and Manu recently ran the Chai Tea Workshop, the first of many cultural cooking experiences she hopes to share. Louisa is sharing her talents through the Art in the Shed classes and even the sewing machine workshops run by Gordon this term were a recommendation from another local, Louise, who told us how great he was.

And, now is the time of the year we ask you to put your thinking caps on, as we embark on program planning for second semester.

If you have a workshop or short course you’d like to run yourself for the community please email or call us on 9499 7227 and talk to Leanne. If you have any recommendations for a great workshop or activity you’ve been part of elsewhere and can send us the contact details for who ran it please also let us know. Or any other ideas of things we should do … we’re fans of new ideas here at ACC!

We’ll be working on the program early June, with a plan to have our brochure out and ready for letterboxing by the time school holidays roll around.

We’re looking forward to your input.

Kalimna, Jenny and I went along to the NHVic lunch on Tuesday and came back with the Fiona Richardson Gender Equity Award for 2021, for Women in the Shed.

It has been a collective effort to get this program up and running, and we thank all the women in the community who suggested that we needed a dedicated women’s shed program and then joined in, and also Jen Dentoom who taught the program in its infancy. Her relaxed kindness and inclusive can-do attitude really set the tone.

We’re super pleased that it has been so popular in our community, and it is lovely to be recognised by our industry peak body.

We’re just a little neighbourhood house in the scheme of things and it’s great that we can get interesting programs like this off the ground and also get the story out.

We’ll be looking forward to welcoming more women to the program in terms 3 and 4. We now run it three days a week, with two tutors (Jen and Maylei).

“Hello earth” - Kate Bush*

Leanne here again … You know that when Melbourne was settled, our little pocket, nestled in the fertile banks of 3 rivers - the Yarra, Darebin Creek and Merri Creek was the food bowl of Melbourne as it emerged right? Fulham Grange (hello Fulham Road, hello Grange Road) was the farm owned by the Perry family (hello Perry Street) that was a flourishing orchard and became a massive agricultural business - the biggest orchard, tree nursery and cannery in Melbourne. And the flood plains of Darebin Creek were Chinese market gardens … an agricultural paradise …

But obviously the Perry brothers and the Chinese immigrants who arrived with the gold rush weren’t the first people hanging out here right? And so we can presume, assume and see (from the scar trees etc. along the river and creeks for example) that this was also a pretty attractive place to live well for the First Nations people that were here before us, the Wurrundjeri woiwurrung, our pre-invasion predecessors proudly living life on the north side (that’s right, specifically not the south side) of the Yarra.

Reconciliation week is fast approaching and this year we are going to do the spiritual healing trail through Darebin Parklands with our friends at Jika Jika Community Centre as an active process to contemplate National Reconciliation. You can join us at 11am on Tuesday 1 June. We’ll start at ACC, do the walk and come back here to share lunch together.

On the walk I suspect I will be thinking about:

1. This episode of The First Australians series that was shown on SBS quite a few years ago now. I watched it at the time and I often think about it. If you don’t know about what happened to our former landowners, the Wurrundjeri people, post-colonisation, watch it as your crash course. It is so eye-opening, and sad, and then temporarily hopeful and tragically sad again.

2. Lydia Thorpe. She is now one of our Federal senators. And no matter your politics I find it so interesting to see her targeted focus, her passion and the clarity of her voice as a young, unapologetic and uncompromising First Nations advocate. I am sure Fitzroy High would be pretty proud to have participated in her education. I follow her on Twitter.

3. My time in State government. I worked in the environment department, where it was soon clear that ‘the cultural load’ of being a First Nations spokesperson or representative for all the consultation processes and welcomes etc. - for anyone who put their hand up - became quickly overwhelming. But at the same time it’s so important to have First Nations voices right? Oh it’s not simple.

4. My time at University. In particular I took ‘Aboriginal History’ the very first year it ran at Melbourne University. It was an amazing course because a). it seemed every First Nations political activist in Melbourne was there to robustly participate, heckle and correct each lecture, and b). Patrick, the lecturer who conceived of the course had previously taught Irish History, and had himself been the colonised … and it was quite a turn of the tables for him to set up this course and then be lumped in with the other British folk - and be treated as the coloniser.

Hopefully you’ll have your own experiences and thoughts to consider as we wander together through our collective backyard. Or perhaps you’d just like to recognise the importance of doing something (a thoughtful walk is as good a place to start as any) and/or show support. We’d love you to join us. Register here and we’ll see you on Tuesday 1 June at 11am!

*love