What Is Colonialism and How Are We Haunted Here?

"Gippsland" history through cognitive mapping workshops: What Is Colonialism and How Are We Haunted Here?

Settlers are invited to participate in workshops exploring the history of white invasion here in "Gippsland". Cognitive mapping will be the tool we use to express and explore the knowledge we each already hold about local history and we will explore how we carry this knowledge in our everyday lives.

These workshops will provide you with a clear understanding of how European people occupied these lands, and how this invasion relates to the legal definition of genocide. You will also learn what different kinds of sources of information about this past remain in the present and how you can find them yourself.

Bookings essential. Places limited. For bookings, contact the organiser, not East Gippsland Art Gallery. Email Dr Shannon Woodcock at shannonwoodcock1@gmail.com.

There are three courses that will run, each with the same content. 50% of the cost will pay the rent on Country. Participants are invited to bring their preferred pencils/crayons/pens.

Group 1
Sunday 24 Feb 3–6pm and Sunday 3 March 3–6pm

Group 2
3 consecutive Thursday nights, 6–8pm 14, 21, 28 Febuary

Group 3
3 consecutive Tuesday nights, 6–8pm 5, 12, 19 March

The workshop will be conducted by Shannon, who has twenty years experience in the field of genocide studies. Shannon has used cognitive mapping as a tool to explore the past with both survivors and perpetrators of genocide, and has been a post-doctoral researcher at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and worked at the University of Tirana, Albania, and La Trobe University. The questions we will discuss in this workshop include the following.

What do we know of how settlers committed and commit genocide across countries? How are we haunted by these histories? Where do the ghosts of our colonial ancestors appear and how do we respond to them? What does it mean to 'settle' on country where our sovereignty nests within the unceded sovereignty of First Nations people?

Image: Letter from Henry Howard Meyrick 1846
H15805 in Meyrick 1840–1847 [manuscript]
Box 101/3 State Library Victoria