Koorie Heritage Trust – Whats on in March

As we enter into March and the beautiful weather that autumn brings in Melbourne, it’s timely to reflect that around this time last year, our city came to a standstill with the growing threat of the COVID-19 virus. Little did we know that when we closed our doors on 19 March 2020, that we would not be reopening and welcoming people back into our building until December. While as a community we need to remain conscious of the ongoing threat of the virus, particularly to ensure protection of the most vulnerable in our community, we welcome the opportunity to return to a post-COVID normalcy, and are particularly delighted to see people slowly returning to the city and Federation Square. We will however continue with our KHT Online program and particularly KHT Voices. If you have not yet done so, I encourage you to jump online and read about our Victorian Aboriginal community during the time of COVID.
We are of course once again open and welcoming visitors onsite to connect and reconnect with Aboriginal Victoria. However, being conscious of our responsibility to staff and visitors, we will have in place a range of public health and safety measures. This means a cap on visitors at any one time in our building and a requirement to record details for contact tracing purposes. Social distancing will continue to apply, and while masks are no longer mandatory, we strongly recommend that you continue to wear a mask particularly if social distancing is not possible.
We are particularly keen for you to visit us and see our latest exhibition Deadly Narratives: Recent Collection Highlights which will open to the public this weekend. This exhibition weaves together the story of Aboriginal Victoria through imagery represented in artworks collected by us in the 5 years since our relocation to Federation Square in 2015. The exhibition showcases the unique and important place the Koorie Heritage Trust Collection holds in Victoria and nation-wide. In addition to the featured artists, I wish to also acknowledge the very generous support of Gandel Philanthropy whose Major Grants program supported the acquisition of a number of key artworks featured in the exhibition, into our collection.
In February we closed the 8th Koorie Art Show 2020 and the 3rd Koorie Art Show for Kids and Youth. I wish to once again acknowledge and thank all of our many Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists who submitted works for exhibition acknowledging that all of them were working under restrictions imposed by the COVID lockdown. The fact that we were able to attract the number and quality of entries is a testament to the drive of the Indigenous artistic community that we have in Victoria. I wish to also acknowledge all the winners of the numerous awards in both exhibitions, as well as award sponsors Creative Victoria, Metro Tunnel Creative Program, Viva Energy Australia and City of Melbourne Aboriginal Melbourne.
Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Gnokan danna murra kor-ki | Give me your hand my friend
From the Board and Staff of the Koorie Heritage Trust