Addison Road Childcare Centre to play key role in Inner West Council History Week

Children and educators from Addison Road Early Learning Centre in Marrickville, an inner western suburb of Sydney, will play a core role in Inner West Council’s Library and History Services’ has for History Week , held 4-12 September.

History Week 2021 is part of the History Council of New South Wales annual, state-wide celebration of history.

The 2021 theme is ‘From the Ground Up’, suggested by Mina Bui Jones from Addison Road Community Organisation, who said it was a reminder of the importance of place and Country while also suggesting that people’s histories, local histories, community histories form “stories from the streets and from the soil that provide the material and the momentum for the making of history.”

The Inner West is home to many grassroots community groups that have achieved amazing social initiatives ‘from the ground up’, including the childcare centre, which will present  From the Ground Up: Many Little Voices: raising multicultural communities in the Inner West – examining the historic role of one of the State’s first multicultural childcare centres, opened by then Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1988.

Other presentations and components of History Week include: 

• From the Ground Up: forefront of Gay and Lesbian activism

Robyn Plaister, feminist and lesbian rights activist for and inspiration for the ABC TV show The Riot, talks about her life as a social agitator.

• From the Ground Up: interview with the Federation of Italian Migrants (FILEF)

President Claudio Marcello and Secretary Bruno Dibiase reflect on the activities and activism of FILEF and discuss their human rights achievements over five decades – from Aboriginal rights to fighting for migrant worker’s rights.

• Mental Health From the Ground Up: Pioneering consumer activists who changed mental health

More information about the events of History Week is available here.