We are proud to announce that – finally – all four of Rowan Gillespie’s From the Shadows statues have been installed and unveiled.
From the Shadows would like to thank our major sponsors: the Federal Department of Infrastructure (facilitated by Andrew Wilkie MP, Member for Clark); Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (PAHSMA); and the Federal Group. We would also like to thank our generous donors, including the State Government (through Hon. Elise Archer MP, Member for Clark); South Hobart Progress Association; Friends of the Orphan Schools; Female Convicts Research Centre; Convict Women’s Press and the Fellowship of First Fleeters; and our many individual and family donors and supporters.
We would also like to thank Robyn Boyd, CEO, Southern Cross Care, and Stephen Shirley, Chairman, Southern Cross Care, for allowing us to use their land at 85 Creek Road, New Town for the Orphan School Children statues
Many individuals have helped bring the project to fruition and we would like to thank Jennifer Bett; Pru Bonham; Jo Doyle, WLF; Julie Hawkins, In Graphic Detail; Elaine Crawford, for our website; Sue Hickey; Caroline Homer and Ross Latham, Tasmanian Archives; John Kelly, Footsteps towards Freedom; Michael Lawrence and Cameron Green, documentary makers; Paul Lennon; Angie Magowan, archaeologist; Deidre Macdonald and Russell Dobbie, Heritage Tasmania; Tony Parker; Rev. Bill Stewart, St John’s Church, New Town; Paul Swifte, Insurance Masters; Becher Townsend, Font PR; Elizabeth Wilson and the HCC Planning team; our musicians, Lags and Lasses and the Lochner Violin Quartet; piper Katy Robinson; Alistair Bett, photographer; and, of course, our models, Brydie (Martha), Emily (Elizabeth), Viktor and Estella (William and Mary Ann).
Last but by no means least, Irish sculptor, Rowan Gillespie, for his poignant and evocative works of art, and the significant contribution he has made to interpreting forgotten aspects of Tasmania’s history.
From the Shadows team
(Bob, Dianne, David, Lorraine, Ros, Sandra and Darryl)
From The Shadows Committee and Rowan Gillespie at the Launch February 27, 2020.
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13,000 convict women, together with more than 2,000 of their free children, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from 1803 to 1853. On arrival, the women were sent to the Cascades Female Factory or a similar institution, and their children were taken from them and sent to the bleak and miserable Orphan Schools at New Town. In all, nearly 6,000 children, mostly the children of convicts, were admitted to the Orphan Schools from 1828 to 1879. For many women sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, their anguish at being forced to leave the country of their birth and undergo a sea voyage of over 12,000 miles to a strange land can only be imagined. Children have always been part of the convict story, if not always a visible one. Many children experienced institutional life even before arriving in Van Diemen’s Land, incarcerated in gaols or workhouses. While they were serving their sentences the women were powerless to keep their children with them. For many of these children their formative years were spent in a range of austere institutions. In the colony, families were fragmented as a result of death, desertion and rigid rules and regulations. Mothers and children lost contact with each other; many were not reunited. Many of the children disappeared from the records once they were released from the Orphan Schools. From the Shadows reflects the emergence of the stories of these convict women and orphan school children from the shadows of the past. From the Shadows follows on from the hugely successful Footsteps towards Freedom statues installed on the Hobart waterfront and unveiled by the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, and the Governor of Tasmania, Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, in October 2017. These sculptures, let us remind ourselves, also make common cause with the suffering of migrants in our times. They should remind us that the trauma of displacement and forced exile are not experiences confined to our past, but are the lived experience of millions around the world today, including many who now call Australia home. The statues will create a significant heritage tourism route linking sites integral to the convict story — the Hobart waterfront, the Cascades Female Factory and the Orphan Schools. |
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