Media Release: Unsung Heroes – Stories from Dubbo DVD launch

Mission Australia, together with the Dubbo Koori Interagency Network, will launch Unsung Heroes – Stories from Dubbo, a DVD documenting the lives of Dubbo’s Aboriginal Unsung Heroes, on Wednesday the 1st of June at 11am at Western Plains Cultural Centre, 76 Wingewarra Street, Dubbo.

Unsung Heroes is a unique project and important resource for the Dubbo region, with students from the Dubbo College Senior Campus’ Aboriginal Studies class interviewing the Elders who share their personal experiences of their past and growing up in an Australia where Aboriginal people didn’t have citizenship rights.

According to Dale Towns, Service Manager for Mission Australia services in Central and Far West NSW, this project was the brainchild of the Dubbo Koori Interagency Network (DKIN) who realised after the death of two well loved local Elders that not only did the community lose two well respected Elders but also their history, life experience and stories.

“This project will provide information of cultural significance & reflects the personal experiences of the Elders growing up as an Aboriginal person,” Ms Towns said.

“In this way, others, particularly our children, can learn about the past from a personal perspective of what it was like to grow up as an Aboriginal person in times past, not just what is written in history books.”

Ms Towns said that originally, the plan for the project was for the Elders to record their experiences.

“However, as the project progressed, the students who did the interviewing as well as the Mission Australia support staff were so moved by what they heard, that it was decided that their reactions to the Elders’ experiences would also be recorded on the DVD,” she said.

Unsung Heroes was filmed and edited by Mission Australia’s CreativeYouth Initiatives (CYI), based in Sydney. This is a service that provides disadvantaged young people in the Sydney area the opportunity to access TAFE-accredited art and music courses. Staff from CYI travelled to Dubbo for a week from in November last year to assist the students from the Dubbo College Senior Campus to complete the filming.

At the launch, a 10 minute trailer of the DVD will be screened, and copies of the full DVD – about two hours in length – will be distributed for people to watch in their own time.

The 10 minute trailer will be displayed on the Dubbo Koori Interagency Network website – http://www.dubbokin.com.au/ – providing the opportunity for the Unsung Heroes – Stories from Dubbo DVD to be viewed by anyone interested in Aboriginal history from around the world.

Media contact: Leanne Budd 0457 505 342