Page 2030 - Week 06 - Friday, 6 May 2005

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

(4) 2001-2002: Support of management infrastructure of Indigenous housing provider to better service the community’s housing needs.

2003-2004: Improvement of community facilities.

2004-2005: At the conclusion of this contract, each organisation will have a networked computer system and will have undertaken a complete training program to provide Indigenous people with skills sufficient for use in bridging the digital divide.

(5) I am not aware of any investigation into Billabong Aboriginal Corporation.

(6) N/A.

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders—memorials
(Question No 362)

Mrs Burke asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Indigenous Affairs, upon notice, on 6 April 2005:

(1) In relation to the Cotter/‘Onyong’ memorial site in the Naas Valley, what evidence is there to suggest that the person known as ‘Hong Yong’/ ‘Onyong’ was not a fictitious person;

(2) Who commissioned the memorial;

(3) What was the total cost of erecting this memorial;

(4) Where did the memorial rock originate from;

(5) Where is the memorial located geographically;

(6) What tender process, informal or formal, was used to assess the successful tender to carry out the works;

(7) Who made the decision for funding to be released and when was this funding awarded;

(8) Who was the successful tenderer and/or eventual provider of the works and how much did they receive.

Mr Stanhope: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) During the 19th century it was the practice for colonial governments to distribute clothing and blankets to Aboriginal communities. An authoritative source states Onyong, or ‘Hong Kong’ as being recorded on a blanket distribution list at Janevale [Wanniassa/Tuggeranong], Murray Shire in June 1834. This record designates Hong Kong as the ‘chief’ of the ‘Namwich tribe’. In a list of blankets distributed at the Queanbeyan police office in 5 May 1841 ‘Hong-gong’ was designated ‘chief’ of the Limestone Blacks. Evidence to suggest that the person known as ‘Hong Yong’/’Onyong’ was not a fictitious person exists in historical records held at the Archives Office of NSW. Historical evidence relating to ‘Hong Yong’/’Onyong’ is published in Ann Jackson-Nakano, The Kamberri: a history from the records of Aboriginal families in the

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .