Page 3676 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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the APH architect, Romaldo Giurgola, and its arts and crafts program coordinator, Pamille Berg, who subsequently commissioned Fay to produce custom handwoven fabrics for the suites of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Speaker.
As Meredith Hinchliffe, who is also with us in the gallery this evening, has observed:
The project required imagination and expertise with the colour and design aspects, experimentation and determination to refine the technique, and the capacity to complete the job under pressure.
Fay was subsequently commissioned to reproduce the fabric three times for the re-upholstery of furniture pieces at Parliament House. The work was recorded in a 2013 documentary called The Warp and the Weft, a weaving story of national significance produced by Richard Snashall and commissioned by CMAG. CMAG also cares for upholstery fabric samples for Parliament House created by Fay Skyring and Di Lansdown, which they generously donated to the gallery. These featured in last year’s excellent CMAG exhibition Crafting the house on the hill: art, design and the building of Australian Parliament House.
In 2017 Fay was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia—a fitting recognition of her service to the creative arts and to the community of Canberra. In closing, I would like to acknowledge and remember Fay Skyring for her generous contribution to our arts community and the creative legacy that she leaves for Canberra and far beyond.
Kashmir
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.14): I rise this afternoon to speak on an international issue of grave concern—that is, the situation in Kashmir. Last week a prominent member of Canberra’s Islamic community, Mohammad Ali, came to speak with me, along with his compatriot Iqbal Khan. Both gentlemen are longstanding Canberrans and have been very active in contributing to multiculturalism in our community, and I thank them for their contributions.
Mr Ali and Mr Khan told me about some of the complexities in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. There is a long history of territorial dispute and conflict between India and Pakistan. Sadly, we are all too aware of the political unrest and grievances associated with this circumstance. Adding to this burden is the religious divide in what is a predominantly Muslim state—India being, of course, a majority Hindu country.
The United Nations has been actively involved over a number of years in the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The UN Security Council has passed a resolution stating that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be able to decide their own fate with free will in a UN-organised plebiscite. This resolution was passed very shortly after partition and India’s and Pakistan’s independence.
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