‘Historical Perspectives’: Hassall Family and First Nations
‘Historical Perspectives’ is a working group of the family Historical Association, that commenced in 2023 with a goal for future Truth-telling.
A preliminary conversation was started on Saturday 6th May at the 2023 reunion, with the aim to begin an ongoing project of reconciliation. Danielle Hassall facilitated the activities, hosting approximately 20 people in attendance.
- Mary Hassall gave a recount of the work done at the 1998 bicentenary and the process of the Sorry book.
- We looked at which indigenous lands the family occupied and from which lineage groups.
- We used the Hassall Family book to review the regions of inheritance by the 2nd generation and our recent lines. This task was enormous, and we decided it should be a part of our ongoing work in collaboration with other project groups.
- We then looked at excerpts of the written account of the Hassall’s with Indigenous peoples by James Hassall, Thomas’s son [AAA], juxtaposed with an excerpt of The First Australians documentary by Rachel Perkins [link to SBS site to access this documentary].
- We asked attendees to map the places lived of their family line across indigenous lands over generations, using the bicentenary book, as time and place mapping – with the intention of participants presencing themselves in time and place with Indigenous land boundaries and ownership.
The session was mostly well received, and we had 10-12 people sign up to continue the work.
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