Coomaditchie: The art of place - Family history of activism

The historical documents showcased in the exhibition, Coomaditchie: The Art of Place, are from the NSW State Archives collection and were unearthed by First Nations curator, Tess Allas. They show the letters written by Allas’s grandfather Jack Tattersall to various state government Lands Ministers from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s demanding land and housing for the people of Coomaditchie (near Port Kembla). This campaign was eventually successful, but Jack never lived long enough to see the fruits of his labour. The artists of Coomaditchie now all live at the settlement which Jack and his contemporaries fought for, and they did so with grace, intellectualism, and elegance. These documents were originally held by the NSW Department of Lands and have now been transferred to the Archives for ease of access for all of Jack’s descendants and future researchers.