tour of power in Canberra

Two of the members of the Irene's Place steering committee led us on a tour of Canberra looking at how Canberra is laid out and what that means about power and who is at the center and who is on the margins.
We started by looking at maps in our lounge.

Then we went up to parliament. We looked at where it is in the city, what it faces, what it is in line with and talked about what that might mean.

We moved on to something that is in the middle of things but largely unknown or un-noticed. We talked about how Australia has treated their indigenous people and how public statements are made about this relationship or not.
We walked through reconciliation place asking who is this talking about and how? What do we see here?

From there we went to the war memorial, but stoped first at a small memorial hidden on a mountainside to the indigenous people who lost their lives.

This picture is of looking at a statue outside the large war memorial.

We looked around inside the memorial and asked what do you notice and is this a religious space? What symbols do you see and a few other thought provoking questions.

We ended with a discussion about what we had seen and were left to think about the placement of power in this city. Who is remembered and who isn't? What holds the places of power and what is sidelined?