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Planning a way forward for Kowanyama Project
Old Butcher Shop on Chapman Road in the 1960’s Now the site of the Culture and Research Centre
KOWANYAMA COUNCIL APPLIES FOR GRANT
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Planning a way forward for Kowanyama Project
Kowanyama Project has some good news for readers. The campaign to raise the money for a new and bigger Cultural Centre which stalled following financial difficulties of Council almost a decade ago has continued over the years of recovery of the Council position. Kowanyama Project facilitated a series of cultural events and activities and has been busy in the meantime keeping the dream alive. Serious discussions on the future development and operation of a new Centre are planned for 2020, once Covid 19 has run its course in Australia and things get back to normal. Council has applied for a State Government grant to cover the costs of developing a firm direction in developing the new centre. Hopefully it will be the end of more than twenty years of community talk and planning and everyone can get down to the business of finding the money needed to build a home for the Kowanyama Museum Collection and a place where people can visit and enjoy. It will be a place that helps in the maintenance of Culture and history of Kowanyama and the Mitchell River region. Many people have said, “Is this thing ever going to happen? When are we going to see the new Cultural and museum Centre everyone talks about”? Hopefully now things are on the way and Kowanyama will see something to be truly proud of in the near future.
The grant application round ended at the end of April. Now it is a waiting game to see how we go. Kowanyama has had two Premiers, two Governors and at least six MP’s. More recent visits of prominent guests have been very impressed with the significance and size of Kowanyama’s Museum Collection.
There was a question in some people’s minds in Government of the value of the project. Kowanyama’s response is that it was money well spent in securing a vital collection for Cape York. The State and the people got their money’s worth.
Phase one: In the factory Feb 2009 Building is on site May 2009 Minister Kate Jones visits Oct 2009
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Two decades of community planning 2002 to 2020
In 2007 when the Queensland Government was planning celebrations for Queensland’s 150th anniversary as a State they were looking for iconic projects for Queensland. Kowanyama Aboriginal Council applied for a grant to build cultural centre and won it to house an iconic collection. We all thought foolishly at the time that the grant monies would cover the costs. Kowanyama builds houses for $600,000 due to remoteness and cost of transport of materials etc.
When Kowanyama got the State’s largest grant for a community organisation, we realised it was not enough to achieve the dream of the size and kind of centre needed to house its Museum Collection. It had to be a place to display the richness of Kowanyama heritage to others that made us proud. The idea after some thought was to break project into two parts. Phase one would be a building that provided safe space for the Kowanyama Collection at risk from bugs and the weather in the Kowanyama Land Office, and accommodation for a person working on the museum collection. Award winning Architect, Dale Evans Jones in Sydney was commissioned to do plans for the future bigger centre, visiting Kowanyama several times with his technical staff.
Phase two is planned to be construction of a “state of the art” centre on a site chosen on Cabbage Island. In the end the site was thought to be a problem with flooding and potential environmental damage to Magnificent creek which is already under stress. A search is on for a site for the future building that is safe from possible future higher levels of wet season flooding expected over the coming decades as a result of changing weather patterns. Suitable land is scarce in the town area
In 2010 Kowanyama Project Campaign was established with the help of Bush TV. Kowanyama Project Facebook Page and a web site were developed to promote the Project. The Kowanyama Facebook page scored 2000 likes over a fairly short time.
OUR DREAM
Premier Anna Bligh December 2009 The campaign was underway with an early draft of a campaign strategy drawn up for circulation and comment but soon after Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council experienced serious financial difficulties and the fund raiser went on hold. The target was six to seven million dollars at the time to build Kowanyama’s Culture and Research Centre and realise the dream, but it wasn’t the time to be asking Government or philanthropists for that sort of money. Kowanyama Project has two objectives now: The first to raise the money to operate the centre of phase one. The second objective is to restart the fundraising campaign for the building of the new centre as phase two of Kowanyama Project now that Council is in a better position to support what will be another major infrastructure project for Kowanyama
