Closing Weekend – ‘We Were Just Little Boys’

Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 May

Join us for the final weekend of the Centre for Contemporary Photography’s current exhibition ‘Only the future revisits the past’. This special event is held in a partnership between CCP and the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC), focusing on the work of exhibiting artist Tace Stevens, We Were Just Little Boys.

Across the two-day event, visitors will have the opportunity to attend Truth Telling Sessions from the Survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home, a film screening and panel discussion, and to experience the country’s first ever Stolen Generations Mobile Education Centre (MEC). The MEC will be parked near CCP for the entirety of the event. The centre aims to educate children, young people and communities (Aboriginal and non-Indigenous) of the ongoing impacts of the Stolen Generations

This event seeks to encourage visitors to have a greater understanding of what Reconciliation means for Australia in the context of healing through Truth Telling.

The event is free and everyone is welcome to attend.

This project was produced with support from the World Monuments Fund and Magnum Foundation. Support for this event has been provided by the Magnum Foundation and held in collaboration with the KBHAC.

Accommodation is supported by Veriu Collingwood.

Stolen Generations Mobile Education Centre (MEC)

The bus will be accessible

Saturday: 11am – 5pm
Sunday: 11am – 4pm

Parked in front of the gallery for the entirety of the event, the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Centre’s MEC aims to educate children, young people and communities (Aboriginal and non-Indigenous) of the ongoing impacts of the Stolen Generations. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn through three levels of engagement and a range of resources: oral testimony, archival material, animated film, visual images and timelines.

Truth Telling Sessions: Saturday, 11 May

Gallery 1
11:30am – 12:30pm
2pm – 3pm

MEC
3pm – 4pm

In the Truth Telling Sessions, attendees will hear directly from Survivors of Kinchela Boys Home, who will share their collective experiences and individual stories. These truth-telling sessions will give the Uncles space to directly respond to Stevens’ works and the exhibition, as well as their experiences of returning to the Kinchela Boys Home that has been documented in Stevens’ photographic and film work.

No bookings required.

Sunday 12 May: Film and Panel discussion
Gallery 1, 2pm

There will also be a showing of the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation’s animated video, We Were Just Little Boys (2023). The video is narrated by Kinchela Boys Home survivors and expands on their truth telling work. Some KBH survivors said they have found some solace in the truth telling that comes with sharing their stories and memories. In addition, Stevens’ documentary, To Be Silent (2022) will be shown. The film explores the impact of code-switching on her identity, before revealing what led her to embrace the power of standing firm in who she is, no matter where she is.

Following the viewing, we will hold a panel discussion with the visiting Uncles and Tace Stevens in response to the films.

No bookings required.

Tace Stevens is a Noongar and Spinifex visual storyteller from Western Australia. She uses photography and film to explore this world, and to better understand who she is, as an Aboriginal woman. Her work has a sense of authenticity and truth, revealing the close relationships she has formed with those she photographs.

Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation: (KBHAC) is a not-for-profit Aboriginal community controlled organisation which was established by survivors of Kinchela Boys Home (KBH) to help restore and reconstruct the identity, dignity and integrity of survivors, and to address the intergenerational trauma that adversely impacts on the lives of their families and descendants.

KBHAC is survivor-led – its organisation, governance and practice is built on and informed by the guidance and unique insights of survivors, contributing to the social and emotional wellbeing of survivors, communities and cultures. The KBH survivors and KBHAC own their stories and healing, leading from a place of self-determination.

The Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation Mobile Education Centre: The Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC) has transformed a retired commuter bus into a Mobile Education Centre (MEC) for the purpose of a truth telling and healing experience about Kinchela Boys Home and the Stolen Generations.

The Mobile Education Centre (MEC) will be driven down from Sydney to Melbourne. Parked in front of the gallery for the entirety of the event, visitors will have the opportunity to engage and experience the country’s first ever Stolen Generations Mobile Education Centre (MEC).

This is a whole of community experiential learning centre and aims to educate children, young people and communities (Aboriginal and non-Indigenous) through three levels of engagement and drawing on a range of resources: oral testimony, archival material, animated film, visual images and timelines as well as interactive materials including an online portal.

In 2019, KBHAC ran a pilot in the Macleay Valley which demonstrated how the MEC provides a unique and safe space for students and community members to talk with the Uncles about their experiences in KBH and provide a broader understanding of the ongoing impacts of the Stolen Generations. The sharing of the Uncles’ lived experiences and stories is impactful beyond words.

If you would like to know more about the Kinchela Boys Home, the KBHAC and Tace Stevens’ practice, please find the following resources.