Creating a Marker for the Stolen Generations in the City of Melbourne
The City of Melbourne is committed to our Reconciliation journey including truth telling.
Acknowledging, recognising and paying tribute to the Stolen Generations is a vital part of the truth-telling process that underpins reconciliation.
Creating a Marker for the Stolen Generations is part of our Reconciliation Action Plan and supports our commitment to reconciliation and to strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples.
In 2021, the Stolen Generations Reparations Steering Committee Report was presented to the State Government. The Committee made 54 recommendations, including that all local government authorities establish Markers to acknowledge and commemorate the Stolen Generations’ experience.
This Marker will be a permanent place with a significant artwork that reflects the resilience of the Stolen Generations and their families, acknowledges the injustices of the past, and provides future opportunities to move along the path to reconciliation together.
An independent Stolen Generations Marker Working Group has been established and includes Stolen Generations Survivors and their descendants, Traditional Owners, and organisations which assist Stolen Generations and their families. The working group makes recommendations to council on the location of the Marker and artist choice.
The working group members are:
- Aunty Shirley Blackwood – community member and Stolen Generations survivor
- Tracey Evans – community member and Stolen Generations descendent
- Lisa Zammit – CEO, Connecting Home
- Bev Murray – Program Manager, Link-Up Victoria program, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency
- Aunty Georgina Nicholson – Wurundjeri Elder
- Uncle Colin Hunter – Wurundjeri Elder
Note on terminology: for the purposes of this page, all future references to Aboriginal peoples will also include Torres Strait Islander peoples. We acknowledge that few terms are acceptable to everyone and, as always, we remain open to guidance from community on this issue.
Artist selection
Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti, Boon Wurrung multi-disciplinary artist and curator Maree Clarke has been selected as the commissioned artist for the Stolen Generations Marker.
Maree Clarke was selected by an independent selection panel of people from the Stolen Generations and their descendants; Traditional Owners; and Stolen Generations support organisation workers.
The selection was by design proposal - chosen from three submissions by high level Aboriginal artists with a strong connection to Victoria. The panel felt Maree’s design best met the requirements of the brief reflecting the stories of survivors and serving as a place of connection, education and solace.
Maree’s design focusses audience attention on the experience of the children who were forcibly removed under successive Governments’ policy. Situated in a serene and embracing, native landscape, the predominantly figurative artwork will encourage very personal engagement with the individual, emotional and psychological impact on the children and their fight to find and return home to culture and country.
Maree Clarke is a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung multi-disciplinary artist and curator. She has contributed to contemporary arts and First Nations cultural sectors for over 30 years.
Clarke was commissioned to paint the first green and gold tram for the Koorie Heritage Trust in 1988 and later became curator of the Trust where she took on a strong mentorship role. Maree often works collaboratively and focuses on regenerating cultural practices using new technologies and cross-generational methodologies.
Maree Clarke has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and in 2021 was the subject of a major survey exhibition Maree Clarke – Ancestral Memories at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Other recent exhibitions include Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2021), The National, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2021), and Reversible Destiny, Tokyo Photographic Museum, Japan (2021). In 2020 she was awarded the Linewide Commission for the Metro Tunnel project (current). Maree held residencies at the Pilchuck School of Glass, Seattle, and Museum of Glass, Tachoma, USA (2023), and has recently completed a multi-media work for the Women’s Project in Mildura.
Maree was the recipient of the 2020 Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Fellowship, and in 2023 was a finalist for the Victorian Australian of the Year. She was also awarded the Yalingwa Fellowship for a Senior First Peoples artist who has made a significant contribution to contemporary art and culture in Victoria, and recently won the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture.
Clarke is a collaborator with the University of Melbourne’s Living Archive of Aboriginal Art & Knowledge, a pilot program which is recording, digitising and documenting Maree’s broad practice with the aim to conserve and make accessible the collated materials to community.
Maree Clarke is represented by Vivien Anderson Gallery External link.
Frequently asked questions
The Working Group shortlisted the three (3) possible locations for the Marker.
All open space within the City of Melbourne was considered against criteria determined by the Working Group based on their knowledge and experience. Some of the criteria included:
- the ability to host gatherings of up to 1000 people
- available amenities nearby
- proximity to public transport and parking
- known associations of the site (both beneficial and problematic), and features (such as proximity to water)
- proximity to the heart of the municipality - sites central to the city were selected, given the importance of the Marker and its role in truth-telling.
It is estimated the Marker will be open in mid 2027.
A selection panel, including members of the Stolen Generations Marker Working Group, will choose the concept design that best responds to the project objectives for the final commission. This will be developed in collaboration with City of Melbourne and supported by the Stolen Generations Marker Working Group.
The City of Melbourne is providing access to counselling and/or well-being support as required for artists who may be affected by the subject of this project.
Contact us
Contact us
Rebecca Morphy, Senior Policy officer
Phone
0481 463 512
