GOOD NEWS for ASHMONT
Published by Ashmont
Community Resources Centre
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Edition 3
April 2001 |
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FROM THE EDITOR - Rev Rob
This
Newspaper is part of claiming a ‘Community Spirit’ for Ashmont. Community
Spirit is a reflection of ...the individual beliefs of its members, and ...the
effect the community-environment has on them. We’ll
feature both these areas in each issue of this Newspaper. Please place your snippets of news or articles in the contribution’s box located at the Ashmont Fish and Chips shop.
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New Life! Is it possible? In
the past issues of ‘Good News for Ashmont’ we’ve highlighted the
debate of what needs to change in Ashmont to make it a better community in
which to live. The ‘Advancement Committee’ continues to promote those
changes that would make it a better physical environment to live-in, but
we also need to ask, ... What social,
spiritual and emotional changes are necessary, within our hearts to
hearts, to make Ashmont a better ‘home’ to live-in? In
the last issue of ‘Good News for Ashmont’ a member of the
‘Relationships Australia’ local counselling team, shared her
experience of how to address the tensions in our relationships that are
often brought to a focus at Christmas. She highlighted the possible
negative sides of Christmas, where we can so focus on the celebrations of
the present that we can deny past painful relationships that may catch up
with us. She encouraged us to recognise the past and plan to counter its
negative effects.
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In
this way new beginnings are possible, by facing the past and walking more
equipped into the future. Christmas
has gone and we now fast approach Easter when the Christian church
celebrates ‘new-life’ made possible by Jesus Christ. It is celebrated
at Easter because it is then in particular we remember, not only Jesus’s
death on Good Friday but also His rising to new life (resurrection) on
Easter Sunday. In the 6 weeks leading up to Easter the Anglican and
Catholic churches in particular celebrate Lent. They treat this as a time
of preparation to welcome the new life they believe Christ offers. For
this 6 weeks some people give up something like sugar or chocolate or
biscuits in order to increase their sense of celebration of Easter, for
it’s then that they focus on the ‘cream’ that Jesus offers. Yes,
it’s true that
this is just a quaint custom, which
has no meaning unless we allow it to point towards the need to give up
things that bind us to our old ways, in order to appreciate the ‘new’
that is possible to replace them. The
custom only becomes meaningful when we welcome the ‘new’- home. What
new things would make Ashmont a better home?
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Ashmont Community Advancement Committee News… The Committee has met six times since the Public Meeting of
November last year. Last year, letters were sent to Council, asking for
ramps at corners of streets and crossings around the Mall. Footpaths for
around the Mall have also been requested. Vacant blocks were mown in
response to a letter to the Department of Housing. Further letters have
been sent requesting more bus shelters. Asking others to do things for
us is part of the Advancement Committee’s role but ultimately we all
have to work together to change our Community.
Webb Park has been better maintained by Council (as
requested) but ridding the kid’s play-area of broken glass, and such
like, will depend on us. Would you be prepared to be part of an ongoing
group committed to cleaning-up Webb Park?
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Some of the neighbours of Graham Park have beautified this
park with flower-beds. This is to everyone’s advantage. Perhaps a
similar approach could be taken for Webb Park! A drive around our streets
reveals there is a beautiful display of flowers from many homes. Perhaps
we should have a ‘Beautiful garden Contest’. What do you think? The Committee has circulated petitions to seek railway
boom-gates at Fernleigh Rd and Bowman. Please show your support by signing
this- a copy is available at most retail outlets in Ashmont. The Committee believes that with your support many more
improvements can be achieved for Ashmont streets. The Committee meets monthly at Ashmont Public School from 7 till 9 on every first Monday of the
month. Please offer your ideas to the Secretary- Francis, on 69314867.
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Page 2
GOOD NEWS for ASHMONT
April 2001 |
ASHMONT
COMMUNITY RESOURCES CENTRE NEWS
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DO I NEED THERAPY? ...NAH, NOT ME! Experience
shows that ‘new-life’, or change for the better, is only possible if
we admit there is a need for it in our lives! A friend who was a
practicing heroin addict for 15 years told me he had to admit he was one
of the ‘walking-dead’ before he was willing to change. An abstaining
alcoholic said he had to lie in the gutter to realise the need to change.
Why is it we have to reach rock-bottom, and often drag other loved-ones
down with us, before we realise our need to change? This question does not
just apply to addicts although we might be tempted to believe they are the
ones who need to change. If we are totally honest there are some identifiable problems in our Community that can only be addressed via a therapy unit like the proposed Ashmont Community Resources Centre- Communications between family members can always be improved. Assertive behaviour, or meaningfully expressing feelings, can replace aggressive name-calling or blaming and associated abuse. Support Networks need to be established for single parents and outcast families or family members. It needs to be recognised blood- families can be either a hindrance or a help to individual growth or new life. Often ‘healing the family-tree’ is necessary. Addictions do need to be addressed to avoid them leading to abuse of self or others including children. These are just some of the identifiable areas that could be addressed within our lives and our community life. If we don’t face these factors in our past lives it is a proven fact that they will have to be faced by later generations. The Biblical warning that the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the third and fourth generations will ring true if we don’t make steps to avoid this. It’s a temptation to say that everyone else has a problem
but not me, but how true does this ring in your family history. Is your
family perfect? ‘Healing the family tree’, by choosing to change how
problems from the past effect you, rather than closeting them until the
door is prized open, has born fruit in many family lives when they have
had the guts to face therapy together.
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It’s
often a misunderstanding that one member of a family is to blame for all
the problems. This is not a very helpful model- to minimise the
consequences. Lock that member up or
lock them out is then the solution. The problem is then located
elsewhere but it is not constructively addressed. My experience as
Chaplain at the Juvenile Justice Centre exposes me to many examples of
youths who have been locked up as the ‘bad one’, the ‘crim-type’
who have lived-through tragic family circumstances of ‘abandonment’
and multiple foster families. Many of them still struggle with the
emotional chaos of fears of abandonment in their daily lives. They then
push others away for fear of them not being trustworthy of loving them.
This self-protective behaviour is difficult to face for the individuals
and their carers. It is hard to say whether the sense of abandonment,
which is very much part of their everyday-lives, causes rejection of
others who care or is caused by the felt rejection of others who should
have cared. A
better answer is to take ‘a no-blame stance’ and to together share the
responsibility for changing the issues that are causing the family
breakdown. Many psychological disorders are now seen to result from a
complex interaction of a given person... and the stressors in their
nurturing environment, including their family. A wise psychologist once
said to me that most of us have an inclination towards one disorder or
another in our genetic makeup, and whatever is stress to any given
individual can then bring this out. Whose
fault is it- the individual, the family or the environment? Some
stressors in family life are known to encourage the coming out of
disorders- like repetitive untrustworthy communications, or other mental,
emotional or physical abuse (sexual abuse includes all these). The
disarray of emotions in the abuse then seems to become part of the regular
make-up of the ‘victim’.
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Page 3
GOOD NEWS for ASHMONT
April 2001 |
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Editorial
comment: Untitled by Dorothy Rita Rigby Life force flows, The flowing Spirit moving Note:
Writing poetry, or doing any creative art-form can be a form of therapy
whereby we can work-out those inner feelings which are often bound up
within, ready to explode-forth at the prick of our bubble or to remain
within our control as we explore their dormant power more creatively.
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A LETTER FOR DAD by Colin Fraser I’m
writing a letter for you dear old dad, I
remember the night dad we came home alone, We were so
worried, you were not in your bed, “Don’t
go down to the old shed today, Dad I think
of you often, and sometimes I cry, Dad why did
you leave me, I really don’t know. When my time
is up dad, I’ll see you again. So long for
now dad, and mum says the same.
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Premier
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Relationships Australia Riverina
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ACE
Tenants Advice
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Page 4
GOOD NEWS for ASHMONT
April 2001 |
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Coming event Family Day at the Community
Centre in Bardia St. On the
morning of Sat 26th May the Aboriginal Elder’s invite you all
to a tree planting and general clean-up of the old tennis court’s area. This
will be followed by a BBQ lunch. Do you know what a ‘Contact Service’ is? Relationships
Australia in assoc. with the Wagga Wagga Family Support Service are co-ordinating a Children’s Contact
service. This will promote safe and positive contact arrangements for
children whose parents are separated and are unable to resolve conflict
around contact arrangements for them. Thus it aims to facilitate at a
small fee the possibility of …planning, negotiation and setting up of
contact arrangements; changeover ($5 per parent); and supervised contact
visits ($10 per hour). Parents will not have to deal directly with each
other but both parents can feel they are doing the best for their
child/ren. Initially the service
will operate from the Wagga Wagga Family Support Services building located
at 190 Tarcutta St. It will operate by appointment only … Easter
Church services… Anglican: cnr Tobruk &
Blakemore St Baptist:
Malta Cres. Catholic: |
HISTORY COLUMNReconciliation
featured in our History! ‘Reconciliation’
is the key word in relationship discussions between Aboriginal groups and
non-indigenous Australians. There is
a unique historical reconciliation of both the original indigenous and
non-indigenous settlers of this area in the naming of Wagga Wagga. Robert Holt
Best’s property, spanning north of Ashmont Avenue to the Murrumbidgee,
was in 1832 named by him- “Wagga Wagga Run”. Apparently, the name was
derived from the language of the Wiradjuri tribe. This is the biggest
Aboriginal tribe in NSW. It embraces much of the Riverina area including
Ashmont. ‘Wagga’,
‘Wahga’ or ‘Wahgam’ in this Aboriginal dialect means crow. The
repetition of the word was the method of expressing the plural emphasis,
thus Wagga Wagga means ‘crows’ or ‘the place where crows assemble in
large numbers’. Best Family Graves
The Best
Family graves can still be viewed in Ashmont (see photo below) -off
Truscott Street.
Our
indigenous ancestors- the Wiradjuri tribe, are also remembered in the
naming of other key sites around Ashmont for example Mnt. Pomingalarna. There is
also an old Wiradjuri legend that continues the history of our area
through the life of a young Aboriginal girl named Pomingalarna. She lived
on the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River. On the north bank lived
another tribe, who were separated from Pomingalarna’s people by a
marriage taboo. Despite this, Pomingalarna fell in-love with Gobbagumbalin-
a young man from this Northern tribe. They eloped but whilst swimming
across the river they were killed by both tribes. As a result of this
tragedy it is claimed the frogs on the Southern bank of the river make
sounds like “Pomingliarna”, whilst the frogs on the Northern banks
sound-out “Gobbagumbalin”. Thus Wiradjuri legends prescribed the
naming of “Gobba” Bridge and perhaps another area just North of
Ashmont -”Frogs Hollow”. Frogs Hollow was not just ‘the place where
frogs assemble in great numbers’ but also the site of a non-indigenous
family-dairy and an aerodrome. These very
different ways of ‘remembering’ our local heritage illustrate the
tensions between these two cultures and their very different
‘attachments’ to the land.
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