Indigenous Japanese (Ainu) and Indigenous Australian Cultural Exchange Australian Tour 2011

Indigenous Japanese (Ainu) and Indigenous Australian
Cultural Exchange Australian Tour 2011
(Melbourne and Tasmania)

　SIX RIVERS ABORIGINAL CORPORATION

Devonport Tasmania

PO Box 1281 Devonport TAS. 7310.
Phone (03) 6424 8250 E-mail <panatana4@gmail.com>
ABN 31 369 253 061 ICN 1511

Brief description of the Six Rivers Aboriginal Corporation (SRAC)

The Six Rivers Aboriginal Corporation (SRAC), formerly the Mersey Leven Aboriginal Corporation established in 1992, is incorporated as per the Corporation of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Act 2006. It is a not-for-profit, charitable institution that is managed by a Chairman and a Board, all volunteers, who are elected annually by its members who are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

The operations of SRAC are closely linked with General Practice North West with a staff that provide comprehensive and high quality services which promote, protect and improve the well being of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their families and friends living in the Mersey Leven (Punnilerpanner) Country on the North West Coast of Tasmania. This includes health and aged care, family support, youth drug & alcohol support, sport and fitness program.

The organisation has a strong focus on cultural heritage activities with a library and resource material and operates a cultural heritage education centre that is combined with a tourist operation known as Tiagarra ‘Keeping Place’ Museum at Mersey Bluff, Devonport, leased from the Devonport City Council. SRAC also manages two other areas of leased land (546ha at Marshalls Hill and Panatana known as Munginabitta’s Country on the Rubicon Estuary) and all are used for a range of cultural heritage activities.

One of the important aims is to increase knowledge about Indigenous cultural heritage through awareness and education activities for its members and for the wider community and hosts visiting Indigenous people and friends from other Australian states and from overseas.

For several years the organisation and its Chairman Phillip Cowen-Bassett have been involved in cross-cultural tours to Tasmania by Japanese and Indigenous Japanese (Ainu) people. These highly successful tours have been in partnership with Elder Takumi Hoshino, who is currently President of Tokyo Ainu Association.

As part of the Tasmanian cross-cultural experience connections are made to the wider Tasmanian community, the Aboriginal elders in Devonport and Launceston and the University of Tasmania (Riawunna Centre for Aboriginal Education) that offers a wide range of services to Aboriginal students and the Aboriginal Community with a commitment to the advancement of knowledge about Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and societies.

“Wombat”
Phillip Cowen-Bassett, Chairman