NEWS ARCHIVES

2007

The Chinese Community Organizations Archives Project was launched
by Dr John Yu AC
on Friday, 14 December 2007
in the Jubilee Room of the NSW State Parliament House

The Chinese Community Organizations Archives Project is a project funded by the Commonwealth Government Community Heritage Grants programme and is organized by a Working Party of the NSW State Committee of the Chinese Australian Cultural Heritage (CACH-NSW). The Working Party includes the Hon Helen Sham Ho, Mr Robert Ho OAM, JP, Ms Katie Young OAM, JP, Clifford To and Henry Chan.

An Archival Management Workshop will be held on 28 and 29 March 2008, to which representatives from the major Chinese Community organizations in Sydney will be invited free of charge. The two-day workshop, to be conducted by an experienced archivist and educator, Dr Sigrid McCausland, will discuss the organization and management of records, the preservation of old documents and the government funding that can be applied for to assist with the conservation of records so that they are preserved for future generation of our Chinese communities.

A report of the Launch on 14 December that appeared in the Australian Chinese Daily:

Members of the CAHS Management Committee with Gladys Berejiklian MP at the launch on 14 December 2007
Left to right: Bing Quan (Treasurer), Edwin Lowe, Clifford To (Chinese Secretary), Michelle Cavanagh, Henry Chan (President), John Yu (Hon Patron), Katie Young (Secretary),
Robert Ho (Vice President), Helen Sham-Ho (Hon Patron), and Gladys Berejiklian

2006

The CAHS was one of four Chinese community organizations that were awarded Community Heritage Grants by the Commonwealth Government in 2006. The grant was awarded to the CAHS to organize and host an archival management workshop during 2007 for Chinese community organizations to encourage the collection, management, and preservation of historic records by Chinese community groups so that future generations may have the opportunity to explore their history, and the histories of Chinese communities and families.

Vice President Henry Chan accepted the grant on behalf of the CAHS at the awards ceremony in Canberra on 8 November 2006.
The award certificates were presented by the Federal Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator the Hon. Rod Kemp.
Henry also attended the three day CHG Workshop in Canberra.

Eighty community groups this year shared in the $380 000 worth of grants awarded this year.
The other three Chinese groups awarded grants this year were:

The Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia (KMT) Inc which received a grant to purchase archival storage and environmental control equipment so that its archival collection can be re housed in the KMT Building in Ultimo Road, Sydney. The KMT also received a Community Heritage Grant last year which enabled the preparation of a significance assessment and preservation needs report on its very large and significant collection of documents that relate to the history of the Chinese communities throughout Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands for seventy years during the twentieth century. When reorganized and re-housed the KMT Archives and Museum will be the largest archival collection in Chinese on the Chinese overseas held outside the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.

See Yup Society Inc. of Melbourne received a grant for conservation treatments, equipment purchases, documentation and training for the Temple Tablets Restoration and Documentation Project. The tablets are memorials to those from the Hoi Ping, Yan Ping, Toy San and San Woi districts of south-west Guangdong Province who died in Victoria, from the 1850s to the present day.
The Society was formed in 1854 to care for the welfare of Chinese during the Gold Rush. The Temple was built in 1856 in Raglan Street, South Melbourne and is one of the oldest temples in the Southern Hemisphere

The Museum of Chinese Australian History Inc, Melbourne, received a grant for a preservation survey of its collection of more than over 2000 artefacts relating to the experiences of Chinese immigrants to Australia, particularly since the mid-nineteenth century onwards. It includes letters, manuscripts, photographs, title deeds, clothing, furniture, ceremonial and medicinal objects.
Established in 1985 the Museum documents, preserves, collects, researches, and displays the history and culture of Australians of Chinese descent.

Representatives from the Chinese community organizations awarded 2006 Community Heritage Grants with the Federal Minister for the Arts and Sport.
Left to right: Siang Yung Shoon (KMT), Henry Chan (CAHS), Senator Rod Kemp, Eugene Seeto (KMT), Maurice Leong (See Yup Society).
In front: Lorinda Cramer (Museum of Chinese Australian History), Eunice Leong.