MGFHS

Information for Members and friends regarding the Convict bonnet making project

'ROSES FROM THE HEART'

conceived by Christina Henri

http://www.christinahenri.com.au/

The expected event in Hobart on the 8th March 2008 has been postponed due to insufficient bonnets having been made.
Keep checking Christina's website for further information on a new date.

Email Christina Henri: cjhenri@gmail.com

Want a bonnet pattern?
Email: macore@tadaust.org.au and Kaye will email you one

The aim of Christina’s project is to commemorate convict woman, who until now have been shunned by society as a shame, someone to be hidden when in actual fact they were the backbone of modern Australian society.
To represent the women Ms Henri is asking for 25,566 cloth bonnets to be made. A big ask but already over 11’000 have been completed.
When the full number of bonnets is received they will be displayed in Perspex boxes equalling the number of ships these women came to Australia on.
The aim of this is to use the bonnets to empathise just how vast a number 25’000 women were. The venue will be the Cascades Female Factory site in Hobart.

MGFHS CONVICT BONNETS PROJECT

Members of Mid Gippsland Family History Society Inc. have sent off 13 bonnets to be part of Christina Henri’s collection.
Christina is most grateful for these bonnet tributes. There are still many more needed, please keep sewing.

Don't sew? Members of MGFHS are invited to pick up, at a small cost, a bonnet from the meeting room. Write your convict or adopted convicts name and ship of arrival, on the brim and your name inside the bonnet and leave for the next posting to Christina.

Already a large number of ceremonies have been held around Australia with more to come before the last bonnet is received.

Some of the Ceremonies already held have been the ‘Memorial of the Bonnets’ ceremony at St John's Cathedral, in Parramatta.

The '1000 Bonnet' display in the Waterside Pavilion at Mawson Place in Hobart.
The '1000 Bonnet' display included bonnets from Denmark that were exhibited in Copenhagen on International Women's Day, 8th March 2008, prior to being sent to Christina Henri.
She made a feature of these bonnets and they were displayed on mannequin heads.
The majority of the bonnets were placed on steel wire that looked like the rails of a ship - a reminder of the women's journey out.
The building the bonnets were displayed in was at the Hobart Wharf, close to where the ships that brought the women to Hobart Town moored.

The image of the bonnets, displayed on the rails, reflects how the work looked after people had handled the bonnets.
Initially the bonnets were symmetrically placed and displayed in a methodical manner.

The Old Geelong Gaol March 2008: A costumed re-enactment of the 1820 Sentencing of Females to be transported to Australia was staged and 1'200 bonnets were received
These bonnets are now on display in a cell at the Gaol.

Continuing plans include:
A second Blessing of the Bonnets event in Geelong, 2009. Date to be determined

In Adelaide a Blessing of the Bonnets will be included as part of Country Bumpkins, ‘Beating Around the Bush’ International Embroiders Conference October 2009.

In WA, an event, as part of the Nannup Folk Festival in March 2009
Also, still in the planning stage, a Blessing of the Bonnets Event in Fremantle at the Historic Goal 8th March 2009.

Displays will continue to be held at various events until the full 25'566 bonnets are received and then the full installation will be exhibited.

Want a bonnet pattern?
Email: macore@tadaust.org.au and Kaye will send you one

Information from the Geelong event held in 2007

During the 19th Century over 18,000 convicts, many of them women, came ashore at Point Henry and from there settled throughout the Port Phillip District and beyond. These convict women mainly transported to Australia for minor offences, such as stealing a loaf of bread or a cheap trinket, endured primitive conditions as they struggled to establish a new life. To acknowledge the contribution made by these women to the economic and social life of the Colony an event will take place following the sentencing re-enactment entitled

Blessing of the Bonnets

Tasmanian artist Christina Henri has conceived a project called Roses from the Heart™ and the ‘Blessing of the Bonnets’ ceremony is a part of this project. Various groups and individuals around Victoria have made Bonnets each embroidered with the name of a convict woman and the name of the maker. These bonnets will be placed in a wooden dinghy and blessed by a local female clergy. They will be packed and freighted to Hobart to join other Bonnets made throughout Australia and further a field globally. Christina Henri the conceiver/founder/organiser of this project will co- ordinate the display of all bonnets made by participants world-wide. After travelling overseas during 2011 and 2012 the 25,566 bonnet project will become a permanent installation when the full 25,566 bonnets have been received.

EVENTS

Continuing plans include:

2009:
To hold a similar event to the Memorial of the Bonnets event that was held in Parramatta, NSW - (10th April, 2008) in Windsor, NSW as so many people have a connection to Windsor

A second Blessing of the Bonnets event in Geelong.
The original event had over 400 people attending on a 39 Degree day.
The bonnets, over 1200 received are on display in a cell at the historic Geelong Gaol. The next 'Blessing of the Bonnets' event should be sometime in 2009 ?May
(Date yet to be determined).

In Adelaide the Blessing of the Bonnets will be included as part of Country Bumpkins, 'Beating Around the Bush' International Embroiders Conference October 2009.
All who would like to attend are invited.
Christina will have more on her website once she knows the exact day and time.

In WA there will be an event as part of the Nannup Folk Festival in March 2009
Christina is hoping to hold a Blessing of the Bonnets Event in Fremantle at the Historic Goal 8th March 2009.

Interest has been shown from the UK/Ireland and Canada, especially Nova Scotia for visits from Christina and her display in 2010/2011.
Also the UK the Channel Islands, especially Jersey are showing considerable interest.

AND...
The more the project is promoted the sooner ALL the bonnets will be made.
The eventual outcome will be a permanent public art display.
Christina suspects this will be in 2013.
In 2010, before taking the bonnets overseas, she aims to have them on display in the Great Hall of Parliament, Canberra.
The plan is that the work will be viewed by walking above the Hall and looking down from the upstairs balconies onto the bonnets that will be sitting together on the floor of the Hall, appearing as the heads of the convict women.
It should look as though one is above the women themselves. This will be videoed and used as part of any further exhibitions.
To achieve this Christina needs to attract sponsorship as the cost to hire the Great Hall will be around $28,000.
The exposure this would bring any Company will be enormous.
5 days of the bonnets representing the convict women, taking centre stage in our National Parliament will be a most stunning installation and attract major media attention.

Find out more about Roses from the Heart here:

http://www.christinahenri.com.au

Email Christina Henri: cjhenri@gmail.com

Want a bonnet pattern?
Email macore@tadaust.org.au and Kaye will send you one