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Stitch across time-a small Eureka moment.

A stitch, a rhythm, a picking over and pulling together. 

 History takes hold of a thread, and with a deft twist it can expose an underbelly, repackage a perspective or reveal a new truth.

Tomorrow puts the yarn in my hand (the hand of the present) and offers the chance to remake some fabric of a story. I will be restitching the Eureka Flag, to its original proportions and using the same techniques, though not the same skills, as the original seamstresses. 

The Flag of the Southern Cross.
Eureka Flag, Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Ballarat. Image Anna Sublet


 The Eureka Flag carries with it the sound of a call for democracy, a voice for those 'diggers' who were brutalised by colonial officialdom. It speaks of slaughter in a canvas camp, where the flag flew above the screams of an early morning injustice. Unfurled, fluttering, standing to attention above the hill.

What can our present stitching together tell us of this nation, this citizenry? Are we a proud nation, these days? Our sporting triumphs may meld some sort of pride in Commonwealth and Olympic medals, but when we look at our country, what do many of us see about our Australia Fair?

This flag of the Southern Cross staked a claim in history, in ownership of a story. Though the diggers' licences may have ostensibly given them the right to dig some dirt, the flag and the oath sworn beneath it staked a claim for a certain form of citizenship until then denied the men who worked their lots and the women who worked with them.

"We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by one another and fight to defend our rights and liberties." 

The Flag of the Southern Cross.
Detail, Eureka Flag.




What rights and liberties now need defending? The rights of the less advantaged in society to fairness and compassion, human rights of asylum seekers, a sense of equity in education, the 'common good' as opposed to the demands of interest groups and lobbyists and ideologues? 

We wave the flag of family history across oceans and generations. Emigrants that never returned to homelands as planned. They planted their feet and grew old here. This flag of the Southern Cross has a beauty that goes beyond our borders. 

 Tomorrow I will stitch across time. I will wonder about the land that Australia has become, and the lives of those who stood under the Flag of the Southern Cross, nearly 160 years ago in Ballarat.

 © Anna Sublet 2014

The remaking of the Eureka Flag is taking place at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, M.A.D.E Ballarat.
Further sessions are planned in August. See M.A.D.E. for details.

 To read about the remaking of the flag by descendants, see also this piece on ABC Ballarat website.
Update:
A variation on this piece was published by The Ballarat Courier, p 17, 5th December, 2014
To see another version of my comment piece, see Eureka's Children newsletter, April 2015

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