In recent times, marking the occasion has been a great initiative of the local people.

So many Chinese miners worked in Tingha after tin was discovered in the early 1870s. But Chinese people contributed to other local industries as well.

Elizabeth Wiedemann's splendid work on Inverell history has helped us to appreciate the Chinese contribution to the wool industry through shepherding and shearing, to horticulture through market gardens, to the tobacco industry, and to commercial development in the towns of New England.

We have good reason to treasure and to build on our local Chinese heritage.

If this is to be the mooted "Chinese Century," our young people especially deserve to be thoroughly educated in the history and culture of China and the experience of Chinese people of the diaspora. They should not be disadvantaged in this respect by the superior opportunities available to their city cousins.

They need to know, for instance, the significance of the unification of China under Emperor Qin in 221 BC. This hugely important event from 22 centuries ago may be powering the determined drive of China at present towards integrating Hong Kong and Taiwan with 'the mainland'.

The coming 75th anniversary in 2024 of the founding of the Chinese People's Republic in 1949 is on the horizon too, with what implications we are not sure. Chinese people take their history very seriously indeed.

We have the research work of academics like Maxine Darnell on indentured labourers in rural areas and of Janis Wilton on Chinese families in New England, to build on.

More broadly, Eric Rolls gave us "the epic story of China's centuries-old relationship with Australia" in a very readable form. Yet there is little public acknowledgement in our local area of how much the Chinese have contributed to New England.

Some time ago, Peter Read pointed out that the Inverell Bicentennial Memorial (1988) has only a single relief drawing referring to the Chinese that reduces their presence "to no more than a mining technique" - the sluice box (Aborigines, Chinese and the Bicentennial - The Inverell District Bicentennial Memorial), in Penny Edwards and Shen Yuanfang, eds. Lost in the Whitewash: Aboriginal-Asian Encounters in Australia, 1901-2001 (2003)).

And this in spite of the fact that the work of Elizabeth Wiedermann (World of its Own, 1981) and others, and the continuing, influential presence in the area of Chinese business people, were readily available to those who designed the memorial.

Read also:

Inverell and Tingha (now in the Inverell Shire) have many opportunities to mark and develop the importance of Chinese people in our area.

The mining display at the Pioneer Village could make more of the Chinese presence in that field (the Village certainly could benefit from a purpose-built education and resource facility) and highlight the importance of Chinese market gardeners in helping to maintain rural health.

The photographic display area could feature photos of local Chinese families and the areas they came from in China.

Surely Inverell should have a sister town or city in southern China.

A statue or historical plaque in the area of the Suspension Bridge could commemorate the Chinese presence there at one time. A Chinese Garden could be a feature of Inverell, perhaps where the under-utilised Brooks Oval now stands. Oliver Street is a significant location for the Chinese presence in the town and could have some acknowledgement of the fact.

The Tingha museum might attract more finance for development and education. A replica Joss House, or some other Chinese cultural feature, would attract more visitors to Tingha.

The shire should take an active interest in celebrating Chinese New Year there and in Inverell, with a library display and information program, an essay or art competition for students, an art gallery program, Chinese cuisine talks, and so on.

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Ashford could make more of the Chinese who worked in the tobacco industry.

Schools could try putting on a traditional Chinese play or hold a Chinese drama festival, and learn traditional Chinese songs, games and dances.

A Dragon Boat event on Lake Inverell might be considered. An Autumn/Moon celebration is a possibility also (our spring).

The Shire needs to forge closer links with the University of New England to draw on its teaching, research and social activities (Chinese is taught there), and to attract the many Chinese students who normally study at UNE across to the towns of the Shire.

We need that contact to equip our young people - and young Chinese people - especially for the cultural competence they require in the 21st century.

Any effort to implement the recently-developed Inverell Cultural Plan should try to correct our myopia about the contribution Chinese people have made to our local social, cultural and commercial development.

The pause inflicted by COVID-19 gives us the time to do some proper planning for this purpose.

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