The legacy of George Seelaf for the Footscray community arts scene is being celebrated this Sunday.
Seelaf, a long-serving national secretary of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union – the ‘meaties’ – was the driving force behind creation of the Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC).
Mario De Pasquale, FCAC board chairman from 2002-11, said Seelaf’s desire to improve the lives of working people lived on in the work of the centre today.
“He was a trade union leader and community activist who just did so much for the community,” he said.
“He supported arts in the west and was really ahead of his time in a lot of ways, opposing anti-Semitism and homophobia.”
Seelaf, who died in 1988, was also instrumental in the formation of the Western Region Health Centre and Footscray Historical Society.
When he founded a community arts centre in a derelict bluestone piggery in 1974 it was another way of lifting the lives of the poor and workers in an area with a downtrodden reputation.
“I think George felt that art was something that might not have been connecting with the poor and working class and he wanted to expose them to it. That’s where the Footscray Community Arts Centre started.”
Mr De Pasquale said the centre had built upon Seelaf’s legacy, extending his early work with the Greek and Italian communities and embracing the new waves of Vietnamese and African residents.
Seelaf’s tireless work is being honoured with a free ‘Footscray, Meat, Butchers and Biffo. Let’s Picnic!’ event on the FCAC’s riverside lawn from noon to 4pm.
