Mural Edwin Lane Croydon (between 93 and 95 Edwin Street)

Aunty Jenny Thompson performed an acknowledgement that we were on the land of the Wangal people and smoking ceremony at the new mural in Edwin Lane Croydon yesterday morning.

Aunty Jenny said the smoking ceremony was about the art work - Croydon -Past Present and Future not the Sorry Business nearby.


Artist George Rose explained the symbols in her work: 

• Yellow was Tosha Thakkar's favourite colour and the lotus flower, the national floral emblem of to Tosha 's home country of India, 
• White rabbit that was regularly walked in the laneway, 
• Rose Blossom was from the crest of the nearby Presbyterian Girls School which overlooks the lane and the 
• Turpentine blossoms n various states of bloom were a reminder of the Turpentine forests of the past and of what will be.

Turpentine Blossom on Tree in Victoria Park, cnr of Broadway and City Road (September)

The Consul General of India spoke and they are continuing to try to contact Tosha's family from the state of Gujarat.

We also heard very moving words from the Homicide officer in charge of the case, who attended with his colleague.

The Burwood Court Hearing in 2011 

"Indian students who poured into the court in their dozens, filling the chairs and every centimetre of floor space, and then bowed his head for the duration of the hearing." "Outside the court, the students held up a poster that read “We want justice for our Indian international friend Tosha Thakkar“. - The Hindu, March 14, 2011 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Indian-girl-raped-and-murdered-in-Australia/article14947148.ece

New South Wales Supreme Court,  17 May 2013

"Family members of a young Sydney woman who was raped and killed have expressed disappointment at the sentence handed to her killer." -ABC, 17 May 2013, 5:45pm https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-17/man-gets-30-years-for-strangling-murder/4696480

SMH Story providing Details of Tosha's life and death

"Tosha (pronounced 'Too-sha') has added a few modest personal touches (a Persian rug, a cheery yellow bedspread, a small Hindu shrine) to what's otherwise a drab room with burnt orange walls, reflected in sharp relief by a long horizontal mirror spanning one wall.She's been living here for nearly six months, after arriving in Australia four years earlier"... SMH, March 11, 2014 https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/my-neighbour-my-killer-20140303-33ul6.html