Arabic version: بنديغو تستعد لجنازة رسمية لمؤسس متحف التنين الذهبي

According to ABC News, a state funeral for Golden Dragon Museum founder Russell Jack AM will be held at Bendigo’s Ulumbarra Theatre on Saturday, August 29, from 11am. Jack, whose full name was Russell Goldfield (Louey Yeung Man) Jack AM, died on August 11.

The service will be followed by a traditional Cantonese white mourning lion ceremony at Bendigo Cemetery. The Jack family believes it may be the first public traditional Cantonese mourning lion ceremony of this nature in Bendigo for more than a century. Doors for the funeral will open at 9:45am, and the service will be live streamed at www.vic.gov.au/Russel-Jack.

Jack was a long-serving leader of the Bendigo Chinese Association and established the Golden Dragon Museum to preserve and share traditions brought to the Bendigo goldfields by generations of Chinese Australians. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 for service to preserving Bendigo’s Chinese heritage and culture.

The white mourning lion, made by Hong Kong dragon maker Hui Ka Hung of Hung C Lau company, will accompany Jack through private and public rites before travelling to the cemetery. Unlike Bendigo’s imperial dragons and celebratory lions, it is associated with mourning, filial piety and the final farewell. Anita Jack said it would be an act of respect rather than a public performance.

Community members at Bendigo Cemetery will be invited to witness the final rites, light a joss stick in Jack’s memory and take part in the mourning ceremony. The family will also offer a coin and sweet to mourners as they leave, following Cantonese funeral custom.