ma magazine vol 191 web small

8/3/2019 Ma Magazine Vol 191 Web Small

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MuseumsAustralia

vol 19(1) pmb 2010


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that features items of interest for museum and gallery professio

and all those involved in the sector at large.

Our distribution reaches beyond our membership and allows

advertisers to reach thousands of industry and professional p

in metropolitan and regional Australia and overseas in New Z

and beyond.

Museums Australia Magazine includes collection overviews,

education and related information, book reviews, reviews

of conferences and workshops, information for professional

development, coverage of new museum and gallery developm

international news including ICOM events, advertising and de

and web developments.

Museums Australia Magazine is published four times a year a

has a readership of more than 17,000 professionals, volunte

students and colleague agencies in Australia and abroad.

Advertising rates and specications can be found online at

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MuseuAustral


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Museums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) September 2010 Museums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) Septem

n this issue

Muum Auala Naoal Coucl 20092011

presidentD Dayl McIy

(CEO, National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra)

vie-presidentLoa Fzack

(Senior Project Ofcer, Royalties or Regions,

Cultural Centre, Carnarvon, WA)

tresrerTmohy (Tm) Ha

(Director, Inormation, Multimedia & Technology, Museum o

Victoria, Melbourne)

seretr

Wllam (Bll) So(previously: President, MA-NSW;

Chair, Community Museums Network; Newcastle)

ebersSuza Bay

(General Manager, Programs and Services,

Museums & Galleries NSW, Sydney)

Bla Coo

(Head, Development,

National Gallery o Australia, Canberra)

Rcha Mulay

(CEO, NSW Rail Transport Museum, Sydney)

Jf Sa

(ormer Deputy Director o Collections and Outreach, Powerhouse

Museum, Sydney)

Wllam (Bll) Sag

(Redevelopment Content Manager,

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart)

Soula Vya

(Curator, City o Melville Museum &

Local History Service, Booragoon, WA)

state/territory branch presidents/ represent-atives (subject to change throughout year)

ACT Caol Cawgh

(Head, Education & Visitor Services, Australian War Memorial, Canberra)

NSW Aw Smo

(Director, Museum Studies Program, Macquarie University, Sydney)

NT Hl Joalafky

(Manager, National Pioneer Womens Hall o Fame, Alice Springs)

SA Ro Mo

(Head o Collections, South Australian Museum, Adelaide)

TAS Ch Tall

(Managing Director, National Trust o Australia (TAS), Launceston)

QLD La Jo

(Curator, Queensland Police Museum, Brisbane)

VIC Dal Wlkch

(Coordinator, Digital Projects, Public Record Ofce Victoria,

Melbourne)

WA Ch Joh Bll

(Curator History House Museum, Armadale, WA)

umsAustralia Magazine

x266, Civic SquareACT 2608

NationalOfcecallocation):

arliament House,GeorgeTerrace,Canberra,ACT

rial:(02)62732437

rtising:02)6273 2437

riptions:(02)62732437

02)62732451

@museumsaustralia.org.au

museumsaustralia.org.au

r:Bernice Murphy

n:Art DirectionCreative

BlueStarPrint

Museums Australiaand individualauthors.

Nopartothismagazinemaybereproducedin anyormwithoutwritten

permissionrom thepublisher.

MuseumsAustraliaMagazineispublishedquarterlyandon-lineontheMA

Website,andisa majorlinkwithmembersandthemuseumssector.Museums

AustraliaMagazineisaorumor news,opinionanddebateonmuseumissues.

Contributionsromthoseinvolvedorinterestedinmuseumsandgalleriesare

welcome.MuseumsAustraliaMagazinereservestherighttoedit,abridge,alter

orrejectanymaterial.Viewsexpressedbycontributorsarenotnecessarily

thoseothepublisheror editor.Publicationoan advertisementdoesnotimply

endorsementby MuseumsAustralia, itsafliates oremployees.

MuseumsAustraliais proudtoacknowledgetheollowingsupporterso the

nationalorganisation:

AustralianGovernmentDepartment oEnvironment, Water,Heritageand the

Arts;National Museumo Australia;NationalFilm andSound Archive;Museum

Victoria(MelbourneMuseum); WesternAustralianMuseum; andLink Web

Services(Canberra).

PrintPost PublicationNo:332582/00001 ISSN1038-1694

Auala aual hoy collco al

fo w au c 1 3

European Masters: Stdel Museum, 19th-20th

Century at the National Gallery o Victoria .. . .. . 17

Ywaa Kuju: Th Cag Sock Rou 20

Indigenous art o today renewing early museum

collections rom Arnhem Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Mus eum t hea tre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9

All h wol muum a a ag 33

Regional training and development initiatives .. . 35

M us eu m i nt er ns hi ps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Auala culual aco wh

Cha o mo ha h ca 40

Book Review Trans-Tasman

m on og ra ph s co mp ar ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9

Presidents essage

Dayl McIy

The 2010 Museums Australia National ConerenceCommittee has been nalising its program inrecent weeks, through the Victorian state brancho MA. The schedule o keynote addresses,parallel sessions, panels, orums, Network AGMs,

R+R Workshops and social gatherings now receivingnal attention promises a rich and protable gatheringin Melbourne at the end o September.

International guest speakers have conrmed theiritineraries and are eagerly anticipated as guestsamong us. Final details on the Trade Show, and pres-entations by the countrys highly valued commercialsuppliers o products to the sector, are alling into

place. Conerence Registrations are also still comingin, ater the extended Early Bird closing date, whichis most encouraging to the organisers. The NationalCouncil looks orward to the gathering o the museumclans at the end o this month in Melbourne.

The National Ofce has continued its strong recordo advocacy work on behal o the association withmore than 15 submissions over two years orwardedin response to public (usually ederal governmen-tal) inquiries aecting the museums sector and thecommunities it serves directly in preservation o allparts o Australias cultural heritage.

A submission responding to the CommonwealthsNational Volunteering Strategy Consultation Paper,incorporating excellent input provided rom MAsstate branches, was orwarded at the end o June. Thiswas the most recent o many submissions prepared bythe National Ofce on behal o Museums Australia,and provided important advocacy o issues on behalo small and community-based museums and gall eriesacross the country that so directly depend on volun-teer labour in the care o loc al collections and heritage.

Another strand o advocacy work involves moni-toring regular coverage o the museums and galleriessector in the media. It is important to pay attentionto general conceptions o the work and interests omuseums (rom exhibitions and programming to ethi-cal matters) that are inuenced by t he media.

At the end o July, the National Ofces attentionwas drawn at short notice to t he impending auction oa signicant private collection in Sydney at the begin-ning o August. This was to be a prominent auction oa strikingly diverse collection o arteacts rom a rangeo the worlds tribal cultures, ollowing the deatho the American owner who had brought the collec-tion to Australia where she lived in her later years.National Museum o Australia sta were concernedat the advertised sale o modied tribal skulls inthis auctions online catalogue, and had made repre-sentation to the vendors in relation to possibleinringement o laws concerning cultural and scien-tic heritage protection. A request or assistance wasalso raised with MA, ollowing initial resistance o thevendor to objections raised.

The National Ofce was able to act quickly on theseissues, to achieve successul liaison over two days

with the Sydney Morning Herald, and a good aappeared by Arts Editor, Joyce Morgan utilising interview quotes rom Dr Michael PickeriManager o Repatriation at the National MuseShane Simpson, one o Australias most experlawyers on ethics, museums and the law.[1] Mewhile although the auction went ahead in Sydthe lots involving unprovenanced human skulbeen withdrawn rom sale at the last moment.other independent journalists have subsequencated their interest in being urther inormed topics and related ethical issues or museums ollow-up to the SM Heralds coverage.

However an article that appeared more recethe Sydney Morning Herald, [2] dealing with ch

ing aspects o cataloguing and inventory o mio items at the Australian Museum, raises impconcerns about continuing media misrepresention o museums. It is a task or all institutionsand small across the sector, to be active in chaling the repeated lazy stereotypes about museujournalists (museums-and-dust metaphors aboMany poorly researched articles oten promotignorance, and even serious misunderstandinggovernments: about the diversity o museum aand programs, and the complex responsibilitiemust manage as adroitly as possible with resouavailable year-round.

Expectations that either museums can attencataloguing updates on sometimes millions oholdings in a year or two, or i they are not achthis rate o inventory attention to t heir collec-tion records they are somehow ailing public aaccountability, are ignorant and seriously harmSuch lazy spin articles on museums by journaundermine public condence in the importansociety institutions that care or our history, hage, research, culture and national achievememost damaging o all, such coverage oten misdecision-makers and governmental ofcers in understanding o the high standards o perorand services that museums do provide year-rothe resource-allocations required to continue ing such service or public good.

The Sydney Morning Herald article alerts usome renewed work we need to do with our nral history and science museum colleagues, toa clearer, more inormed national perspectivethe complex tasks o continuing managementimportant national heritage in these areas. Thtasks ahead to establish a stronger (evidence-picture o our combined collections value; theimportance as a resource or all Australians; toate best-practice standards and prioritising oor all aspects o management (including inveand cataloguing matters) and then to pursueapproaches to energetically projecting this moinormed picture o our museums activities toparts o our media.

Turning to Museums Australia membershipNational Ofce has been active or some mont

1. JoyceMorgan,Experthasabone

topickwithauctionhouseasskull

salecalledo ,[illustrated];Sydney

MorningHerald,5August 2010.

(http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/

expert-has-a-bone-to-pick-with-

auction-house-as-skull-sale-called-

o-20100804-11oc.html).

2. NickyPhillips,Toomany

specimens,notenoughpeopleat

museum,[cartoonillustratedby

CathyWilcox];SydneyMorning

Herald,2September2010.

(http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/

too-many-specimens-not-enough-

people-at-museum-20100901-14nn3.

html)


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Museums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) September 2010 Museums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) Septemb

developing new tools and statistical inormation onmembership retention which is an issue or all NFPassociations in the current climate. Some membersseem to have been lost in recent years; however otherlapsed members are renewing ater special commu-nications addressed to understanding their needsand position; and a steady picture o new membersemerging each year merits our assessment. Atten-tion to membership issues, by the Councils StandingCommittee on Membership, will be a special ocus orCouncil at its next meeting.

The National Ofce recently prepared and circu-lated a survey o the National Networks (and SIGs),to assist the MA National Council at its ace-to-acemeeting in Melbourne (28 September) to gain an

up-to-date picture and review o the work o theNetworks and their activities. This review is alreadytaking stock o some new Networks that have emergedin recent years, and others that have voluntarilydisbanded or evolved their interests into new orms ocollegial interaction.

While Council is concerned to review the levelso activity and events conducted by the 24 NationalNetworks that exist currently, it is clear that there arevarying needs served by Network-specic and chap-ter-level interactions or colleagues. Some Networksor regional chapters have very slender resourcesand interact mostly with small cohorts o sectoralmembership; meanwhile others, long established andalways gathering a strong catchment rom across thecountry really do act as vigorous acilitators and lead-ers o interaction at a truly National Network level. Itis clear that this varying level o momentum accordsrealistically with the diverse needs encompassed andunderpinned by the structure o a national associa-tion. Meanwhile it is reassuring that both the NationalOfce and the Council continue to receive signals ourther Network claims arising, with emergent bidsor authorisation and inclusion in the MAs activitiesacross the country.

The MA Publications Design Awards (MAPDA2010) have again been conducted successully throughthe National Ofce, supporting the MAPDA Commit-tees work as guides and judges or the MADA Awards.We look orward to the announcement o the winningentrants or this year during a Conerence eveningevent at the State Library o Victoria on 29 September,at which the work o designers and museum commis-sioners o our nest publications across the sector willalso be displayed.

Museums Australia is again delighted by thesuccessul partnership in 2010 with ABC RadioNational, through which the ABC has used its exten-sive Local Radio networks, in concert with RN sta, toachieve national ABC RN Regional Museum Awardshonouring the smallest and most volunteer-dependentcommunity-based museums throughout Australia.

There are urther aspects to the ABCs increasedattention to museums, drawing or a third year onpartnership support rom Museums Australia andthe ull dimensions o this partnership are dealt with

in an article in this issue o the Magazine. With theConerence happening later this year, and the ABCAwards announced earlier, there h as been more lead-time to advise the category winners and prepare ortheir presentation o ABC trophies at the NationalConerence in Melbourne to honour them all onthe opening morning o our National Conerence, on29 September. It has again been a great pleasure orMuseums Australia to continue to work in support-ing our museums with such an outstanding nationalbroadcaster as the ABC, which reaches so ar acrossthe country in serving the nations communities. []

Dr Darryl McIntyre FAIMCEO National Film and Sound Archive & President, Museums

Australia

Pao of Awa-wg muum

The 2010 Regional Museums Award ventureby ABC Radio National has had its biggestresponse yet, since its inception in 2008. Withmore than 200 enquiries and just over 100nominations received, Australias regional

museums have, once again, delighted and amazedwith their demonstration o the commitment,dedication and breadth o their collections.

This year the competition was opened up beyondthe exclusively volunteer-run category, to includemuseums classied as small by having a total oper-ating budget o not more than $150,000 per annumor less. However the overwhelming response stillcame rom volunteer-run organisations, reectingthe oten unacknowledged place these institutionshave in the vital work o preserving and telling theircommunities stories, and in conserving the collec-tive stories o Australia at large.

Recognising the importance o museums inregional Australia, ABC Local Radio played animportant part this year in encouraging local organi-sations to consider nominating themselves or the

Awards. Many o the ABCs regional radio stationsconducted talkback programs around the theme omuseums and arteacts rom personal collectionsthat may contribute to their communitys history.

ABC Radio National has also been delighted toact as a conduit or enquiries sent to the RegionalMuseums Award website but directed at specicmuseums. Queries have ranged rom tours avail-ability and opening times, to seeking inormationabout amily contacts or arteacts. It has also beeninteresting or Radio National to observe an increasein visitor gures to the Regional Museum Awardswebsite, where an archived armchair tour awaits

visitors who can now view entries or the 2008,2009 and 2010 Awards on the one web platorm.

Phase 2 o the Regional Museum Awards or ABCRadio National in 2010 will be a visit by the BushTelegraph program to the national winner, the Rich-mond River Historical Society, in October.BushTelegraph will record a program at the Lismore-

based museum or national broadcast, shining aspotlight on another o the nations excellent muse-ums.

Rchmo R Hocal Socy & M(Lmo, NSW)

The overall winner this year, Richmond RiveHistorical Society (RRHS), encompasses LismRegional Museum. The museum is housed in tLismore Municipal Building, provided to the Rby the Lismore City Council. The outstanding proessional manner in which this ully voluntmuseum is managed is highlighted by the RRHout the 2009 IMAGinE awards or Category 1:sation Awards or Collection Management Vorganisations; and Category 4: Organisations Aor Excellence Volunteer organisations.

In making the 2010 ABC Radio National MusAwards, the judges stated that the RRHS and CRegional Museum in Lismore, NSW, had been rom this years nominees as having the best p eance against the range o competition criteria. judges were impressed by the inclusive approato local history, incorporating Bundjalung Abohistory alongside pastoralist settlement historythe rich maritime history o the Richmond RivRRHS collections also include acquisitions thathe story o more recent Richmond River commissues and events. The RRHS demonstrates ansive care o resources and imaginative developits acilities. Close links with local tourism shocommitment to promoting the economy, heritidentity o this region o north-western NSW.

The RRHS and museum clearly demonstrateimportance o community service today as theline or consolidating the value o historical reseducation programs and a strong cultural uturmation on the museums exhibitions can be obrom t heir website http://www.richhistory.org

Th h ya of a ch ah w ABC Rao Naoal a Muum Auala

ABC Radi Natina Regina Museu Awards 2010

1. Materialorthis presentation

onthe 2010ABCRadio National

MuseumAwardshasbeencompiled

romvarioussources:romentry

submissionsmadeaccordingto

thecriteriain2010;romthe

reportothe judgesnaldecisions

uploadedonthe ABCRNwebsite

ortheMuseumAwards,androm

inormationsuppliedbythe three

winningmuseumsthemselves.See

abc.net.au/rn/museums[Ed.]

The RichndRier Histrica

Scietyand Regina Museu,

catedat the dLisre

Municia Buiding.


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h ya of a ch ah w ABC Rao Naoal a Muum Auala

Paakjyal Muum (Bahu Ila)

In awarding the Indigenous Cultural Centre/Keep-

ing Place Award in 2010 to the Patakijiyali Museum,the judges noted (on the ABCs website) that:

[They] were impressed by the museums strikingpresentation of Tiwi culture, the outstanding qualityof its collection and displays of varied cultural formsand objects, and for its direct connections with Tiwicommunity cultural development locally. In addi-tion to projecting Tiwi culture to visitors to BathurstIsland, the museum successfully functions as botha cultural centre and learning resource, especiallythrough its collaboration with Tiwi teachers in theIndigenous cultural program of the local school.The Patakijiyali Museum on Bathurst Island intro-

duces visitors to the multi-dimensional aspects oTiwi Aboriginal culture through its exhibitions andguided tours. The museum tells the stories, bothancient and recent, o the Tiwi people. The museum(Patakijilyali) is named ater Father Francis Gsell, whoset up the Catholic Mission on Bathurst Island in 1911,and it is dedicated to the many Tiwi, religious and laypeople who worked to establish this distinctive insti-tution.

Originally a RAAF base at Cape Fourcroy duringWorld War 11, the Patakijiyali Museum building is oconsiderable historic signicance. Later, the Tiwi andMSC Brothers painstakingly dismantled and trans-ported, by horse and cart, the building which becamethe rst mission kitchen. The museum volunteershave reected that: From being a place o eeding t hehungry bodies, it [has now become] a place to eed theminds o all who visit.

One o the moving orces behind the PatakijiyaliMuseum has been Sister Anne Gardiner, who stated inthe ABC Radio National Museum Award application:[C]reating this Museum has always been my dream. Iwant the Tiwi children to have a cultural place wherethey can visit and be proud o their past.

Sister Anne recently met with our o the local Tiwiwomen to discuss the process o moving the responsi-bility or the museum to the community. Sister Annesees this important transer o cultural and manage-rial authority as giving ownership to the Tiwi peoplethemselves.

When notication o the award was relayed to t hePatakijiyali Museum, Sister Anne reported:

We were all delighted when we heard the news.We were thrilled that we had taken out rst prizefor the best cultural centre/ keeping place. The localTiwi tour guides were exceptionally happy, and sooncommenced introducing each tour by explaining thatwe had just won this national ABC award. There wasgreat clapping from the school children, and a cry ofNumber One! erupted from many of the adults.

The museum is ortunate to have the support o St.Ignatius College, Riverview, at Lane Cove in Sydney rom which teachers and boys rom the schoolvisit Bathurst Island twice a year to volunteer at themuseum. This program is run in conjunction with StAloysius College, Adelaide, and is supported throughdonations.

The Tiwi Land Council also recognises the impor-tance o the museum, and has contributed generouslyto the museums latest gallery and enabled its displayso continuing Tiwi cultural heritage.

Naya Hag Muum (Hoa)

Narryna Heritage Museum is situated in the historichouse build or Captain Andrew Haig in 1836, withinthe nationally historic precinct o Battery Point inHobart. The museum has an outstanding Colo-nial collection, including an important collection ocostumes. As well as a proessional approach to collec-tion and museum management, the Narryna HeritageMuseum has innovative, varied and comprehensiveeducation and proessional development programs.

In making the new category award in 2010 or asmall museum with less than a $150,000 per annumoperational budget the judges noted that NarrynaHeritage Museum was outstanding among nationalentries this year in its orging o connections withacademic training institutions. The ollowing initia-tive will be realised in the orthcoming year:

Narryna Heritage Museum in partnership withthe Australian National University will introducean internship program ... [which will] involve some50 interns a year, and a further 20-40 students persemester, who will undertake week-long courses atthe museum.

In its ormal submission or the 2010 awardable as an uploaded entry on t he ABCs archivMuseums website, linked rom the ABC RN h

page the ollowing declaration o the museudevelopmental venture can be ound:

[Narryna has] opened its doors to universitiespresent two students from the University of Tare completing their honours thesis with Narvast and unique period costume collection. Nis also supervising two students undertaking Masters Thesis at the Australian National Uas well as a student completing her PhD on thNarryna is also supporting the local primarySt. Michaels Collegiate School, by allowing it develop educational courses as a part of schoowell as having guest speakers about history, aology, and Narrynas history in general. Alongthis, Narrynas new developments with the Aian National University are another example museums and universities are working to opeinstitutions to the public as well as their own for the benet of the local community.[ABC RNMA Application]

Ackowlgm

Museums Australia is delighted by the succethis third year o collaboration in support o thimagination and venture in recognising museusupport to their communities across the coun

In addition to the centrepiece eature o theRegional Museums Awards, the ABC also desetribute or its third year o recognition o Intetional Museum Day (18 May), and third editioMuseums Week theming through many ABCprograms across a week in May built around Itional Museum Day.

Special thanks rom the Museums Australiaand National Ofce are due to Jane Connors, PManager o ABC Radio National in Ultimo, Syand to Nicola Fern, ABC RN Marketing Managbased in the ABCs Melbourne headquarters obank in Melbourne. []

Citationorthis article:[MuseumsAustralia,ABCRadio National& resp

museums],ABCRadioNationalMuseumAwards2010: Thethirdyear o

partnershipbetweenABCRadioNationaland MuseumsAustralia,Muse

Magazine,Canberra,Vol.19 (Issue1),September2010,pp. 9-11.

: Freft t right: Ancia

uuwu,Sr Anne Gardiner,

a Kerinaiua

: Tiwi ukuanies in

atakajiyai Museu

: Narryna Heritage Museu

has ne fthe argest cstue

cectins in the suthern

heishere,reresenting the

dress fwen in the 19th century.


7/27


Lyl Wch

T

he 2010 Victorian Museum Awards were heldin July and are a celebration o the museumindustry in Victoria. They attracted 120 people,

23 nominations, ve key sponsors and saw ninepresentations made to outstanding individuals

and organisations rom around the state. Judges orthe awards were selected rom senior personnel atthe National Gallery o Victoria, the Gold Museum atSovereign Hill, Ballarat, and rom ABC Radio.

This year the Awards eatured a new category orlarge museums, which allowed the event to expandits nomination process and prole, and to representsome o Victorias best-known cultural destinations.Museum Victoria is the states largest employer oskilled museum sta, and the Melbourne Museumwas the selected venue or this major event. VIPs,sponsors and nominees gathered on the walkwayoutside the MuseumsMelbourne Gallery, and at 7pmwere summoned by veteran comedian Rod Quantockto be seated or the awards ceremony.

Rod Quantock worked as MC or the evening, andspecial guests were invited to make award presentationsto each recipient. This ormat allowed museum leadersand sponsors to be proled during the ceremony, as wellas the Award recipients. For example, Dr Robin Hirst(Acting Manager, Melbourne Museum) presented theMuseums Australia (Victoria) Award or medium-sizedmuseums to the Shrine o Remembrance, and AndrewHockley (General Manager, Sales and Marketing,Herald Sun) presented the Herald Sun Peoples ChoiceAward or the Best Museum Experience which waswon by Old Gippstown Heritage Park in Moe.

As Event Coordinator, I was pleased that thewinners o the 2010 Awards represented a strongdiversity in museum type, geographic region andcollection and programming ocus. For example,Burrinja Cultural Centre, at Upwey, won an awardor exemplary public programs aimed at disadvan-taged youth; meanwhile Museum Victoria won thelarge-museum category or an extensive and interna-tionally recognised exhibition about biodiversity andsustainability o wildlie: WILD: Amazing animals in achanging world eatured elsewhere in this edition othe MA Magazine.[1]

Criteria or the Individual Award categories in2010 included commitment to building and sharingmuseum industry knowledge with peers, colleaguesand community members plus modelling bestpractice to museum proessionals and volunteers.

All nominees were highly worthy, and the volun-teer recipient was Ms. Kay Gibson who, amongstother achievements, has created a comprehensiveindex system or the archives held by Victoria PoliceMuseum and Historical Services. In the Paid Indi-

vidual category, Jason Eades (CEO, Koorie HeritageTrust) was the award winner. This is the rst timean Indigenous cultural leader has won a VictorianMuseum Award. Jason reported that he was thrilledto receive the recognition o his Indigenous and non-Indigenous peers through the nomination and awardceremony process.

Awards may be seen by some as elitist. However,in Australias growing museums and galleries sector,excellence and best practice really do need to berecognised, celebrated and rewarded. The Victo-rian Museum Awards achieve all three o these aims.Moreover, they publicly acknowledge the museumsindustry and sector as instrumental in strengtheningcommunities, promoting their identity and protect-ing cultural heritage o all kinds, as well as creatingongoing access to living culture. Signicantly, the2010 Victorian Awards even gained a mention in StateParliament.

Museums and galleries are cultural centres thatrequire dedicated and innovative sta and volun-teers to maintain viability, public interace and careo collections. To encourage the people who dothis work, and honour the organisations that strivetowards highest museum standards o service asthe annual Awards undoubtedly accomplish is toampliy support or their actions, and to publicise thebenet o such work both within the sector and inpublic consciousness more broadly. []

Lyndel Wischer is Manager, Professional Development,within the Victorian state branch of the national association:Museums Australia (Victoria). She played a key role as coor-dinator of the 2010 Victorian Museum Awards managementand evening ceremony.

Citationorthis article:LyndelWischer,Rewardingexcellence:The2010 Victorian

MuseumAwardsMuseumsector awardsgrowingindiversity andpublic

recognition,MuseumsAustraliaMagazine,Canberra,Vol.19(Issue1), September

2010,pp.12.

um co awa gowg y a ulc cogo

wag xcllc: Th 2010 Vcoa Muum Awa

d andcontemporary

elbourneMuseumsprogressive

developmento itslong-term

plays,inMuseumsAustralia

gazine,Canberra,Vol.19 (Issue1),

ptember2010,pp13-16.

Eoal ouco

Since the great eighteenth-century voyages oexploration o the Pacic, the animals, birdsand plants o our continent not only augmentedolder collections o natural history housed inEurope. They challenged and helped ultimately

to change the great explanatory systems o naturalscience: as to how the world evolved and the nelycalibrated interconnections o all creatures within i t.

Collections in Australias edgling science museums,established in the century ater colonial interventionin 1788, began to harvest the results o early settlersand scientists collecting in the new world Europeansencountered through their gradual exploration o thedramatically challenging th continent.

The natural history collections o Australias muse-ums contain the primary data-sets o scientic recordo the continents condition, creatures, regions andlie-systems since the eighteenth century. Meanwhilethe geology and palaeontology collections reveal theolder story o the earths prehistory.

They provide the basis o our research and under-standing today as to how much, and in what particularrespects, our countrys natural environment isundergoing rapid change. These collections are anirreplaceable and precious component o Australiascultural and scientic heritage as a rich resourceand legacy or uture generations.

While Australian natural history and science muse-ums evolved historically, they sought to join the

congregation o the worlds museums and playpart in representing the lie systems and creatother countries, regions and climatic zones. Acingly, collections o animals and birds grew tthe taxidermists crat drawn rom many parthe globe, as museums sought to educate audiein the worlds lie sciences through their reseapermanent displays.

Over time these displays suered in audience through their ageing and static condition, with olabels minimal or designed only or specialist inttion, and many collection displays remaining unor decades. In the gradual reorganisation and evwholesale revision o permanent collection gallerecent decades, the museums themselves have tturn their objectives anxiously to creating moreengineered displays, incorporating up-scaled teinormation panels, and a visible emphasis on cocation through new means and devices.

As natural history displays relied ever more ily on employed exhibition designers and a rapdeveloping range o new design technologies eing commercially, attention was oten divertedthe drawing power o unique collection objectthe old collection typologies and taxonomieswas a tendency to orget t he compelling veracpresence o the worlds creatures when imagipresented in their own right.

The rise o a generation o audiences highlyto ICT technologies and multi-media seemed to present a dichotomy to museums: between

Wild a comoay Mlou Muum og lom of log-m lay

Auala aual hoy collco alfo w auc

A iages frthis artice:

MuseuVictria.

Phtgraher: Dianna Snae.

MA(Vic)s Lynde Wischer

cedian andteeisin

naityRd Quantck at theVictrian MuseuAwards

l: Awardeing resented

chia Suria t Burrinja

ra Centre,Uwey fr

ras aiedat disadantaged

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om: Andrew Hckey

adSun) resenting award

st MuseuExerience t

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age Park,Me.


8/27


knowledge o specialists schooled in earlier recordsystems and research-based production o inorma-tion, and the challenges o a mediatised learninginterace in contemporary communications.

In act this dichotomy is a alse one, to the degreethat it has implied a struggle between competing orcesthat are inimical to each others specialised knowl-edge and resources. Both are crucial contributors tothe newly energised roles in public engagement andinnovative learning that have emerged or the mostprogressive natural history and science museums today.

One o the most striking demonstrations o thistransormation occurring in Australias natural historymuseums today with considerable implications orour evolving museology can be ound in the Scienceand Lie Gallery at the Melbourne Museum (centre-piece o Museum o Victorias several campuses).

The range o visual and inormation technologiesemployed in the multi-award-winning installation,Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world, providesa striking demonstration o the levels o sophisti-cation achievable today in museum displays andpublic engagement, where the power o the object

is accorded a newly vivacious role, while beingsupported by some o the most innovative communi-cation resources and technologies now available.

The ollowing material (below) has been drawnrom inormation and images generously provided bysta at Museum Victoria. [Ed./BM]

Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world

This exhibition, is the latest addition to MelbourneMuseums Science and Lie Gallery and the largest displayo backboned animals the museum has ever presented.

The Wild exhibition, launched in 2009, representsthe second phase o the redevelopment o the Muse-ums Science and Lie Gallery. When complete, thegallery will incorporate our new long-term exhibitionspresenting more than 3,000 objects rom the Museumscollections, many on display or the rst time.

The installation oWild encompasses a rich panoramao creatures, eaturing more than 780 mammals, birdsand reptiles rom around the world: rom Arica (theOkapi, Arican Wild dog, Asiatic Lion and Secretary Bird);rom South America (toucans, the Jaguar, armadillos,

sloths and monkeys); rom Eurasia, North America andthe Arctic (the Great Horned Owl, Giant Panda, ArcticFox and Polar Bear); and rom Southern Asia (the IndianRhinoceros, Asian Palm Civet, Sri Lankan Giant Squirreland Luzon Bleeding-heart Pigeon).

The exhibition explores issues o climate change,stressed systems and habitats, and why biodiversity isunder threat. In addition to showing the kinds o animalsthat are ound in dierent parts o the world, the exhibi-tion includes important narratives accessible stories ordiverse learning levels o the eorts to conserve wild-lie. It raises awareness o what all people can contributeto making a dierence or the survival o animals and thelie-systems that nourish their existence.

Rcogo of chologcal a goao hough awa

Museum Victoria received the American Associa-tion o Museums Gold MUSE award or its PanoramicNavigator,an interactive viewnder that allows visi-tors to explore and learn about biodiversity in theexhibition,Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world,at Melbourne Museum. The MUSE Awards are opento member institutions rom across the world that usedigital media to enhance the museum experience andengage new audiences; celebrating innovation, crea-tivity and inclusivity. This is Museum Victorias ourthGold MUSE Award and seventh in total.

d a comoay Mlou Muum og lom of log-m lay


9/27


Paoamc Nagao a logu of Muum Vcoa lay

ow does this eature work?Visitors can rotate andthe navigator to explore a panoramic view o the

mals on display. By touching an image o an animal,ors can discover rich layers o inormation about theture presented, look at a 360 representation in the

nd, or view additional images.useum Victoria CEO and director, Dr Patrickene, has described the technology as ollows: Theoramic Navigator takes visitors on a journey beyondtraditional museum display. It provides a sophis-ted but simple and enjoyable system or accessing

tional inormation on each and every one o theunted specimens in the Wild exhibition.m Role, Head o MV Studios, has enlarged on thee mobile and multiple learning streams that can belerated through new technologies the museum hasloyed in its re-developing displays, involving on-siteo-site learning:What is exciting about the new technology for an

xhibition like Wild is that it replaces the need for label-ng. Visitors can explore and engage with the hundredsf objects in Wild easily and in greater depth throughxt, images and video, which you can also download tour phone.m Role urther explains the partnerships Museumoria has built in recent years with the commercialor, in the Museum's increasingly strong recourse tonologically supported engagement o audiences:The Panoramic Navigator continues the tradition of

Museum Victoria in collaborating with local Victorianmpanies in this case Megafun Pty Ltd on highlynovative multimedia devices for our exhibitions. Visi-rs marvel at seeing the dinosaur skeletons come to lifeDinosaur Walk, or watching the city grow before their

yes in The Melbourne Story, while others follow theurney of a raindrop in the Raincheck 3000 display.

g alu a uaaly cog

useum Victoria has recently won an Austral-Interior Design Award or the Installation Design

Wild: Amazing animals in a changingworld; andECO-Buy award or environmentally sustainableroaches to purchasing and exhibition design.

owlgm

pecialiststa,sectionsandprogramareaso MuseumVictoriahavecontributed

nalrealisationoWild: Amazinganimalsina changingworld.DrRobin Hirst,

orCollections,Researchand Exhibitions,has explainedtheoutcomesasollows:

xtraordinarysuccessin exhibitiondevelopmentcan beattributedto ourocus

ience,teamwork,excellentsystemsandprocesses,acommitmentto research

holarship,andcreativecollaborationsbothwithinthe museumandwithmany

edpeopleinother industries.It doesnotcome overnight;itrequiresa whole-o-

meorttogain theresourcesandapplythem wisely.MuseumsAustraliaexpresses

ciationor thegenerousassistanceovariousMuseumo Victoriastainprovidinga

yomaterials,texts andimagesin preparationo thisarticle.[Ed.]

onorthis article:Wild andcontemporaryMelbourneMuseumsprogressive

elopmento itslong-termdisplays,in MuseumsAustraliaMagazine,Canberra,

(Issue1), September2010,pp13-16.

d a comoay Mlou Muum og lom of log-m lay Sh ya of h uccful jo-xho , Mlou W Mac

European Masters: Stdel Museum, 19th-20th Centuryat the Natina Gaery f Victria

The Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series

began in 2004 at the National Gallery o Victoriawith the presentation oThe Impressionists:

Masterpieces from the Muse dOrsay. The VictorianGovernment-supported concept (in partnership

with other state institutions, especially Museum Victoria)was continued in 2005 withDutch Masters from the

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; ollowed byPicasso in 2006,Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now in 2007,Art Deco

1910-1939 in 2008 andSalvador Dal: Liquid Desirein 2009.

This year the highly successul parallel-exhibitionsventure by several museums in one city, MelbourneWinter Masterpieces, presents European Masters:Stdel Museum, 19th-20th Centuryat the NGV (19June-10 October), and Tim Burton at the AustralianCentre or the Moving Image (24 June-10 October) while the Melbourne Museum is presenting or

a longer period Titanic:The Artefact Exhibition (14May-7 November 2010).

The ollowing material on the National Gallery oVictoria eature exhibition, exclusive to Melbourne,has been compiled rom inormation kindly suppliedby the NGV and its sta [Ed.]

Drawn rom one o the worlds nest collections othe art o t he previous two centuries, the exhibitionEuropean Masters: Stdel Museum, 19th-20th Centurybrings together almost 100 works by 70 artists romone o Germanys oldest and most respected muse-ums, in Frankurt.

The rst section o European Masters (Germany:From The Nazarenes to Genre Painting) exploresGerman cultural identity at the turn o the century.The exhibition opens with the iconic painting,Goethe in the Roman Campagna, 1787, by Johann H.W.

bov: Jhann Heinrich

TISCHBEIN(Geran 1

Goethe inthe Romancou1787( Goethe inder rmCampagna),i n can

x 197.5 c,Stde Muse

Frankfurt aMain. Ac

1878 as a gift yBarne

n Rthschid.


10/27


where a highlight is the Stdels impressive collec-tion o French Impressionist masterpieces rom artistssuch as Monet, Renoir, Degas and Czanne. Theseworks can be seen in company with their great pred-ecessors rom French Romanticism and Realism keygures such as Delacroix, Corot and Co urbet. Furthersections return to the strength o Germanys contribu-tion to European modern art in Germany: Realismand the Aesthetic Alternative (including Max Lieber-mann and Max Klinger); and Beckmann and Frankfurt (eaturing the highly inuential Expressionist painterand teacher, Max Beckmann who ed to the USA toavoid Nazi prosecution as a degenerate artist).

Meanwhile other thematic sections devoted toSymbolism , toModernity , and toSculpture enablea more expansive view o the cultural diusion omodernistic styles across national borders in Europe,

chbein. This is the most amous image o Goethe,esteemed German writer and philosopher. Anobling portrait, Goethe is set within an idealisedsical landscape, rendered in a rened mannermpliying Neo-Classicism, the dominant style inart academies o the period. The exhibition thenmines the emergence o the Nazarene movementgroup o German and Austrian Romantic artistsblished in 1809.

he inuence o the Nazarenes can be traced ine strands o art developing in Australia in the

h century, when German- and Austrian- born orned artists had considerable inuence on theelopment o landscape painting in the youngnies.

he exhibition takes a strong turn towards Francehe sectionFrom Romanticism to Impressionism,

revealing the intense interaction and cross-inuencesbetween artists, oten moving between Germany,France, Switzerland and the Nordic countries, link-ing the dispersed art centres o the modern period in aclose and intensive erment o ideas and development.

Dr Gerard Vaughan, NGV Director, has summarisedthe importance o this exhibition or his institutionand or Melbourne as ollows:

European Masters presents a comprehensive over-view of the Stdel Museums holdings of painting andsculpture from the last two centuries of European art...provid[ing] a superb survey of the key artistic move-ments of the time, including Realism, Impressionismand Post Impressionism, German Romanticism,Expressionism and Modernism, and French Symbol-

ism. ...This provides an unprecedented opportunityto see a spectacular group of masterpieces spanningthe dynamic and transformative years of the 19th and20th centuries.The Stdel Museum today has grown rom one

o Germanys oldest art museums, the StdelschesKunstinstitut in Frankurt. It was developed throughthe intents o the 1815 will o a Frankurt merchantand banker, Johann Friedrich Stdel: a generousbequest o an outstanding collection and accompa-nying nancial resources or the oundation o aspecial, autonomous art institute bearing [his] nameto provide the best or this town and its citizens. Inkeeping with the wishes o its ounder, this art insti-tute was to encompass not only a collection to whichthe public would have access, but also a acility orthe education o each new generation o artists thepresent-day Stdelschule.

Since its oundation, the Stdel Museum hasexpanded its holdings continually by pursuing anactive acquisition policy. Altogether the collectionpresently comprises some 2,700 paintings, 600 sculp-tures and more than 100,000 drawings and prints.With its rich holdings, the Stdel Museum presentsan overview o seven hundred years o European arthistory beginning with the early ourteenth centuryand covering the Renaissance, the Baroque, EarlyModern and contemporary art.

In addition to collecting and preserving art, thescholarly study o the artworks as well as the devel-opment o exhibitions within the context o thoseholdings orm a chie ocus o the museums work.The high degree o activity in the areas o research,exhibitions and museum education as well as theoutstanding quality o its collection preserves theStdels prominent place in the international museumlandscape. As Germanys oldest and most importantcivic oundation dedicated to culture, the Stdel ismoreover a prime example o the kind o broad-basedcivic patronage that contributes to the preservationand development o exceptional cultural institutions.

Citationorthis article:[NationalGalleryo Victoria& MAMagazine(Ed.)]

EuropeanMasters:StdelMuseum,19th-20thCenturyat theNationalGallery o

VictoriaSeventhyear othe successuljoint-exhibitionsseries,MelbourneWinter

Masterpieces, MuseumsAustraliaMagazine,Canberra,Vol.19(Issue1), September

2010, pp.17-19.

h ya of h uccful jo -xho , Mlou W Mac

bov: Henri ROUSSEAU (French

18441910), The avenue inSt.Cloud

Park(190708)(Alle dans le parcde Saint-Cloud),i n canas,46.2 x 37.6 c,Stde Museu,

Frankfurt aMain. Acquired

in 1926.

bov: Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER

(Geran 18801938),Recliningwomanin a white chemise,1909

(Liegende Frauim weienHemd),i n canas,95.0 x 121.0 c,

Stde Museu,Frankfurt a

Main.Acquired in 1950.


11/27

Museums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) SeptembMuseums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) September 2010

Suhaoa collaoao mowg Igou hoy a oc

iwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route

Mchal Pckg

First surveyed in 1906, the Canning Stock Routeis the longest stock route in the world. It runsalmost 2000 kilometres, rom Halls Creek toWiluna in Western Australia. The developmento this ultimately unsuccessul cattle route

dramatically aected the lives o Aboriginal people.The Yiwarra Kuju exhibition tells the story o theCanning Stock Route rom the Aboriginal perspective:through collective oral tradition and personalnarratives, through art and objects.

The Canning Stock Route is a place where Indig-enous and non-Indigenous histories intersect. Theexhibition enables and celebrates recovery o theIndigenous histories o the country traversed by thestock route. For many years the story o t he stockroute was represented as a white mans story thisexhibition, and the collection that orms its heart,allows us to recognise that its history goes back muchurther, and is held in the hearts and minds o theAboriginal people o the region.

Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route (July 2010January 2011) eatures 127 paintings, cultural objects,documents and a remarkable new media work, whichtraces the Canning Stock Route with touch-screenaccess to historical and contemporary detail, paintingsand cultural works, and a rich oral and visual record.The works and objects are accompanied by expansive

documentation written, audio, photographic, andlm. Particularly signicant is the emphasis given tothe Indigenous voice, to the words o the artists. Theexhibition has emerged through a strategic researchprocess ounded on ethical consultation.

This short report provides background to the exhi-bitions development as an innovative project or theNational Museum o Australia. It reviews t he projectrom the inside out, highlighting its gestation, thecrucial partnerships linking the museum sta inCanberra with Indigenous agencies and communitiesin the ar west o Australia. It discloses the conceptsthat guided the exhibitions development over ouryears, and the values that have crucially shaped theultimate orm o the exhibition and accompanyingdocumentation as presented to the public.

: DrMichae Pickering,

df the Arigina andTrres

t IsanderPrgra,Natina

euf Austraia.

: Cuntry arundWe 28,n

anning Stck Rute.poo:

Acker,200 7.


12/27

Museums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) SeptembMuseums Australia Magazine Vol. 19 (1) September 2010

BELOW: Warayirti art

Eizaeth Nyui aint

Kiykiy(We 36).

Pht: TiAcker,2007

OW: The Canning Stck Rute

ctin aidut n the shres f

na (Lake Stretch).

: TiAcker,2007.

oa collaoao mowg Igou hoy a oc

Th xho loma gug a

There are important narratives in this exhibition.Stories o people, places, histories both sacred andsecular; stories o the clash o cul tures, o survivaland resilience. Yiwarra Kuju speaks o and throughAboriginal history. It presents personal experiences,recollections o events and belies that shaped the liveso individuals and o their societies. It reminds us thatthe arteact does not, in itsel, make history; history,both sacred and secular, is made, experienced, and toldby people. Indeed, the exhibition ocuses on present-ing the voices o real people tell ing their stories, theirexperiences, through their art and objects.

Yiwarra Kuju has excelled as an undertaking bythe National Museum in numerous ways many owhich will be largely invisible to audiences. It hasemerged through a strategic research process oundedon principles o ethical consultation with Indigenouscommunities. The works and objects in the exhibitionderive rom a major collection developed over someyears, accompanied by rich supporting material thatvitally illuminates its contents: written, audio, photo-graphic, and lm records. Particularly signicant arethe emphases given to presenting Aboriginal voices the words o the artists in both the exhibition andthe behind-the-scenes documentation o the collec-tion; and in guiding the philosophies o the exhibitionand uture management o the associated collections.

Th aoal uy a ock ou

Running 1800 kilometres through the north o West-ern Australia, the Canning Stock Route is one o anumber o such stock routes developed across Australiaas part o the expansion o the pastoral industry. YiwarraKuju can thereore be appreciated at a number o levels,

beginning with its illumination o a ar-reaching themeo Australian social and historical development.

A stock route was basically a dened route ogovernment-owned (Crown) land along which cattlecould be driven through adjacent pastoral properties.These routes typically allowed or access to contin-gent waters and grasslands so that stock could beed and watered progressively during a long, herdedjourney towards distant markets. It was thereore notunusual that the routes oten encompassed streamcorridors, lakes, ponds, and waterholes. Such corri-dors o Crown Land, ofcially 1-2 miles wide, thusallowed guided movement o stock through the ree-hold and leasehold lands o pastoral stations acrosshuge tracts o country.

Many Aboriginal people ound work as stock-men and support labour in the pastoral industry.The history o the Canning Stock Route, thereore,is not just an important story o the developmento the north o the state o Western Australia; it isa case-study o the broader events and issues thataccompanied the development o stock routes acrossAustralia historically. As such, it is a national story.


13/27


inicted historically through colonisation.For a history o the background and oten cha

lenging processes in developing the PPNO polimost comprehensive record can be ound in anpublished internationally by Dr Des Grifn, thetor o the Australian Museum, who co-chaired Lori Richardson) the rst consultative processormation with Indigenous people and commu

The second (revised) edition o Museums AusIndigenous policy, Continuing Cultures: Ongoingsibilities (CCOR), directly inherited and built upounding PPNO document. It was adopted by MCouncil in 1994, ater a 2003 co-cultural consultprocess on a drat review document. CCOR, avadownload rom the Museums Australia websiteore sits rmly within a cumulative, afrmative policy initiative by Australias museums since th1990s. It arises out o the consciousness-changeearly repatriation eorts o the 1980s.

Museums Australias Indigenous policy todaprovides a strong ethical underpinning to the association itsel, preceding, as it did, the devement o MAs own more broadly ranging Ethicor the museums sector. The Indigenous policMuseums Australia has also been used as a redocument in some legal actions on repatriatiointernationally or instance, action on behalthe Tasmanian Aboriginal community in (ultimsuccessul) suit or repatriations rom the NatHistory Museum in London and the British Min recent years.

Finally, it should be stressed that the Indigenpolicy o Museums Australia has sought to proa broad base-position or all museums, while rnising and encouraging the act that individuainstitutions have or may develop institution-sppolicies which encompass special histories,resources and policy positions within states antories highlighting the histories o those instand diverse progressive developments in theirright. [Ed. /Bernice Murphy]

MuseumsAustraliasrevisedIndigenouspolicy,ContinuingCultures:On

Responsibilities(CCOR),2004,can beaccessedromMAswebsite,at

museumsaustralia.org.au/site/whatwedo_policies.php

Eo' o

Australian museums in general, and MuseumsAustralia in particular, have pursued a world-lead-ing policy and afrmative action program in relationto Australian Indigenous people since MuseumsAustralias incorporation as a single national body orthe sector (in 1994). The groundbreaking, oundingpolicy,Previous Possessions, New Obligations (PPNO),was achieved through a process culturally co-chairedby Dr Des Grifn (then Director o the AustralianMuseum) and Lori Richardson (a senior member osta in the National Museums o Australia) in 19921993. The consultative process through a serious oormal meetings, backed by on-the ground consul-tation at other times (and supported nancially bythe Commonwealth), linked senior museums peopleacross Australia with a geographically broad gather-ing o Indigenous leaders and cultural representativesdrawn rom all States and Territories.

The resulting watershed document (PPNO) waspresented to the ull assembly o the national muse-ums conerence that occurred in Hobart, in November1993 the last time that the annual national coner-ence or the museums sector occurred under the aegiso CAMA (the Council o Australian Museum Asso-ciations that ormed Museums Australia). PPNO wasthereore promulgated as a ounding document andrst ethical policy o the emergent body, MuseumsAustralia. It is on the historical record as a still-bench-marking document by world standards, in guidingmuseums in their responsibilities towards Indigenouspeople. The development o the policy documentwas accompanied by a comprehensive national eorton the part o museums collaborating consciouslybeyond their S/T jurisdictions to undertake a prov-enancing program on collections held, ocused rst onancestral remains (as a preparatory phase to similareorts on secret-sacred material later). This projectafrmatively prepared or repatriations whereverpossible and appropriate (in community terms). Thisbuilt on repatriation eorts that museums in Australiabegan to undertake or the rst time in the 1980s,through a growing moral commitment to seek torepair the damage to Indigenous people and cultures

oa collaoao mowg Igou hoy a oc

increasing layers o signicance through the works themselves,

their documentation, and the stories and associated histories

o the artists and their communities gained along the way. The

whole undertaking has been underpinned by the strong ethical

principles applied by the FORM research team on its side: in the

collection o the material and its acquisition or the Museums

collection; and in ongoing development o strategies or appro-

priate management and urther use o the collection in uture.

Other rsts have been on the sponsorship side.While many museums develop exhibitions undersponsorship rom external agencies, the day-to-dayrelationship between sponsor and museum is usuallysomewhat independent. The relationship betweenFORM and the National Museum o Australia hasbeen dierent in this case. It has orged a much closercollaboration, one in which the research done by theFORM team comes together with the museologi-cal resources o the National Museum to produce notonly a signicant collection but also associatedexhibitions o great ongoing value.

In review, the collaborative enterprise engaged bythis project provides a model or uture museum prac-tice and research in general. The maniold resultswill serve the Australian public, researchers, and theAboriginal communities rom which the works aresourced, or many years to come.Seeurther:http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yiwarra_kuju/

Dr Michael Pickering, an anthropologist, is Head of theAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program & RepatriationProgram, National Museum of Australia.

Citation:MichaelPickering, YiwarraKuju:The CanningStockRoute -An innovative

collaborationempoweringIndigenoushistoryand voices,MuseumsAustralia

Magazine,Canberra,Vol.19(Issue1), September2010,pp.20-25.

cal ahkg h muum a commu

he collaborations involved in this project incorporate aber o rsts, not necessarily evident to audiences butetheless integral to the exhibition that has resulted.he exhibition is the cumulative, enriched result o annsive collaboration between the National Museum otralia, FORM, (a senior cultural organisation based inh) and its nine-partner art centres stretching all therom the Pilbara to the Kimberley in northern West-Australia.

he art and objects were gathered together within thening Stock Route Projects advance during a our-year

gram developed by FORM, which involved Aborigi-artists, traditional custodians and emerging Aboriginaltors and lmmakers rom Western Australia. Theionship between the National Museum and FORMeore represents a close museum-and-communityaboration, in which the research done by FORMcome together with the resources o the Museum toent a unique historical record and memorable exhibi-experience.

he National Museum o Australia, on its side, consoli-d the work evolving by acquiring the collection in itsrety. It meanwhile steered development internally ocornerstone exhibition planned in partnership with

RM: to ensure presentation o a strong and illuminatingerience to a wider public, guaranteeing a nal resultthy o national recognition and enduring record.

his steady accumulation o values, through a project

ntly taking some years to realise, has added a special rich-

to the Yiwarra Kuju exhibitions integrity. It has accrued

Fuhacl yMchal

Pckgo aaoa

hcalu fomuum,

fofc:

MichaelPickering,Introduction:We

dothingsdierentlyhere, Yiwarra

Kuju:TheCanning StockRoute

(Canberra:NationalMuseumo

Australia/NMAPress,2010), pp.x-xiii.

WherearetheStories?,ThePublic

Historian,Vol.32(1), University

oCaliorniaPress,February2010,

pp.79-95.

Wheretoromhere? Repatriationo

IndigenousHumanremainsand The

Museum,inKnell, S.K., MacLeod,

S,and Watson,S.(eds),Museum

Revolutions:Howmuseumschange

andare changed(UK:Routledge,

Oxon,2007),pp.250-259.

Policyandresearchissues aecting

humanremainsin Australian

museumcollections,inLohman,

J.and Goodnow,K. (eds),Human

RemainsandMuseumPractice:

Ethics,Research,PolicyandDisplay

(Paris:UnescoPublishing;and

London:MuseumoLondon,2006),

pp.42-47.

Inpress 2010-11

MichaelPickering,'Dancethrough

themineeld:Thedevelopmento

practicalethicsor repatriation',inMarstine,J.,RoutledgeCompanion

toMuseumEthics:Redening

Ethicsorthe Twenty-FirstCentury

Museums(UK:Routledge

orthcoming).

l: HeicterTjungurrayi

ints t the st in his ainting,

Natawau,that deicts the ace

where he was ickedu ya

heicterand taken t Bag as a

chid.poo: TiAcker,2007.

l(op boom): Visitrs

exaining interactie disays

fthe Canning Stck Rute at

the ening fYiwarra Kuju: The

Canning Stock Route, NatinaMuseuf Austraia,Canerra,

29Juy2010. Iage uerright shws (in eatherjacket)

distinguishedguest, Meryn Street.

1. D.J.Grifn, Previous possessions,

new obligations: a commitment

by Australian museums, Curator:

TheMuseumJournal(Maryland:

AltaMira, USA), vol.9, no.1 (1995),

pp.45-62.


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The objective I wish to elaborate upon in theremainder o this article is to highlight the continuingpractice o bre work rom mission days and DonaldThomson times.[1]

During the time I have lived and worked in Gapuwi-yak, there has always been a strong practice amongstolder artists to make what I considered classicbaskets. These were baskets made rom twined panda-nus, with rounded bottoms and hand-spun stringhandles. Sometimes I would be brought a twinedsedge grass basket made by either the late MaryDjupuduwuy Guyula (1945-2005) or Nancy Waliny-inawuy Guyula. Sedge grass or mewanabaskets arestrong and capable o being placed in water or longperiods o time, usually holding nuts or yams thatrequire toxin removal.

An increased interest in past practice, people andobjects became more apparent during the time I wasworking with people in the community, when research-ing the Donald Thomson Collection in MuseumVictoria.[2] The Collection rom Arnhem Land wasmade rom 19351937 and 19421943, and includesmore than 2,500 photographs and 5,000 objects.

During the time o our contemporary project, wewere able to bring some items o bodywear and manyphotographs rom Museum Victoria back to thecommunity ar north in Arnhem Land. As a result othis research, and my own interest in historic items omaterial culture, some special items were produced.Ater I made the decision, in October 2006, to curatea Gapuwiyak womens bre exhibition, the interestamongst the community grew urther. Aims or the

project developed through meetings and indivdiscussions. The concern with past traditions honouring the deceased women were coordinvalues in developing the contemporary projecspirit my assistant curator or the exhibition, LMalirrimurruwuy Wanapuyngu, a Wagilag woexplained: We want to teach some stu thatmake things that are new, rom the past.[3] Woare always wanting to encourage children andchildren to make bre objects, and in this caseemphasising that they can make things rom tbut they are now also new.

Some women started to make things specicor the exhibition that were classic items. NanWalinyinawuy Guylua, a Djambarrpuyngu wois known or making superbly crated basketsare sought-ater objects or events such as the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander AAward (NATSIAA) or its nal presentation prizes. Nancy Walinyinawuy Guylua made twisedge grass baskets with the same materials, pand techniques that would have been employegrandmother.

The Donald Thomson Collection rom ArnhLand has provided great satisaction to the Gacommunity, through relocating and connectinwith records o their relatives in the photograand seeing what they were wearing and usingdecades ago. Lucy and others have been delighwith the visual and actual reerences to t heir mculture this process has brought to light. A Thphotograph, TPH2105, was the inspiration or

w fom h a Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr Gong Djambatjmala: Women with Clever Hands

ndigenus art f tday renewing eary useu cectins Arnhe Land

u Hamy

Asmall group o women with clever handswill be making a big impression when theirexhibition, Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr GongDjambatjmala: Women with Clever Hands,opens in September 2010, at Wagga Wagga Art

ery in regional New South Wales (3 Sept. 31 Oct.0). This event has been in the making since 1995,n I rst went to Gapuwiyak as a doctoral student to

t a learning process about baskets and the womeno made them. The PhD was complete in 2001,

wever I am still engaged in associations with thesemen my teachers, my mentors and my riends.apuwiyak, or Lake Evella, is a small inland

mmunity in northeast Arnhem Land, relativelynown in the Aboriginal art world. Until recently

as not had an art centre to promote the work ocommunitys artists. On 20 June 2009, thingsnged dramatically with the Gapuwiyak CultureArt Centre (GCA) ofcially opened and launched

h appropriate celebration speeches, ceremo-dancing and presentations. As a edging in the

centre world, this art centre has many goals toieve to be able to unction at the level o its neigh-rs Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, and Elchond Arts. Both o these centres have supporteduwiyak artists in the past. As part o its owngling activities, GCA has projected its rst exhi-

on urther aeld, presenting painting, bre,pture andyidaki at Territory Crat in

gust 2010.

Women with Clever Hands looks back at the past,but also leaps into the uture o bre practice in thecommunity. This exhibition has developed throughlong-term relationships with women producers, incor-porating many connections with museum collectionsor cultural context. It is an exhibition o 130 breworks that have been made by local Aboriginal womenrom Gapuwiyak during the past teen years. Wideraudiences will be able to experience classic sedgegrass baskets made recently that would sit comortablybeside companions rom a dierent era in a museumstoreroom. In the gallery at Wagga Wagga an emuand a kangaroo will stroll across the oor, ready tojoin the menagerie o bre animals that are currentlybeing produced not only in Gapuwiyak but in otherArnhem Land communities. The exhibition providesa representative view o the range and types o workbeing produced: rom baskets, bags and mats, to sculp-tural gures and items worn on the body.

The exhibition is ambitious in establishing a Gapu-wiyak approach to brework, while also examiningthe styles o individual artists. One striking eatureo their work is the continuing use o materials romtheir own country. A small group o women comprisethe exhibiting group, ranging in age rom 23 to 81. Anabiding concern with the inter-generational trans-mission o knowledge is an important issue or theolder women, who are eager to attract the energies oyounger ones to their crats. This exhibition thereorehas a particular cultural aim o encouraging youngerAboriginal women to become involved in bre prac-tice, as a means o both economic and cultural benet.

op:LuiseHambyand Lucy

MalirrimurruwuyWanauyngu,with

ubiccverLucymade frWomen

withClever Hands.Gauwiyak,

Octber2008.Pht:LindyAllen.

boom: Luise Hayand

assistant curatrfr the

exhiitin,LucyMairriurruwuy

Wanauyngu,reiewing

instaatin fthe Womenwith

Clever Hands exhiitin at WaggaWagga Art Gaery,NSW,3 Set.

2010.

bov : Exhiitin ening

at Wagga Wagga Art Gaery,NSW,

3 Set.2010.

bov: Exhiitin ening f

Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr GongDjambatjmala: Womenwith CleverHands at Wagga Wagga Art Gaery,NSW,3 Set.2010.

1. Thomson timesis an expression

thatmany people use to reerto the

period when anthropologistDonald

Thomson worked in Arnhem Land inthe early twentieth century,in 1935-

1937 and again in 1942-43.

2. From 2003-2006 Iwas the

PostdoctoralFellow (Industry)or

an Australian Research Council

GrantLP0347221 (2003-2006)

Anthropologicaland Aboriginal

Perspectives on the Donald Thomson

Collection:materialculture,collecting

and identity,awarded to the Australian

NationalUniversity in collaboration

with Museum Victoria.Lindy Allen

was the PartnerInvestigatorand made

severaltrips with me to Gapuwiyak.

ProessorNicolas Peterson was the

ChieInvestigatororthis project.

3. Lucy Malirrimurruwuy Wanapuyngu,

interview with Louise Hamby,

Gapuwiyak [ormerly Oenpelli].22

October2008.


15/27


Alaa Val [1]

One o the high points o my museum theatre-making career occurred in Sydney last year.The story involves a vivacious redhead, amartyred Italian genius with great legs,the disgraced mediaeval Catholic Church

and Stephen Hawking. The vivacious redhead isSydney Observatory Manager, Toner Stephenson,who, with the help o a National Science Weekgrant, commissioned me to write and direct threeshort playlets about Galileo Galilei, to be lmed anduploaded onto the Observatory website.

Toner Stephensons vision was to take the curatorialmessages o Nick Lomb and the Observatory to any

corner o the earth with an internet connection. Themartyred Italian genius was dressed in crimson neryater several hours o Toners masterul rummag-ing through the ABC's costume hire department, andhe boasted the seriously shapely calves o actor PeterFlett. The lm locations were the luxuriant VaucluseHouse gardens, the rened splendour o ElizabethBay House, and the balcony o the Sydney Observa-tory itsel.

Results were eventually presented to adult visitorsto the Observatory, and accessed to students usingthe website. We also perormed the works or adultsand children during the ABC Science Week open dayin the ABC oyer in Ultimo, with the actors shoutingabove the din o 800 people milling about. It was anexhilarating and nerve-wracking undertaking.

The highlight or me came in the orm o an endorse-ment o one playlet by visiting eminent Englishmathematical physicist, Sir Roger Penrose. On a visitto the Sydney Observatory, he was presented the playby two sta members including the curator himselin doublet and hose and pronounced himsel veryimpressed by the work. When your humble theatri-cal explanation o Newtons laws o motion is endorsedby someone who has won the Albert Einstein medal,and jointly scored the Eddington Medal with StephenHawking rom the Royal Astronomical Society: thatsthe kind o thrill Im looking or!

When I am asked to give a workshop on writingplays, I always begin with an exercise about what weplaywrights call the premise. I ask participants rstto dene a premise. They oten reply vaguely: thetheme; or the idea behind the whole thing; or themessage, you know, whatever you want people to endup with. My denition o the premise o a play is thesupposition which motivates the action. An easierway to put it is: What would happen i...? I thengive people an exercise, asking them to think o thepremise or a play, beginning with the words, Whatwould happen i...? Beore they do that, I call up a ewplays they might know. For example,King Lear: Whatwould happen i a king thought that it was possibleor his daughters to put their love into words? Or myown play, Parramatta Girls: What would happen i theterrors o childhood could never be erased?.

English playwright Simon Stephens states that the

best way to come up with the premise or a plathink about the worst thing that can happen toone and work backwards. A writer who is aimwrite a great play tries to come up with a premis unsolvable or impossible; a premise that is tand unanswerable. The best premises are thoscannot be contained, that do not have neat solthat speak o humanitys complexity and articlate opposing truths. Look careully at the playendure or centuries and you will see at their hpremise that distils the contradictions o being a proposition that may at rst sight seem unincredible but which, when contemplated or moments, may just harbour a vision or our tim

What would happen i a piece o museum th

tre was the centrepiece around which an exhiwas conceived? What i a work o museum t hecould distil the questions that a curatorial teamused objects and acquisitions to explore or inurther complicate? What i the real power o tre not simply the pedagogic or the entertainvalue was employed in a museum context? Wthe budget given to a museum theatre presentwas actually sufcient to create a work that domuseum visitation and sustained revisitation?a couple o perormers and a commissioned teprovide a lieline o meaning to an otherwise cor museum-atigued visitor?

By a lieline o meaning I mean a way or vito construct a context or narrative or what thtaking in. It might be a new perception, a surpinsight, an unusual realisation, a particular slacurious starting-point. I have a voracious curithe past, but when visiting museums I dont alknow where to look, or at least how and why tlooking. The exhibition design and labels otebut even they become tiresome i I cant persoconstruct a through-line to meaning. Beyond mgeneral curiosity, I need a guide, a premise i yor my cumulation o knowledge.

There is a considerable body o museum thearound the active construction o meaning; buplaywright, I have an interest in exploring whtheatre is called the subtext. As an audience w

A lfl of mag: Th oal of muum ha afomg o xc

Museu theatre

1. Thispaperhasbeenderivedroma

keynoteaddresstothe NotJustan

Add-onConerence,Powerhouse

Museum,Sydney,22 April2010.

in the Thomson Collection. This ne piece by LucyMalirrimurruwuy Wanapuyngu, and others in theexhibition, Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr Gong Djam-batjmala: Women with Clever Hands, are part o theliving connections to the past that th e contemporarywomen hoped to achieve though this project. Suchconnections are part o the continuum o practicethat continues to change and respond to the times inwhich they live.

Dr Louise Hamby is a Research Fellow in the ResearchSchool of Humanities and the Arts at the Australian NationalUniversity in Canberra. She teaches a course, IndigenousCollections and Exhibitions, in the Liberal Arts gradu-

ate program, Museums and Collections. The focus of hercurrent Australian Research Council grant project, Contextsof Collections, is the role Indigenous people from northeastArnhem Land have played in the formation of collections.See further: http://rsha.anu.edu.au/

Citationorthis article:LouiseHamby,Newromthe past Gapuwiyak

MiyalkurruwurrGongDjambatjmala: WomenwithClever Hands,MuseumsAustralia

Magazine,Canberra,Vol.19(Issue1), September2010, pp.26-28.

er made by Lucy, since a Djinba woman, Maum-mly, was recorded wearing such a pubic cover.y had also seen pubic covers that we brought touwiyak. She explained to me about her thinkingmaking o the cover as ollows:And this one here [pointing to her pubic cover]:

brought this one that I was talking about, thatonald Thomson from the past example, because I

aw this morning in the oce that photo, practising.aka [not] real one, practising. Where he might comeuth; we dont know yet. I want to show you some-

hing. Like you know, Yolngu yaka balgurr dja, gaagudal dunga, magudal [not kurrajong, but mugu-

al] for Wagilag. I saw in the Donald Thomson, yo

unga practicing. Yo dhuwal. [Yes this one] Thatsnly my idea you know.[4]

was important to Lucy that the pubic cover bede rom magudal, a yet unidentied bark bre,

not the normal bark bre wh ich is kurrajong. Shewed me the traditional way o rolling it up whenin use, wrapped with a piece o bark bre.ucy ears that her work does not measure up too her ancestors the authoritative culturaldard o a true one. Her pubic cover is meanwhile

utiully crated, and looks very much like those

w fom h a Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr Gong Djambatjmala: Women with Clever Hands

blo: Exhiitin ening at

Wagga Wagga Art Gaery,NSW 3

Set.2010.

bov: Writer/DirectrAana

Vaentine.Iage: Vicki Grdn.

4. Lucy Malirrimurruwuy

Wanapuyngu,interview,op.cit.

: Actrs Annie Byrn and

PeterFett with directrAana

Vaentine n catin at Eizaeth

BayHuse, rearing art f

the wrk,Taes fGaie,fr

resentatin ythe Sydney

Oseratryin 2009. Iage:

SydneyOseratry,Pwerhuse

Museu,Sydney.


16/27


married a ormer WAAF rom Britain. Ater meethem, I created the premise or a play. A single eperormer, speaking the part o a WAAF radio ois orced to maintain radio silence between the mwhen her anc, a Lancaster pilot, takes o romain and later returns rom his bombing mission oGermany. The monologue she whispers is a kindprayer, a conversation with the Lancaster itsel, her ears, her hopes, her experience (and it was amazing to nd out what a wild time was had byWAAFs during the war). Then there was her relthe bomber returns her anc to her saely romtreacherous mission. However or the emotionaline o meaning to resonate urther, visitors havego to the panels on the walls o the space o displ

realise how many o these Australian Lancaster did not make the sae return journey. The work playing now or nearly ve years at the War Memduring every school holidays. Most recently, Ivethat the play is going to tour to schools in the ACNSW regions, taking the curatorial mission o thar beyond the bounds o the institution.

Such an extension also occurred with my rso museum theatre, The Prospectors, commissioby curator Paul Hundley in 2000 or the Austraian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. Thiswas later picked up by a childrens theatre compMonkey Baa, and toured across NSW. In the mucontext, children and their teachers saw that plat the ANMM, and aterwards were given a guio the museums exhibition, specically using min the play to elucidate interest in the exhibitio(Remember when Frank ran away rom the Eustockade and hid the gun? This is a gun that waunder a barn in Ballarat. Who thinks it might begun?) Teachers told us that the children requere-perormed the play aterwards, both in the cland the playground. Theres nothing like a bit oblood to make a work stick in the mind o a ten-

Addressing another museum, I worked last ywith curator Brad Manera at the Hyde Park Bon a play called Ratticus and Reidar dealing wthe remarkable role that rodents have played i

that no pixillated screen or downloadable image canevoke? I know that the new Director o the NationalMuseum o Australia, Andrew Sayers, afrms thisimmediacy, since he remarked during a Sydney Morn-ing Herald interview earlier this year: What Iveelt in museums and galleries around the world isthat in some o them you eel absolutely wanted andloved, as though the institution reaches out to you.[3]

Meanwhile in the case o contemporary art, or omigration or other museums ocussing on the expe-rience o the present, isnt the actual paraphernaliao a lie, a orest, or a living ecosystem the basis oyour argument or direct experience and visitation?Accordingly, couldnt a work o theatre in whichpeople used such objects, spoke in the language otheir times, displayed the attitudes and contradictionsand problems o their lives immeasurably enhancevisitors immersion in the tangible past?

I know that these notions are amiliar, since I recallrom my museum studies degree the large extent oliterature about the efcacy o involving communi-ties with the work o museums. Many museums todayare accomplishing aspects o what plays do throughtheir own means in the theatre. I museums attracta community o interest to an institution by creatingan exhibition that is about and or these visitors, youmay redouble engagement with your stakeholders,and potentially take your aspirations and messages arbeyond the bounds o the institution itsel.

The Australian War Memorial, or example, commis-sioned a play rom me in 2005, called Radio Silence ateen-minute piece to be played in the Anzac Hallaccompanying the unveiling o renovations to the Gor George Lancaster bomber installation. The exhi-bition itsel involved wonderul primary material andexhibition objects a German spitre no less, as wellas the Lancaster, and material rom pilots such as theirletters and uniorms; all wonderul resources. Butalmost nothing about womens experience.

I located a ormer Lancaster pilot, a real Austral-ian larrikin and an impeccable gentleman, who had

oal of muum ha afomg o xc

3 AndrewSayers,quotedin Rosemary

Sorensen,NewDirector Dedicated

tothe TrickyBusinessoBeing

Human, SydneyMorningHerald,16

April2010.

4 EricBooth,Artsorgsmustreect

andlearn,Artery,Issue 12,Australia

Council,Sydney,2010,p.10.

: ActrMaryRache Brwn

inRadioSilence,cissined

ythe Austraian WarMeria

frits resentatin fthe Wrd

WarII G frGerge er

instaatin,AnzacHa, in 2003.

Iage: Austraian WarMeria,

Canerra.

blo: Detai fActrs

Gisn Nte andAraea

Machersn inRatticus andReidar,erfed at Hyde Park

Barracks,Sydney,in 2009.Iage:

Aana Vaentine.

racter move through the journey o a play, peoplenot simply listening to what a character says; theywatching what the character does. A undamen-enet o drama is that you cant judge someone by

at they say; you can judge them by what they do.what a character does can create suspense or

igue, anticipation or dread.his is why we say that the audience provides theaw pieces that complete any great drama. Untiludience is present, silently or perhaps raucouslyerving the action, a plays subtext isnt accruing.hat I need rom an exhibition is a subtext, a spurmakes me look at not our but orty objects, paint-, and primary-source materials. This is how I thinkay, in the museum context, can provide a set o ideasut an audiences quest or a lieline o meaning.

When I completed my post-graduate degree inseum Studies at the University o Sydney in 2000,o the things I admired about the museums sectorits genuine engagement with the practical appli-

ons o museology. Numerous examples couldbserved, in Sydney and elsewhere, o museumkers putting into practice the notion o contestedions o history and the truth. I was struck by how

ckly the museums sector had put into practicenotion o equal but dierent versions o history;

w willing curators were to represent not simply theminant but multiple points o view; how complexdiverse were the labels and exhibition guides in

monstrating the many ways in which history, espe-ly social history, may be approached.also rec

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