Explore – Winter 2021: The First Nations issue

Explore WINTER 2021

Australian Museum magazine

The first-ever First Nations dedicated issue, guest edited

by Stan Grant

Introducing the ground-breaking exhibition, Unsettled

Explore ISSN 1833-752X Winter 2021

Explore, the news and events magazine of the Australian Museum is published biannually.

Copyright Unless otherwise credited, all text and images appearing in Explore are copyright © Australian Museum, 2021. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, you may not reproduce or copy any part of this publication without the written permission of the Australian Museum. Please contact the editor for further information.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Museum.

Guest Editor Stan Grant Collaborating Editors Laura McBride, Dr Mariko Smith Editor Alice Gage Design Mark Joseph Production Jenny Hooker Printing Special T We welcome your feedback, comments and enquiries.

Email the editor at: alice.gage@australian.museum Australian Museum 1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010 Open daily 10am-5pm T 02 9320 6000 (switch) T 02 9320 6225 (Members) Australian Museum Trust President David Armstrong Director & CEO Kim McKay AO Environmental responsibility Explore is printed on Revive, a 100% recycled paper.

W australian.museum Cover image: Storyboat Installation, Glen Mackie, Yam Island man. Wood, glue, nails, ochre, wood, thin steel wire, bamboo, nylon, raw cotton muslin, vinyl cut. Australian Museum Collection Right: Djaadjawan Dancers in Ngawiya Maan (we take to give), Amanda Jane Reynolds, Guringai, 2018, audiovisual piece – Weave Festival of Aboriginal and Pacific Cultures. Photo Justine Kerrigan © Stella Stories The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands. We acknowledge Elders past and present.

This magazine may contain names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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Contents

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What’s on

5 Welcome

Kim McKay AO and Larissa Behrendt AO

6 Letter from the Guest Editor Stan Grant

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Meet the First Nations team

9 News 12 The Australian Museum’s statement of reflection Nathan mudyi Sentance

13 New acquisition: Weaving Woman Jodie Dowd

14 My museum

Laura McBride

16 Tasmanian shell necklaces:

A significant cultural practice Aunty Lola Greeno

19 New acquisition: Scarred Dr Mariko Smith

20 Unsettled: Uncovering our nation’s hidden history

Laura McBride and Dr Mariko Smith

30 Photo gallery: Dark Days Brendan Beirne

36 Who is Country?

Sara Judge

38 Always Was, Always Will Be,

Aboriginal Land: The history of the iconic declaration Laura McBride

41 New acquisition: Piracy Nathan mudyi Sentance

42 Deaths in custody: What can

museums do to effect change?

Dr Sandy O’Sullivan

44 Around the Museum

What’s on Exhibitions

Calendar Unsettled events For updated times and details, go to: australian.museum/visit/whats-on Tours Immersive exhibition tours led

by First Nations guides.

Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays, 11am & 1pm

Unsettled This land was not peacefully settled – Unsettled uncovers the true histories behind this nation’s foundation story. In this powerful exhibition, First Nations voices reveal hidden stories of survival and the fight for recognition.

Now showing, free entry

Talk Series Join First Nations truth tellers as they discuss the legacy of colonisation and what can be done to realise change.

Breakfast with a Curator Join curator Dr Mariko Smith for an early-morning viewing of Unsettled followed by breakfast inspired by Indigenous cuisine. winhangadurinya: Aboriginal Meditation An authentic introduction to First Nations culture and an opportunity to refresh your spirit.

Film Series Get the bigger picture at a screening of an award-winning contemporary film by First Nations filmmakers.

mahn Located in the First Nations Galleries, the mahn installation is a dedication to Sydney’s first fisherwomen who fished the local harbour and waterways for thousands of years.

Daily

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Weave Learn how to weave using traditional Aboriginal cultural practices. barrawimamniya | Coming into Country the Proper Way Develop a deeper understanding of “Welcome to Country” and “Acknowledgement of Country” through cultural immersion.

Closing Weekend A program of talks, tours and activities around the themes and lessons we can take away from Unsettled.

10 & 11 October

M AY Lunchtime Conversation Series – Politics and Activism: The Fight for Ongoing Constitutional Reform Featuring Professor Larissa Behrendt and Australia’s first Indigenous senior counsel, Tony McAvoy.

25 May, 12.30pm

JUNE Lunchtime Conversation Series – Sport: Levelling the Playing Field Featuring NITV sports reporter Bianca Hunt and Professor John Maynard.

1 June, 12.30pm Lunchtime Conversation Series – Literature: United We Win Arts leaders Rhoda Roberts and Wesley Enoch discuss the legacy of Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

8 June, 12.30pm Lunchtime Conversation Series – Art: Telling Stories by Hand Explore the relationship between art and place, and how this is maintained when links are lost.

15 June, 12.30pm Lunchtime Conversation Series – Innovation: Old and New Ways Professor Larissa Behrendt and innovator Dr Jason DeSantolo reflect on the legacy of David Unaipon.

22 June, 12.30pm Winter School Holidays A jam-packed program of interactive workshops about science and culture.

26 June – 11 July, various

J U LY Early Birds: Autism and SensoryFriendly Mornings A reduced sensory environment for visitors on the autism spectrum or those with other access requirements.

10 July, 8am

Welcome

Kim McKay AO Director & CEO

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO Trustee

A new age for the Museum

First Nations to the fore

As part of the Australian Museum’s mission to drive change and to be a strong advocate for First Nations’ voices, we are pleased to bring you the first-ever single-topic issue of Explore, guest edited by the respected journalist and Wiradjuri man Stan Grant. This issue will take a deep dive into the significant work of the AM’s First Nations team, including a closer look at the revolutionary new exhibition, Unsettled.

I am proudly a First Nations woman, a member of the Eualeyai and Gamillaroi nations. My father, Paul Behrendt, collected our oral history and languages, storing them at The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. Through his work, I gained an appreciation for the important role collecting institutions can play in keeping our cultures, even though they are also often viewed suspiciously by First Nations people due to their colonial past.

We believe Unsettled is the most important exhibition that the AM has produced and one that every Australian should see. Because of this, we’ve made it free with the assistance of our partners and donors.

A new day has certainly dawned for the AM. Back in July 2019, we closed the Museum to commence our major renovation, known as Project Discover. Fifteen months later, in November 2020, we reopened to the public. Through Project Discover, we’ve added more than 3000sqm of new public space, improved amenities and delivered a better experience for all. We’re thrilled to have the buzz of visitors back in our new spaces and have seen record attendance numbers since reopening – already over 350,000 people have visited.

The transformation marks a new age for both the Australian Museum’s mission as well as for its buildings. Our new key focus areas encompass climate change, First Nations knowledge and scientific leadership, reflecting the role of the Museum in today’s world. I’d like to thank AM Trust President David Armstrong and Trustees for their ongoing support.

I am proud to be a Trustee of the Australian Museum during this exciting period of transition.

Our appointment of Laura McBride to a new position of First Nations Director has been warmly welcomed by our community who are excited about her vision and appreciate the work she has done to date, including her leadership with the eagerly anticipated Unsettled exhibition that is sure to start important conversations. The creation of this new position heralds a new era of First Nations leadership at the highest levels of the Museum, building on the important work the Australian Museum has already undertaken to redefine its relationship with First Nations communities, become an advocate for their voices and create an innovative space for learning about the world’s oldest living culture.

Museums are often thought to be places that hold our past, and while that is true, the Australian Museum is forward-looking and our First Nations collections and installations are helping us to consider how we can redefine our future.

I look forward to seeing you at the transformed Australian Museum soon.

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Letter from the Guest Editor This issue of Explore is the first First Nations edition of the magazine. Wiradjuri man, journalist and author Stan Grant is guest editor, bringing his insights to the significance of the Unsettled exhibition.

Sigmund Freud called it the “Uncanny”: that space between worlds. That time out of joint. It is where the familiar becomes strange. Where home is un-home.

It is all the same. We don’t have to be complete.

We don’t have to resurrect or rescue what was lost.

That is Australia. Uncanny Australia. Unsettled Australia.

For me it is an Irish convict and an Aboriginal woman and a bloodline that pulses through me still.

It is not one; it is not the other. It is all of it.

Funny isn’t it to think of that name, Australia.

In a word we invent a nation. We create beings.

We are now “Australians”. Really?

A border, a flag, an anthem, a constitution.

Is this what we are now? There is no permanence in those things.

Nations rise and fall. They can disappear as surely as they are invented. I have seen this in my own lifetime.

But there is something more enduring; something more profound. It is story. It is those things we write on our souls.

Stories are not contained in books or carved on cave walls; stories live in us. Story is the essence of what it is to be human.

My story is written here in this place; this land that is the only place I could ever call home. For me it is the lands of the Wiradjuri, the Kamilaroi and the Dharrawal. It is the story of people who witnessed the end of certainty and the beginning of beginning.

It is a story of being and becoming. It is the same river that cannot be crossed twice. We are in a state of flux. We are the never ending present.

We just have to live in that story.

Hegel would have us believe that the world unfolds in these contradictions. That in rupture or even despair we are driven forward. Each age unfolds on a human journey to freedom.

It is a Western vision of history. It is the belief that has put people in ships with guns to invade and kill. To bring so-called “civilisation”.

But after all of that, what is there? A gun can remove or destroy but it cannot replace. Australians – if that’s what we must be called – dwell in that space reserved for the hungry ghosts: those undead who exist but cannot rest.

Unsettled. Un-home. A people who have come but cannot belong. And a people who belong and can never be settled; who will not be settled.

In these pages, this exhibition, you will enter that world that will not be touched or tamed. A world of everywhen. A world of story then, now and next.

In photographs and artefacts; in language and protest and defiance you will stare into the truth; not truth to heal; not truth to reconcile; not truth to be put behind us but truth for itself. That’s all. Truth.

The anthropologist, William Stanner, coined the neologism “the everywhen” to capture the timelessness of Indigenous being. Time bends in on itself: then, now, next, all existing at once.

I defy you to look into this unsettled and then turn away from justice; from what is right.

What happens when the everywhen collides with progress? The familiar becomes strange. We are plunged into the Uncanny.

I know there is a place for me in the world. It is a place I was born into and a place I will return to live with my ancestors. There is no one that can take that.

Forget about Australia. Forget about names and flags and anthems. Story. Story unfolding and unending. That is where we find ourselves, or not.

Carl Jung said land assimilates the conqueror. You cannot erase the land. You cannot erase a people.

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Our place here is beyond politics; beyond flags or beyond doubt. It is beyond Australia.

But you can see it. Finally you can see it.

“

U nsettled. Un-home. A people who have come but cannot belong. And a people who belong and can never be settled; who will not be settled. ”

Brungle Wooden Chain, Spinner and Hook, circa 1900, made by Ancestor, Brungle Mission, NSW. Willow wood.

Australian Museum Collection This wooden chain, hand-carved with a pen knife entirely from a single solid piece of wood, was collected by the Brungle Mission manager John Hubbard. Less is known about the Aboriginal maker, who was recorded simply as “a full-blooded Aboriginal.”

Chains of this style, typically made of heavy metal, would have been a familiar sight to the maker; neck chains and other restraints were a common form of punishment and control of Aboriginal people. They were often chained when made to work on roads, railway lines and when clearing land for colonisers. Chains were not phased out until the 1940s but were still recorded in use until the 1960s.

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Meet the First Nations team

Laura McBride

Sara Judge

Courtney Marsh

Jodie Dowd

Director, First Nations; Curator, Unsettled

First Nations Assistant Content Producer

Content Producer, First Nations

First Nations Cultural Collections Officer

Laura is a Wailwan and

Sara Kianga Judge is a

Courtney is a proud

Jodie is a Noongar

Kooma woman who leads the AM’s First Nations strategic direction.

Laura aims to prioritise and amplify First Nations voices so that Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific communities represent themselves and their cultures within the Museum.

Yuin geographer working to uphold the agency of Country and create meaningful content that is of service to all – regardless of species!

Sara is co-creating a many-ways learning space devoted to bringing together First Nations, Pacific and Western scientific knowledges.

Yugambeh-Minjungbal, Ni-Vanuatu woman born and living on Gadigal land. Courtney facilitates meaningful interactions with First Nations cultures, illustrating her Peoples’ knowledges as a path to a sustainable shared future. She is the content lead on AM’s new learning space

(Wangai, Gitja, Menang) weaver and curator.

Jodie is passionate about promoting First Nations agency in the care, access and interpretation of cultural collections through cross-cultural knowledge exchanges with community, national and international cultural institutions.

development.

Haylee Rivers

Nathan Sentance

Dr Mariko Smith

First Nations Education Presenter

Digital Program Manager, First Nations

First Nations Curator

Haylee is a Kija, Jaru, Bunuba, Walmajarri, Nyikina, Gooniyan woman, born and raised in the East Kimberley, WA. Haylee is the leading presenter in the education team, providing cultural knowledge to a variety of audiences through onsite tours and video-conference experiences.

Nathan mudyi Sentance is a Wiradjuri librarian and museum educator who grew up on Darkinjung Country. Nathan currently works at the Australian Museum as the Digital Program Manager and writes about critical librarianship and critical museology from a First Nations perspective.

Mariko is a Yuin woman with Japanese heritage who focuses on First Nations communitybased cultural resurgence initiatives. She is the assistant curator on

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Unsettled and is also an Honorary Associate in the School of Literature, Art and Media at the University of Sydney.

News A new way to learn: First Nations’ permanent education space Although the Australian Museum is this country’s first museum and has been a centre of learning for 192 years, this is a short history when compared to the learning systems that have existed continuously on this land for thousands of years. The AM’s exciting new learning space will bring First Nations knowledges to the forefront to share with visitors and students of all ages.

Opening in early 2022, the new learning space will reimagine Search & Discover, Kidspace and education rooms on Level 2 as a groundbreaking learning lab

Opening the collection through digitisation The Collection Enhancement Project is underway. This multiyear project looks at how digitisation and digital systems may ensure that First Nations cultural objects held in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection, Pacific Collection, world collections, Research Library and Archives are more accessible to the First Nations communities from

Sketch: Alasdair McKay

that centres First Nations ways of knowing and being. Described as a “many-ways” educational area, it will combine First Nations, Pacific and Western perspectives and ways of knowing to help our visitors discover the world around them. In this space, visitors will follow Burra, the eel, a resilient animal from the Sydney region.

As Burra travels along she will be learning alongside visitors from

the First Nations community, Pacific Elders, AM scientists, researchers and teachers.

The innovative space will not only reframe the way audiences see, explore and interact with our world, but will also be highly interactive, inviting opportunities to learn and discover through hands-on, digital and collaborative activities and programs.

which they originate and to the public, wherever possible. By doing so, the AM hopes it will foster stronger relationships with First Nations communities and reconnect cultural objects to the complex First Nations knowledges associated with them.

This reconnection will enhance what the AM knows about cultural objects in its collection, which will also help the public better engage and learn about these cultural objects in an authentic way that aligns with First Nations cultural protocols.

Enhancement Project will aid the AM in its duty to conserve these objects by preventing overhandling and preserving their imagery, which can be used for cultural research and revitalisation efforts by First Nations communities now and for future generations.

Additionally, the Collection

The project is in its early stages, and staff involved are working to ensure the processes around the project are respectful of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights and align with First Nations communities’ wishes.

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Launch of the AM First Nations website

During the development of Project Discover, the AM launched the First Nations section of the website – a growing platform for First Nations voices to share their expertise and opinions on issues important to First Nations people, helping to uncover Australia’s hidden histories and share the knowledge that has helped sustain Australia’s ecosystems for millennia.

To date, the new section has had many oustanding First Nations contributors, such as curriculum specialist in science Joe Sambono, and mathematician Dr Chris Matthew on the benefits of First Nations sciences. Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara Elder and artist Dr Vicki Couzens joined us to discuss how they have worked to sustain and revive the cultural practice of Possum Skin Cloak making; researcher Tess Allas explored the legacy of James Cook; and Cultural Land Practitioner Rachel Cavanagh explained how Indigenous fire practices and First Nations cultures and philosophies are integral to taking care of the land.

The First Nations section is also where visitors can find out more information about current and previous exhibitions created by First Nations curators and learn about some of the AM’s newly acquired collection items such as Gomeroi Elder and photojournalist Aunty Barbara McGrady’s photography collection.

It is a section of the AM website which will grow as the Museum continues to collaborate with First Nations communities and works towards ensuring First Nations peoples represent themselves, their cultures and their histories.

Visit now: australian.museum/learn/first-nations

Supporting teachers and students in their exploration of the big issues

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Unsettled provides a unique learning opportunity for school and university students to engage with the process of truth-telling and acceptance of our shared past. While the exhibition content will challenge students and teachers to think deeply and critically evaluate their own understanding of colonisation and learned history, the AM Education team plays an important role in providing support and context for this learning. The Education and curatorial teams have been working with Wiradjuri-Scottish educator April Phillips to develop a suite of age-appropriate,

curriculum-linked online resources for students and teachers. These resources expose students to a variety of First Nations voices and experiences, fostering an understanding of the importance of First Nations self-representation and cultural revitalisation.

Delivered as a series of Smartboard-ready interactive files, the resources examine the ways we understand, remember and acknowledge our shared past in Australia. Through research, activities, small group discussion and reflection, students will investigate the impact of events on First Nations peoples and the environment, and how these impacts continue to be relevant to us in the present.

For primary students, a termlong unit of inquiry will allow teachers to build on concepts week by week. For secondary schools, a series of lessons will help teachers address the content through the lens of the history and visual arts curricula.

Additional online resources and professional learning sessions will help teachers scaffold a visit to Unsettled, providing pre- and post-visit activities for teachers to use and reflect back in the classroom.

To access the resources, go to australian.museum/learn/unsettled The development of the Unsettled education resources was funded by an anonymous donation through the Australian Museum Foundation.

First Nations knowledges helping to shape upcoming exhibition focused on sharks Sharks are among the most fascinating and feared animals on the planet. They were around before dinosaurs and have evolved to be the top predators in our oceans. As ancient as they are, they bristle with sensors and are as elusive as the stealthiest technology. Science demonstrates that they are a critical component in the world’s oceans; they are essential to maintaining a healthy environment.

Sharks have captured the imaginations of humans forever.

They are respected and revered by traditional knowledge holders; shark motifs appear in artworks and objects throughout the world, especially here in our region – Australia and the Pacific. Sharks are kin, they are teachers and guardians. They care for and protect people and Lore.

In return, people must care for and protect them.

In the upcoming blockbuster exhibition Sharks, curators will use traditional cultures as a lens to investigate the history of the shark, the role it plays in culture and in the wild. How widespread is the shark? What impacts will depleting numbers have on traditional cultures and the oceans? What can we learn from traditional knowledge holders? How can we learn to see sharks differently?

The Australian Museum is uniquely placed to create this exhibition – with its in-house expertise in both science and traditional cultures and large collection of cultural objects and specimens. The AM’s established relationships with Indigenous peoples and scientists from all around the Pacific allow them to offer their contributions to this fascinating new exhibition about one of the most loathed and loved icons of the ocean.

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The future of the AM

The Australian Museum’s statement of reflection Nathan mudyi Sentance explores how looking back may be the best way to move forward.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

– James Baldwin We are living in the legacy of the past. The structures and systems that make up the society we exist in today are built upon the actions of our past. Because of this, I believe that understanding our histories is the key for us as a society to create a better present and a better future.

This is one of the most important responsibilities cultural institutions have today: encouraging the public to critically reflect on history and how it influences the present. This can be a challenge as it sometimes means asking the public to reflect on uncomfortable truths. It would be a double standard to ask of Museum visitors that which the institution did not ask of itself: the Australian Museum has a colonial past, which can be observed in the objects in its Collection, in the perpetuation of stereotypes in past exhibitions and in the alienation of First Nations peoples from the telling of First Nations stories. One outcome of this history is as Professor Larissa Behrendt noted in her foreword in this magazine, that museums are “often viewed suspiciously by First Nations people due to their colonial past.”

This is why, with the reopening of the AM, came this statement of reflection printed on the wall of Hintze Hall: As the first Museum in the nation, established in 1827, the Australian Museum is part of Australia’s colonial history and we acknowledge the wrongs done to the First Nations people, the continued custodians of the land on which we stand today. This was and always will be Aboriginal land.

As a trusted source in the community, the Australian Museum is committed to presenting scientific evidence and cultural truths derived through our research and collections and First Nations peoples’ traditional knowledge.

The inclusion of the statement of reflection is the first of 18 critical pathways mapped out in the Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA)’s First Peoples: A Roadmap for Enhancing Indigenous Engagement in Museums and Galleries, created by Dr Terri Janke. The pathways act as targets to be reached by all museums and galleries in order to create stronger relationships with First Nations peoples, promote First Nations employment in the sector, engage audiences with a richer and more authentic learning experience and, ultimately, advance the reconciliation of Australia.

“It is important that the impact of these past and current policies be recognised if we are to move beyond this colonial paradigm,” states the Roadmap.

The AM is on course to meet all the critical pathways in the Roadmap. It will be a long journey.

Through the action of having the statement of reflection, the Museum makes a critical first step in its commitment to creating a better future.

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New acquisition

Weaving Woman by Genevieve Stewart , illustration, 2020 Jodie Dowd Weaving Woman by Kuku Yalanji artist Genevieve Stewart is a powerful statement on memory, resilience and strength of First Nations peoples, focusing on a cultural practice that historically was forbidden by colonial governments.

Highlighting the direct link between culture and identity, Genevieve explains: “Weaving Woman weaves herself, using the practice she was once not allowed to be taught, a practice that stems from her literal existence, to now after resistance she is rebuilding herself, her confidence and identity and to proudly show off her existence to the world.”

Legislation in colonised Australia aimed to control First Nations peoples, alter our identity and destroy our connection to culture through deeming cultural practices illegal. However, despite every attempt to the contrary, First Nations people and our cultural practices survived and continue through the courage of weavers, language keepers and knowledge holders who taught culture in secret; sneaking stitches of speargrass and whispering words in language at night.

A direct response to participating in weaving workshops with Elders, Weaving Woman provides a deeply personal account of Genevieve’s culture and identity, the beauty and importance of culture strengthened with every basket stitch and each stroke of bold black ink. Weaving Woman is the journey of reconnecting with culture and finding yourself.

Weaving Woman was acquired for the First Nations Cultural Collections at the Australian Museum and will be on display in Unsettled from May 2021.

Above Weaving Woman, 2019, Genevieve Stewart, Kuku Yalanji. Ink on paper. Australian Museum Collection Opposite Gadigal yilimung (shield), Uncle Charles “Chicka” Madden.

Australian Museum Collection

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“

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I knew from a young age that I wanted to work closely with First Nations cultures and have always had a passion for history, science and museums. ”

My museum

Laura McBride Meet the AM’s newly appointed member of the executive leadership team Yaama gurra (hello with respect). In March this year, I moved into the role of Director, First Nations at the Australian Museum and I’m happy that I have this opportunity to share more about myself and my work with our Museum community.

strengthened our relationships and reputation

I am a proud Wailwan and Kooma woman.

Wailwan and Kooma are both Aboriginal Sovereign Nations located in north-western New South Wales and south-west Queensland respectively, I grew up under the guidance of strong cultural Elders, in both Sydney and in Coonamble, NSW, moving between these communities throughout my childhood. I knew from a young age that I wanted to work closely with First Nations cultures and have always had a passion for history, science and museums. I undertook my undergraduate academic degree (double Major in Australian Indigenous Studies and Psychology) at the University of Sydney, and my Master of Aboriginal Education at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Aboriginal cultural practitioners to hear what

I have worked at the Australian Museum for the past 11 years in the education, programming and exhibitions teams. This experience has given me a solid understanding of the Museum’s operations and business. I have undertaken a museum apprenticeship, so to speak. I may have met some of you when delivering a tour, or in our First Nations programs such as the WEAVE Festival in 2018. Or perhaps you have attended exhibitions I have curated like Garrigarrang (Sea Country) and GADI, all about Aboriginal culture here in Sydney.

In my time at the Museum, I have had the privilege of learning from many Elders and First Nations community members, sector peers and colleagues about how we should be undertaking First Nations cultural business at the Australian Museum. Over the years I have worked on implementing some of these best practice models across programming and exhibitions.

This has resulted in meaningful and representative exhibitions, public programs and projects that have been loved by our audiences and have also

with First Nations communities.

Research shows that our audiences want to learn more about our First Nations collections and be offered opportunities to engage with they have to say on critical issues affecting our communities, such as climate action and sustainable living. The First Nations team plays a key role as facilitators of community voices, giving them an influential and authoritative platform at the Museum and helping provide access and pathways to First Nations peoples and cultures.

I feel honoured and enthusiastic about my new role as inaugural First Nations Director.

My vision for the future includes creating selfdetermining models across the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific cultural collections.

It is about prioritising and amplifying First Nations voices so that Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific communities represent themselves and their cultures within the Museum. I will lead the work, including collections care and presentation of these important collections. This will include continuing Phil Gordon’s pioneering work in Indigenous repatriation of ancestral remains, in which the Australian Museum has led the way.

I will continue having the conversations that he started regarding community-based resting places.

In the first few months of my directorship, I finalised the development and presentation of Unsettled which is featured in this edition of Explore. Unsettled will be on display in our new touring exhibition hall and open to the public from May to October 2021. I hope we have once again provided an educational and informative show that helps our audiences connect with First Nations histories and cultures. We have a range of programs that are associated with the exhibition and I look forward to meeting you at those, or within the walls of the Museum, in the near future.

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Living culture

Tasmanian shell necklaces: A significant cultural practice Shell necklace-making is a tradition that has continued uninterrupted by European colonisation, writes Aunty Lola Greeno.

Since colonisation, Tasmanian shell necklaces have been researched and collected by many countries.

They were among a number of cultural objects collected by French explorers in the 1700s as part of a cultural exchange.

Tasmanian necklaces are held in a number of collections throughout Australia and Europe.

Most notably, the Oxford and British Museums both have necklaces made from Phasianotrochus irisodontes – the elenchus or maireener shells.

There are four different species of the maireener shells native to Tasmanian waters.

The maireener, commonly known as the rainbow kelp shell, was originally the only shell used to thread in the necklace-making tradition.

Shell necklace-making is the oldest continuing cultural practice in Tasmania – a significant tradition for Aboriginal women that is still handed down through each generation. In 1966, archaeologist Rhys Jones reported that several pierced shells, exposed from a cremation site on the north-west coast of Tasmania, were approximately 2600 years old.

Aboriginal women living on the Furneaux Islands made shell necklaces to support their families, and they exchanged them with a general store on Flinders Island for food and clothes. This trade resulted in the Bowman Collection, which is now held by the Furneaux Museum on Flinders Island.

In the 1900s, women living on Cape Barren Island sold necklaces to a local church minister, which became an important collection for the Stanley Museum.

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Aboriginal women have maintained a strong cultural knowledge of shell-collecting areas.

They hold first-hand knowledge about the sea and the tide levels that give access to their shellgathering beaches. The first part to planning a seasonal shell-gathering trip is always to review the tide levels, which provide accurate data to allow the gathering of shells in less than a metre of water.

Gathering shells is carried out during daylight hours, providing good, clear vision and enabling safer access when wading through the sea.

Collecting requires one to bend over and pick each shell individually from the seaweed.

Once the tide starts coming back into shore, it becomes too deep and the shells are out of reach and out of sight.

The shells’ breeding cycle begins in October when the old shells take on a disguise of coral to cover the outer shell. The shells move out into 10 metres of water to breed and drop the mollusc spat. The shells return to shallow water and are fully grown by the end of April.

Recently, shell collectors have experienced decreased shells available for harvest, and while there is an increase in collectors, suitable sea beds for harvesting have diminished.

“

y first memory as a young girl M is of walking on the beach with my mother and Elders during the mutton bird-season. I remember going to the beach with Mum and her friends, and my Aunty Dolly teaching me the craft by a very dull kerosene light. ”

Aunty Lola Greeno, Flinders Island, 2019. Photo by Rebecca Thomson, courtesy of the Australia Council of the Arts

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In the past 20 years, global warming has seen a vast change in kelp and seaweed growth around Flinders Island, Cape Barren and Big Dog Islands, contributing to the erosion of seabeds. Big storms whip up sand and shells, and toss them onto the foreshore, sometimes burying shells or sweeping the beach clean.

Necklace makers have noticed that kelp is very scarce where any recreational activities affect previously undisturbed areas. In one particular bay there is an abalone fish farm where the fish spat are artificially fed. The spat that escape the fish farm attract parrot fish, which also consume maireener shells.

Mum and I first made necklaces together in the late 1980s and at this time I learned how she cleaned the maireeners, putting them outside to attract insects. A few years later, I gained new hints from my mother-in-law on threading, using different threads for certain shells.

Today, the necklaces of my mother, Valerie MacSween, and mother-in-law, Dulcie Greeno, are held in museum and art gallery collections, along with my own. I have shell necklaces in most major museums and art galleries around Australia.

Maintaining Tasmanian Aboriginal women’s cultural practice promotes custodianship. By

The effect of global warming on water temperature will also affect spawning and survival of the maireener shells.

teaching the skills associated with necklace-

My knowledge of shell necklace-making came directly through my family. It was my great grandmother, Granny Laura, who taught my mother how to collect, clean and make the shell necklaces.

living resources.

My first memory as a young girl is of walking on the beach with my mother and Elders during the muttonbird season. I remember going to the beach with Mum and her friends, and my Aunty Dolly teaching me the craft by a very dull kerosene light.

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making, future generations continue significant traditions and knowledge of their environmental

Aunty Lola Greeno is a Pakana shell artist, arts worker, curator and educator born on Cape Barren Island and based in Launceston.

Below Shell necklace made by Aunty Lola Greeno.

This necklace was purchased by the Australian Museum with funds from the Gwendoline West Bequest.

New acquisition

Scarred (Ancestral Vase)

by Uncle Kevin “Sooty” Welsh, 2020 Dr Mariko Smith

Australians may know of the Stolen Generations, but some survivors feel that the gravity of removal and its effects are not fully understood by this term alone. To help empathise with what many First Nations peoples experienced, we need to listen to the stories told directly by Stolen Generations survivors themselves. This may be through spoken and written words, but can also be evocatively expressed in art-making.

When he was a young boy, Wailwan Elder and artist, Uncle Kevin “Sooty” Welsh was removed from his family and taken far away from his Country to an institution. Some years later, he returned to his birthplace, Coonamble, in north-western NSW, where he reconnected with his family and culture. Uncle Sooty became involved in painting, woodwork, photography and ceramics.

The marks etched into the stoneware clay of his ceramic works such as this Ancestral Vase was inspired by his Wailwan Ancestors’ practice of carving designs onto trees. One distinctive style of the south-east region of Australia is carving, and by acquiring cultural objects from regional NSW, the Australian Museum is ensuring it represents the vibrant diversity of cultural expressions across First Nations.

The suffering inflicted by child removal policies and institutional abuse has intergenerational impacts, and the trauma experienced during childhood can feel like fresh and raw wounds for Stolen Generations survivors well into their adult years. Uncle Sooty’s arts practice is inspired not only by the carved trees of his Wailwan heritage, but the marks he makes on clay also represent the scars left upon him and others from their experiences of being stolen from family and home.

Above Scarred (Ancestral Vase), 2020, Uncle Kevin “Sooty” Welsh, Wailwan. Stoneware No. 7.

Australian Museum Collection

Scarred was acquired for the First Nations Cultural Collections at the Australian Museum and will be on display in Unsettled from May 2021.

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Exhibition

Uncovering our nation’s hidden history First Nations curators Laura McBride and Dr Mariko Smith describe how Unsettled, a ground-breaking new exhibition, will be the Australian Museum’s most significant show in its almost 200-year history.

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Chained Culture, 2020, Karla Dickens, Wiradjuri. Mixed media.

Australian Museum Collection Christian missionaries and organisations played significant roles in the Stolen Generations through their running of institutions and homes.

The assimilation of children involved the severing of contact to families and communities, and the replacement of cultural knowledges and identities with a Christian way of life. This object highlights how religion was used as a tool for restraining culture and was co-opted into the colonial project to justify colonisers’ actions as a means to a greater good.

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Curators’ Acknowledgment: We pay our respects and dedicate the Unsettled exhibition to the people and other Beings who keep the law of this land; to the Elders and Traditional Owners of all the knowledges, places, and stories in this exhibition; and to the Ancestors and Old People for their resilience and guidance.

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I f we’re going to talk about what it means to be Australian then we need to understand what Australia is and how it came into existence. ” teven Oliver, Kuku-Yalanji, Waanyi, Gangalidda, S Woppaburra, Bundjalung and Biripi, 2020

For 233 years, the people of Australia – non-Indigenous and Indigenous – have been unsettled. Our history has been constructed and developed based on a justification of what happened here from 1788 onwards and we have all been left short-changed, ignorant, divided and unable to heal. In denying the Australian people the truth of both the destruction that occurred as well as the pride in First Nations cultures we might all share, colonisation is made complete: the winners take the spoils, the rest remain marginalised.

In the Australian Museum’s new exhibition Unsettled, we aim to address the gap in this knowledge. In providing a full education about Australia’s past, we take a leap towards the reconciliation of this country. We invite all visitors to bravely stare the past directly in the eye, find the sources of pride, and hope that we may hold up and to move into the future together – at last, to settle Australia.

Truth-telling and reconciliation In recent years, the people of this nation have shown a desire to examine what it means to be “Australian.” Many are seeking a process of truth-telling about Australia’s history – a concept which a 2018 Federal Joint Select Committee report describes as, “the opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to record evidence about past actions and share their culture, heritage and history with the broader community.”

Reconciliation is also an increasing priority for the general community.

In the 2020 Australian Reconciliation Barometer survey, 61 per cent of the non-Indigenous people surveyed said they want to do something to help improve reconciliation – up 7 points from the last survey in 2018.

However, discrimination against First Nations peoples and racial inequity in Australian society still stand in the way of meaningful positive change. A 2019 study by Australian National University researchers found that three out of four Australians hold a negative implicit or unconscious bias against First Nations peoples. This confirms the existence of a barrier that affects the lives and socioeconomic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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What can museums do?

Until historic inequities are addressed, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples will only continue to widen. The path towards a reconciled Australia must involve truth-telling. As publicly trusted sources of information, alongside schools and the media, museums, galleries and other cultural institutions have the opportunity to be at the centre of this process.

Historically, museums have been the vehicles and beneficiaries of colonial and imperial agendas. Museums have never been neutral, although they have portrayed themselves as such and are accepted by the public as places of objective authority. The representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within museums has had its roots in scientific racism, whereby non-Western peoples were depicted as being inferior in both intelligence and civilisation.

Wailwan Grindstone (fragment), circa 30,000 years old, made by Ancestor. Sandstone.

Australian Museum Collection This fragment from the rim of a grindstone found in the Cuddie Springs archaeological site on Wailwan Country demonstrates First Nations food preparation dates back to over 30,000 years ago. Scientific analysis of the usewear and evidence of starch residue supports Aboriginal people’s assertion that they have been using grindstones to make flour for cooking for thousands of years.

As First Nations museum professionals, we see ourselves as facilitators and amplifiers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices from the many Nations and communities across Australia.

Having been silenced since 1788, it is incredibly significant that we have a say on how our histories and cultures are interpreted in these sites of public influence and authority.

As First Nations peoples, how we are represented is how we are perceived by the public, and every day our people mitigate false and negative stereotypes. Learning the truth in all its forms – the good and the bad – can be unsettling, but this is reconciliation in action.

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Representation and balanced perspective matter At the white man’s school, what are our children taught?

Are they told of the battles our people fought, Are they told of how our people died?

Are they told why our people cried?

Australia’s true history is never read, But the blackman keeps it in his head.

– Bill Day, 1971 A selective perspective of history is not inclusive or balanced, and the harm of its perpetuation is intergenerational. The myth that Australia was peacefully settled, when, in fact, its foundations involved extraordinary violence perpetrated by colonisers upon First Nations peoples, still resonates in our families and communities today: the rates of First Nations child removal has increased since the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations, and we are the first generation in our families who were born off missions and reserves and legally allowed to attend school and university.

While more factual histories are slowly being added to school curricula, anniversaries of colonial events such as 26 January, celebrated as Australia’s national day each year, appear to be one-sided affairs that glorify colonisation at the expense of First Nations peoples. The commemorations of James Cook’s voyage on the HMB Endeavour along Australia’s East Coast overshadow the subsequent violation of First Nations sovereignty and the beginning of Indigenous dispossession.

There has been so much focus on Cook, not only in schoolbooks and the media but also in exhibitions at cultural institutions, that he has effectively been elevated to the status of Australia’s founding father. The irony is that many people can’t recall even the Britishcentric history of Australia. There is a pervasive myth that “Australia Day” marks Captain James Cook’s stepping ashore onto Australian soil.

In actual fact, 26 January is the day the First Fleet formally marked its arrival in Warrane (Sydney Cove) in 1788 under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. James Cook had been dead for nearly nine years by the time Phillip arrived; he wasn’t alive when the formal government decision was made to establish the New South Wales colony.

The groundwork: The 2020 Project and First Nations community consultation With all of this in mind, the Australian Museum decided to provide its platform to First Nations communities to respond to the events and consequences of 1770. The First Nations curatorial team, led by (now Director) Laura McBride, was tasked with preparing a special exhibition addressing the impacts of Cook’s arrival and his ongoing colonial legacy.

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Behind the exhibition: Collection care and conservation AM conservator Robert Clendon has been working with the First Nations team on Unsettled. He is responsible for the care of the priceless objects that are on display in the exhibition – preparing them, stabilising them and keeping them from deterioration – as well as advising on their safe display, including such considerations as the time they can spend under lights.

As a non-First Nations person, Robert took advice and direction from First Nations colleagues and object creators to follow cultural safety protocols when handling the objects.

“A lot of the objects we work with are representations of an Ancestor or may embody values that are not generally reflected in Euro-centric museum practices,” says Robert.

“For example, there are certain objects that I shouldn’t handle because I’m not the gender the item was made for,” says Robert.

“In that case, [AM conservator] Kyra Kim would work with that object.”

“Another example would be how certain objects are physically handled,” he continues. “From a cultural perspective, a certain area of an object may have a greater significant than another. We would try to avoid these areas.”

Robert believes Unsettled marks a pivotal point in the Australian Museum’s history.

“By moving away from being a colonial museum to a post-colonial museum and allowing a space for First Nations people to tell their stories, the Museum is acting as an agent of societal change,” says Robert.

The first step was to gain an understanding of the topics and stories Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples wanted told in this exhibition. From 2018 to 2019, we undertook large-scale community consultation. Through a series of workshops, interviews, focus groups and surveys, we received 805 formal responses from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from all major states and territories; 175 different Nations, clans and community groups.

First Nations respondents identified truth-telling and prioritising First Nations voices as the key objectives for the exhibition. Forty per cent of First Nations respondents wanted the true story of the foundation of Australia told, based on the frequency of them using the word “truth” or “truth-telling”. The three highest-ranking categories for possible topics were (1) colonisation and its effects; (2) Australia’s origins and foundation; and (3) addressing the false, constructed history that is pervasively shared in society.

Unsettled and the missing narratives The consultation showed us that Australia’s foundation story is much more than Cook and the First Fleet. By examining the responses, we determined several themes that the exhibition would encompass: the denial of Indigenous sovereignty; how the desire for wealth and influence also drove the British to establish the penal colony; the seizure of land and resources from First Nations peoples; the devastating frontier wars; the separation from families and homelands; the ongoing resistance; and the need to address this history to heal the nation.

We were inspired to name the exhibition Unsettled to emphasise that it was not a peaceful settlement as people were taught in school, and to reference the unsettled state of our history, relationships and the environment.

Homes Are Sought for These Children, newspaper clipping and handwritten ink, 1934. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia Aboriginal children removed from their families were taken to places such as this “half-caste home.”

The justification for such cruelty was that it was an act of kindness to save Aboriginal people from themselves.

Many girls and boys were adopted into families or placed into foster care, generally without their parents’ knowledge or permission. Lighterskinned children were preferred since it was considered easier to hide their Aboriginality. “I like the little girl in centre of group, but if taken by anyone else, any of the others would do, as long as they are strong”.

In Unsettled, visitors will encounter stories that will inspire and challenge them. These stories are factual, drawn from rigorous research into government documents, primary resources and oral histories that have been omitted from the official record.

There is the story of resistance against the British in the early years of the colony – it took 29 years for the British to take the whole Sydney Basin comfortably. Many visitors will learn about resistance fighter and Bidjigal man Pemulwuy, who defended his Country for twelve years before he was killed.

Another story explores what contemporaneous Aboriginal people were thinking, feeling and doing when the Endeavour was sailing up the East Coast. We went to speak to some descendants of those who held these stories and gave them space to share them in the exhibition.

Elders and knowledge-holders from the South Coast to Sydney told us about the unfamiliar being which was the Endeavour, and despite not knowing exactly what the ship was or who was on it, there was an urgent need to warn others.

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In order to do this, we were told that signal fires were lit all along the coast. These sites are now often used for antennae and lighthouses because of their high vantage points, and function as they did then – to warn fellow Countrymen and neighbouring Nations of danger. While the Endeavour’s crew noted smoke and fire, they lacked the cultural knowledge to see that, in fact, an emergency response system was in action.

It is unnerving to compare this event with the catastrophic bushfires that burnt through bush and headlands along the south-east coast in late 2019 and early 2020, following Cook’s route and the positions of signal fires. The phenomena of history repeating is a part of First Nations Lore, and Indigenous people have noted how the events of 2020 reflect several early colonial histories: the similarities between the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic to the impact of smallpox (galgala) on Sydney Aboriginal society; and how the increasing number of Black deaths in custody and rise of the resistance movement Black Lives Matter reflect the deaths and oppression of Aboriginal people in the early years of colonisation. These parallels, explored in Unsettled, draw a link between the past and present and elucidate the potential outcomes of the future.

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Behind the exhibition: Design

Pemulwuy (c 1750-1802) Blood Money – Infinite Dollar Note – Bembulwoyan Commemorative, 2018, Dr Ryan Presley, Marri Ngarr, Australian Museum Collection Digital Aquisition Pemulwuy was a Bidjigal lore (law) man and formidable warrior. He is one of the most well-known resistance fighters of the early colony. He adamantly opposed the violence against Aboriginal peoples and the destruction and disrespect of his Ancestral lands. A respected leader, he united clans in a successful resistance campaign. In defence of their land and livelihoods, they would spear cattle, burn huts and homes, destroy crops and attack settlers. Pemulwuy evaded capture many times but was killed in 1802. Pemulwuy’s campaign lasted 12 years; he fought hard, inspired many, and died for his people.

Truth-telling means we can heal and grow stronger together From the stories of historical and contemporary resistance, to the ongoing, living cultural practices that have survived and continue to thrive in the hands of descendants today, Unsettled engages in truth-telling by acknowledging the strength and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures: something every Australian can celebrate.

Clarisse Ambroselli and Julie Stinson lead the Unsettled design team. As a 3D designer, Clarisse is responsible for set pieces, object cases and labels, which work to create the feel and flow of the show. As a 2D designer, Julie has built the exhibition’s overall look, from the palette and typography to graphics and marketing materials.

Neither of the designers are First Nations people themselves, so in order to bring Unsettled to life, they began by spending time listening to the AM First Nations team and community members. Knowledge, and instruction, were passed to Clarisse and Julie verbally in these meetings.

“It was a huge journey of learning and cultural competency training to build trust and properly understand what we were communicating,” says Julie. “Our role was to let their work and knowledge speak.”

“Design is very powerful,” adds Clarisse. “Through design, we help share knowledge and connect people to the content.”

The stories shared were often tragic and deeply affecting, bringing the gaps in our collective understanding of history into stark relief. “The history that we are taught in school is very much a colonial history, it’s a one-sided story. The stories we heard from [curator] Laura McBride and the community challenged those narratives,” Julie says.

Born in France, Clarisse brings an outsider’s perspective to Australian history. “Australia has this incredible living culture. I’m very passionate about helping First Nations voices to be heard,” Clarisse says.

Unsettled, Julie believes, has the potential to heal. “For First Nations people, there’s this oneness in land and people. I feel like the exhibition has that oneness. It’s a unification story that will bring people together.”

death Spear, 2021, Raymond Timbery, Bidjigal Dharrawal, and Joel Deaves, Gumea Dharrawal. Silcrete, resin, plant fibre, sinew, shell, mingo (grass tree).

Australian Museum Collection This Death Spear was commissioned by the Australian Museum to represent the one made and used by Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy. Says one of the makers, Raymond Timbery, “This sacred artefact was created in representation of the strength and courage of our first resistance fighters, the bloodline of the Bidjigal people still exist today because of the strong warriors we had protecting our people. If it wasn’t for our fighters we may have been completely wiped out.”

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It is possible to settle this land – to engage in and reconcile past wrongs and in doing so, set a course for right decision making in the future.

First Nations peoples must be fully engaged in the process of structural reform to overcome the legacies of colonisation and reconstruct the fabric of our societies. And it’s the responsibility of all Australians to become informed, to educate themselves wherever possible, in order for us all to start again from the same page of history.

We look forward to you joining us at Unsettled.

Unsettled is showing in the Australian Museum’s touring exhibition hall from May to October 2021.

One Way Ticket to Hell, 2012-2020, Aunty Fay Moseley, Wiradjuri. Acrylic on canvas. Australian Museum Collection Aboriginal children, like Aunty Fay and five of her siblings, were kidnapped and placed in institutional care or domestic training homes operated by the Aborigines Welfare/Protection Board. Siblings were often separated.

It took eight years for Aunty Fay to paint this image of the day she was taken from her mother.

You can find out more about the topics discussed in this article on the First Nations site: australian.museum/learn/first-nations The 2020 Project First Nations Community Consultation Report can be found online at: australian.museum/learn/cultures/the-2020-project

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Photo gallery

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Slaughterhouse Creek Massacre, NSW, circa 1838

DARK DAYS Photographs by Brendan Beirne capture the scenes of horrific atrocities committed by colonisers against Indigenous people in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Pinjarra Massacre, WA, 1834

Massacres exist in the memories of all First Nations communities today.

The land and its spirits will forevermore remember the blood spilt and innocent lives taken so violently.

Brendan Beirne’s landscapes illustrate the unquiet places where Aboriginal people have been slaughtered.

Unbeknown to holiday-makers or even landowners, there are countless sites around Australia that bear the weight of these hidden histories.

Using infrared camera technology to capture a sense of the unseen history through the seemingly peaceful landscapes, these images allow us to see that the lands we live, work and play on remain unsettled.

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Hawkesbury River, NSW, circa 1790s

Lake George Massacre, ACT, circa 1830

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Appin Massacre, Cataract River, NSW, 1816

Waterloo Creek, Australia Day Massacre, NSW, 1838

Massacre Sites, 2018-2020, Brendan Beirne, reproductions from the “Dark Days” photographic project. All photos © Brendan Beirne. Australian Museum Collection Digital Aquisition

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Myall Creek Massacre, NSW, 1838

Artwork by Jason Coulthard, Adnyamathanha

Exhibition now open Free entry Catalogue available at the AM Shop, in store or online shop.australian.museum

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Living culture

Who is Country?

Sara Judge draws a line between agency, words and change.

What I most love about working at the Australian Museum are the opportunities to inspire change.

Even the most subtle uses of language have the potential to bring new understandings to the ways that people think about environment and culture.

As First Nations staff, we work towards changes that dismantle old, harmful ways of thinking and doing. We bring our cultural responsibilities into the Museum to grow change that nourishes, values and respects all lives and experiences so that noone is forgotten.

In my work, I try to bring Museum visitors into my cultural relationships with living, breathing, creative Country – the dynamic world who shapes all things, all happenings and all lives. Notice how I use “who” instead of “that” when referring to Country? This is one of my favourite and most powerful tools! As a Yuin woman, the idea of Country without personhood and identity is something that I have always struggled with.

We’ve been taught to ask, “What is Country?”, but for First Nations people the real question has always been, “Who is Country?”

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Country — comprising all plants, animals, ecosystems and humans — is alive with collective agency. First Nations people recognise that nothing happens in isolation from everything else, and everything that happens comes from Country first.

Through forces like weather, geology, hydrology and animal movements, Country can make or break a conversation, a recording, an excavation, the preservation of a fossil or whether we will have electric power during a thunderstorm. Our food, fibres, phones, cars, computers, buildings and energy supply all come from Country. Everything and everyone is Country, woven together in a collective agency that makes life happen.

In Aotearoa (New Zealand) in 2017, Whanganui River became the first waterway in the world to be legally recognised as a person. The First Nations Whanganui Iwi successfully argued that the interests of ecosystems need to be recognised not only for their human value, but simply because they exist. Whanganui legislation recognises Country as living beings with a stake in their own existences, who are in constant relationships with

each other and whose experiences are impacted by trauma. Whanganui River is a First Nations achievement who has set a precedent being followed all over the planet.

While the First Nations’ team’s roles at the Australian Museum may not have scope to make such monumental changes, subtle ways of acknowledging Country’s agency provide important ways of changing how people think about Country and First Nations cultures. Capitalising English names of animals speaks strong messages about who they are, instead of what they are. Capitalised “Emu” makes her kin to “Sara” – both living beings with needs, roles, and a desire to keep living.

Capitalising animals and giving them pronouns makes them more than just “specimens” collected in jars and pinned to walls, acknowledging them as living beings with stories, Ancestors and important ecosystem roles that support us all.

It recognises them as teachers, Ancestors and Law/Lore keepers of First Nations people. It prompts questions about animal representation and attitudes towards Country.

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E verything and everyone is Country, woven together in collective agency that makes life happen. ”

Similarly, First Nations staff also capitalise words of cultural agency. We recognise the aliveness of our Ancestors, the autonomy of our Elders, and that there is not a single object in the Australian Museum collections without a name, family, stories and connections to Law/Lore and Country.

Inspired by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) exhibition Kanalaritja, our First Nations curators began labelling cultural objects without named makers as “made by Ancestor”.

This powerful statement acknowledges that both maker and object are part of continuous stories still being lived and told today.

Imagine what such subtle changes in how life and lives are acknowledged could grow in human responses and relationships to Country, First Nations cultures and environmental protection!

Opposite Creating Cliffs is about how Water/Ocean shape the coastline.

Above Left Shellscape is about how Waves create different assemblages of Shells along the beach and move the animals who live in them around.

Above Right Walking With Wallaby is about taking off your human shoes and putting yourself in the shoes of another living being for a little while.

All images courtesy of the author.

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Living culture

Laura McBride on the history of an iconic declaration of resilience.

“Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land” is an important statement within First Nations communities as it reasserts that the very first footprints on this continent were those belonging to First Nations peoples, and that their sovereignty of this Country has never been ceded. It is a clear declaration that First Nations people are still here and are never leaving. A statement of resilience, survival, deep connection and celebration.

The phrase originated during the 1980s Aboriginal land rights movement in far-western New South Wales. Barkandji people were fighting for legal recognition and rights as sovereign owners of their homelands. The late Uncle William Bates was a Barkandji land and legal rights activist.

Along with other community members, Uncle William led the campaign that saw the first national park in NSW returned to Traditional Owners, among many other achievements for his people.

In 1974 he became the first Aboriginal Legal Service field officer employed in far-western NSW (leading the breakaway along with Tombo Winters, Steve Gordon and Uncle Alfie Bates in 1977, which resulted in the establishment of the Western Aboriginal Legal Services) and rallied together communities and land councils to pool funds and start buying back their traditional lands. “Always Was, Always Will Be,” the now ubiquitous catchcry, was born during this time.

On one of the many trips out on Country during this land rights campaign, Uncle William’s father, Uncle Jim Bates, became excited and started telling stories of his Country and land. Uncle William said, “Dad, it’s not your land anymore, whitefellas own it,” and Uncle Jim replied, “No, they only borrowed it; it always was, and always will be Aboriginal land.”

“Always Was, Always Will Be” is now often chanted at gatherings, protests and rallies as a reminder that First Nations people have and will

The late Uncle William Bates (Barkandji) talks to a group of people at the Weinteriga Station opening after it was purchased by the Traditional Owners, 1985.

Image: Bates family

continue to fight for their lands and their rights.

It continues to respond to the lack of recognition of First Nations sovereignty that is at the core of much of this nation’s structural inequalities and marginalisation.

“Always Was, Always Will Be” was selected as the theme for the 2020 NAIDOC Week to reference First Nations peoples’ deep connection to these lands, since the year already invoked broader reflection being the 250th anniversary of Cook’s “discovery” of Australia. The theme also presents an opportunity for everyone to hear and learn the First Nations’ 65,000-plus year history of this country – which is also an important part of Australian history.

The Australian Museum has worked with several First Nations peoples to translate “Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land” into languages from their respective Countries, reflecting their own heritage and connections to land. The Museum recognises the integral nature and importance of language to First Nations peoples and how languages have developed in rhythm with the land and its features; representing direct connections to Country. The languages included in this series come from south-east Australia.

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New acquisition

Piracy by Tony Albert, sandblasted commemorative plate, 2020 Nathan mudyi Sentance Seemingly innocuous objects, like plates, dolls and playing cards, can have elements of colonialism and colonial history embedded in them.

They, along with the media and what is taught in schools, help shape people’s perception of history. These objects have power in their mundaneness. They just lie around the house and by doing so become normal, everyday things, which result in a process of normalising what they represent. Commemorative plates in particular celebrate certain colonisers and colonial events – and do so by often downplaying or erasing First Nations perspectives of the events they depict.

Above Piracy, 2020, Tony Albert, Girramay, Kuku Yalanji. Sandblasted commemorative plate.

Australian Museum Collection

This is something Girramay, Kuku Yalanji artist Tony Albert expertly integrates into his piece Piracy (2020), which was created as part of his Duty of Care series. Piracy is a commemorative plate responding to the 250th anniversary of Lieutenant James Cook’s east coast voyage.

By titling the piece Piracy and superimposing the motif of a skull and crossbones over the image of a distinctively European ship, the work brings to the forefront what Cook’s voyage represents to many First Nations peoples: an act of piracy and theft. This is not a minority perspective in First Nations communities – nearly 88 per cent of the 805 First Nations peoples who responded to the Australian Museum’s The 2020 Project First Nations Community Consultation Report when asked “what word(s) or thought(s) come to mind when you hear or see the name Captain James Cook”, stated “Invader, invasion, thief, theft, pillaging and greed”. These associations and the imagery of Piracy clash with what is often spoken or taught in mainstream society about James Cook and his voyage.

Like much of First Nations storytelling responding to colonisation, Piracy shifts your mindset and gets you to question what you know.

Piracy was acquired for the First Nations Cultural Collections at the Australian Museum and will be on display in Unsettled from May 2021.

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A reckoning

Deaths in custody: What can museums do to effect change?

Museums have the power to set the agenda, writes Dr Sandy O’Sullivan.

During 2020, we witnessed protests across America and internationally that challenged a system of abuse that led to yet another Black man – a father, brother, and son, George Floyd – die brutally at the hands of police officers. We also saw protests in Australia, calls to action for Australia’s own horrific crimes against First Nations Peoples and other People of Colour in Australia.

So, what can a museum do to change this? It can tell peoples’ truths. Social history museums have a role to play in how we understand and know one another’s truths. That role continued even through the COVID-19 pandemic as museums engaged their audiences online, recalling that, fundamentally, museums are more than bricks and mortar and visitors through the door. Museums are places that provide their audiences with a lens into the lives of others. And, since museums have also been historical sites of colonial inquiry, many museums are recalibrating that focus through the appointment of Indigenous curators who remind the visitor that we are here and we are telling our own stories.

Over the past decade, Australian museums have been crucial in highlighting the impact of key colonial events, in no small part due to the increase in Indigenous curators helming these exhibitions. This reckoning has included the ongoing horror of the deaths of so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in police custody. The Australian Museum, in particular, has had a strong showing with the Indigenous Australians First Peoples exhibition, which ran from 1996 to 2015 and took on this critical issue.

Through major updates, the Museum is telling more of our stories and achievements, as well

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as the ways in which First Nations Peoples have been denied agency through ongoing acts of colonisation.

With approximately 440 Black deaths in custody in Australia since 1991, and without a single conviction, it’s easy to see a parallel with the outcry following the death of George Floyd. Yet, there are still many people today who describe Australia as the Lucky Country while decrying the actions in the United States. While much of this comes from a lack of understanding or a failure to connect the “colonial dots,” it is also the “colonial project” in action. In failing to see its own inequities, Australia instead shifts focus to the bad behaviour in other countries and colonial jurisdictions. Museums and other institutions, as cultural sites of interpretation, can provide an

Above Black Lives Matter protest, Martin Place, Sydney, 2015.

Photo by Aunty Barbara McGrady

in-depth pathway to understanding this injustice by allowing First Nations voices to recall history as they experienced it. The documenting, exhibiting and archiving of these experiences, such as those found in Lousy Little Sixpence (1983), a film made to remind us that slavery was a part of our colonial history, is crucial to keeping the truth from slipping from the public imagination.

What does this have to do with ensuring there are no more Black deaths in custody and that perpetrators and the state are held to account?

When museums take on a truth-telling role, we see a surfacing of both a more accurate history as well as more uncomfortable truths. While these truths may be difficult for some, in the end who really benefits from feasting on the bitter cake of Empire? Museums have work to do in their own rehabilitation, as well as in a broader reckoning, as they find ways to acknowledge the legacies of colonisation and key colonial anniversaries such as the 250th anniversary of the landing of Captain Cook or Australia Day. Information, interpretation and revealing the truths of these situations is what museums can do.

They can craft stories and experiences in ways that allow visitors to understand and form their

“

W ith approximately 440 Black deaths in custody in Australia since 1991, and without a single conviction, it’s easy to see a parallel with the outcry following the death of George Floyd. ”

own conclusions, lift up the voices of those who have been kept voiceless and provide tools to understand the impact of that oppression. As individuals we can share this knowledge, these ideas and amplify these voices. We can effect change, because just as the museum is more than bricks and mortar, our governments and systems of inequity are supported or challenged by us all.

Dr Sandy O’Sullivan is a Wiradjuri person and Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University.

Above TJ Hickey’s mother and family members speak at the ninth anniversary memorial service for the 17-year-old Kamilaroi boy, who died in Redfern while being pursued by police, 2013. Photo by Aunty Barbara McGrady

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Around the Museum The Australian Museum reopened to the public on 28 November 2020 following its 15-month closure for the $57.5 million renovation known as Project Discover.

We were thrilled to welcome our Members back to the transformed Australian Museum. Lots of familiar faces, and some new ones, were seen streaming through the doors at the exclusive Members previews.

Director and CEO Kim McKay AO played usher with ABC Radio Sydney’s Simon Marnie broadcasting live from the newly expanded and renamed Brian Sherman Crystal Hall. Programming Manager Molly Ward led Members though the new spaces, giving insights into the build.

Beloved puppet theatre-makers Erth brought herds of amazingly lifelike dinosaurs to thrill families, and in the darker depths of the new basement touring exhibition hall, the incredible Tyrannosaurs – Meet the Family exhibition enjoyed its first visitors.

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Summer school holidays Family Members had a roaring time at our COVID Safe summer school holiday events all about dinosaurs. AM resident palaeontologist Matt McCurry wowed the young scientists with his real-life stories of searching for fossils, and the Museum was abuzz with guided tours and craft-making workshops.

Nights at the Museum The AM’s most popular afterhours event series Night at the Museum delighted Members and their friends on Thursday nights throughout summer.

Members were invited on introductory tours and enjoyed complimentary drinks in the pop-up bar. Ngalu Warrawi Marri We Stand Strong was a particular highlight on 21 January, giving space to First Nations voices.

Members enjoyed jewellerymaking workshops, truth-telling tours, panel discussions and live performances by rappers Dobby and Barkaa.

Thursday Nights at the Museum are proudly supported by the NSW Government’s Culture Up Late initiative.

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Thank you

Belinda Gibson & Jim Murphy Peter & Judy Gregg

The Australian Museum Foundation (AMF) raises funds for the Australian Museum to achieve its vision. Only through the power of philanthropy can you help us reach our goals. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of our major donors and bequests as listed below, including those who have donated anonymously.

To join our list of generous supporters, please do not hesitate to visit our website for more information: australian.museum/foundation or contact us on: development@australian.museum or (02) 9320 6216

Chris & Gina Grubb The Hartzer /Trevor-Jones Family Dr Janice Hirshorn & Dr George Jacobs Prof Ian Hickie AM The John & Frances Ingham Foundation The John Spencer Dickinson Family Warwick & Ann Johnson

Lifetime Patron

Bronze Patrons

Virginia Judge & daughters Cecily, Theresa, Rebecca & Dr Patrick Tooth

Sir David Attenborough

Robert Otto Albert AO RFD RD

Keith & Maureen Kerridge

OM CH CVO CBE

The Carrawa Foundation

Chris & Belinda Knierim

Platinum Leadership Gifts

Claude & Maryanne Gauchat

The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation

Belinda Gibson & Jim Murphy

Jim Lennon in Honour of Jean Lennon

Graeme Wood Foundation

Lindblad Expeditions

The Horizon Foundation

Catherine Livingstone AO & Michael Satterthwaite

The John Spencer Dickinson Family

Gold Patrons

Diccon & Elizabeth Loxton

Judy Lee

Alasdair & Prue MacLeod

Sherman Foundation

Kim McKay AO

The Macquarie Group Foundation

The late Patricia Porritt (bequest)

Oranges & Sardines Foundation

Memocorp Australia Pty Ltd

The Macdoch Foundation The late Patricia McDonald (bequest)

Silver Patrons Ann Macintosh Trust David & Megan Armstrong The Balnaves Foundation Jennifer Crivelli Etheridge Descendants Warwick Evans

Gretel Packer AM Purcell Family Endowment Fund Dr Anne Reeckmann & Dr Gary Holmes John T Reid Charitable Trusts Martin Terry Kristina Stefanova

The Moore Family Jacqui & John Mullen AM The Nelson Family Ben Barham & Gretel Packer Francesca Packer Barham & Gretel Packer William Murray & Gretel Packer

Anna Josephson & Rickard Gardell

Tony Sukkar AM & Josephine Sukkar AM

Chris & Gina Grubb

Julie & Chris Vonwiller

Alison & Bill Hayward OAM

Anonymous

The Purcell Family Endowment Fund in Honour of Mrs Lorna McClelland

Treasures Circle

Robert Purves AM

Robert Otto Albert AO RFD RD

Professor Jan Scott & her friends Jack, Sissi, Coquohalla & Otis

Mary Holt & the late Dr John Holt Diccon & Elizabeth Loxton Memocorp Australia Pty Ltd The late Helen Molesworth Neilson Foundation The Paradice Family Foundation Robert Rich The Lionel & Yvonne Spencer Trust The late Clarence E Chadwick (bequest) The late Cameron “Ivan” Walsh (bequest) Anonymous 46

David & Megan Armstrong Dr Charles & Mrs Beverly Barnes The Calvert-Jones Foundation The Carrawa Foundation

The Paradice Family Foundation The Patterson Pearce Foundation

Penelope Seidler AM Albert Y Wong AM & Sophie Wong Fengjun Zhu

Paul Connor

Director’s Circle

Jennifer Crivelli

Antoinette Albert

Warwick Evans

Dr Charles Barnes

Billie Rose & Warwick Evans

Maile & Charles Carnegie

Sienna Belle & Warwick Evans

Dr Zeny Edwards OAM

Claude & Maryanne Gauchat

Gordon Darling Foundation

Dr Janice Hirshorn & Dr George Jacobs JIBB Family Foundation Alice Arnott Oppen OAM Henry Pollack Foundation Dick & Pip Smith Foundation

Helen McCombie

Brendan Spratt

Oliver McGarvey - Ergo Group

Our Partners

Richard & Jane Malcolmson

The Australian Museum is principally funded by the NSW Government in association with Create NSW

Suzanne G Meli Lily W Mung Endowment Bruce Norton

Graeme Smith

John G Pearson & Mark B Clark

Anonymous

Judy Ranka

Guardians

Drs Jane & Neville Rowden

James & Belinda Allen

Drs Jean & Evan Siegel

Lauren Atmore

Fiona Sinclair

Prof Larissa Behrendt AO

Maisy Stapleton

Ken & Roddy Bell

Christopher & Fiona Still

Principal Partner

Christine Bishop

John Stitt

Westpac

Bill & Annette Blinco

Christina Stitt-Ditfurth

Major Partners

Natalia Bradshaw

Sugarloaf Pastoral Investments

IBM

Connie Chaird & Darren Yong

Anne Sullivan

Inspiring Australia

Margot & Stephanie Chinneck

Louise Taggart

Stockland

Paul Connor

Vera Vargassoff

Tim Cooper & Jeannette Lloyd-Jones

Wendy Walker

Phillip Cornwell

Philippa Walsh

Mr Trevor Danos AM & Dr Veronica Lambert

Wavish Family Foundation

Margaret & Peter Donovan

Ray Wilson OAM

Media Partners

Julia Drew

ABC Radio Sydney

Amanda Farrar

Stephen Wilson & Rachel Hawkeswood

Diane Finlay

Howard H W

Fivex Pty Ltd

Next Gen

Susan Foster

Australian Geographic

Dr Nicole Adams

Edward Griffin

Fyna Foods Australia

Simon Ayling

Chris & Gina Grubb

Olivia Blakiston

Dr Elie Hammam

Frankie Brown

Dr Helen Harding

Clarabella Burley

AstraZeneca

Brian & Georgy Hartzer

Antonia Clarke

Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre

Kate Hayward Peter Homel Fiona James Shauna Jarrett Kane Constructions Pty Ltd

Dr Tony & Mrs Doffy White

Matthew Coe Jack Dwyer Peter Economos Michael Frazis Arielle Gamble

We would also like to acknowledge the following corporate partners and supporters for their invaluable contributions.

Partners ANSTO Bunnings Group Limited IAS Fine Art Logistics

Supporting Partners Archie Rose Distilling Co.

Eureka Prize Partners ANSTO

Celestino Department of Defence Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Finkel Foundation

Dr Roderic Kefford AM

Clare Ainsworth Herschell & Tommy Herscell

Warwick Klabe

Tom Keeble

Leathan Family

Alasdair King

NSW Environment, Energy and Science (DPIE)

John Leece AM

Gemma Olsson

University of Sydney

Howard Lewis

Laura Rahn

University of Technology Sydney

Catherine Livingstone AO & Michael Satterthwaite

Madeleine Ross

UNSW

Anna Satouris

Correct as at 29 March 2021.

Macquarie University

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