Category Archives: Uncategorised

Eden and the Spring Winds

16 November 2016

4 Comments

 

The Spring Winds – as they always do – trigger new beginnings.

My name is Jilda Andrews and I am the newly appointed ‘audience advocate’ for the National Museum’s new environmental history gallery, known so far as Life in Australia. My background is within the Museum’s Learning Services and Community Outreach team, developing and facilitating public programs that help non-traditional museum audiences gain access to the Museum. I am thrilled to join the Life in Australia team as an audience advocate, to be a part of the machinations of developing a brand new permanent gallery, and to work creatively with the team — the communities, organisations, families and individuals we meet along the way, not only as collaborators, but as core audiences themselves to the new gallery. Continue reading →

Art and science under the microscope

20 September 2016

2 Comments

In 1910, Miss Gladys Roberts became one of the first employees of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine in Townsville, Queensland. She was employed to illustrate publications and research papers by the institute staff on a casual basis until 1930, depicting parasites and micro organisms as seen through a microscope. Colour plates of her illustrations were published in the ‘Report of the Institute for 1911′, and a copy of that report, open to show one of Gladys’ works, is now on display in the Landmarks gallery at the National Museum.

Continue reading →

The Path of the Bogong: Land & People

22 August 2016

Leave a comment

My name is Patrick Bailey. This is the final of three posts that I’ve prepared as an intern at the National Museum of Australia (and as part of the Australian National Internship Program), which explores how the interaction between human and non-human forces in Southern NSW and the ACT combine to form continual and changing expressions of community identity. This last post will explore how the land has been influenced by people and formed ongoing relationships which resonate with inhabitants today.

Pastoralism

One of the more common stereotypes of alpine Australia involves the presence of brumbies and cattle, and their impact on the environment. However, these two animals are only a recent addition to the region. Until Europeans arrived, no such animals existed here. These new species, along with rabbits, dogs and sheep, and plants such as wheat and barley, changed the landscape Continue reading →

Mapping a rugged landscape

12 August 2016

Leave a comment

In 2012 the Museum acquired a small collection associated with the distinguished career of the Surveyor-General of Hobart, James Sprent. The collection includes a large and very early map of Tasmania, Sprent’s degree certificate, a Reeves parallel ruler, three small certificates for short courses at the University of Glasgow and a wooden box which is likely to have held Sprent’s drawing instruments. The map was the first accurate map of the colony and the first to reflect the colony’s name change to ‘Tasmania’.

Continue reading →

The Path of the Bogong – Festivals of the Mountains

9 August 2016

Leave a comment

My name is Patrick Bailey. This is the second of three posts that I’ve prepared as an intern at the National Museum of Australia (and as part of the Australian National Internship Program), which explores how the interaction between human and non-human forces in the alpine region of Southern NSW and the ACT combine to form continual and changing expressions of community identity across time. This second post explores Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal practices which enabled strong connections between people and their environment.

Bogong Moths

“In summer the arrival of the Bogong moths provided another food source…[they] travelled to the Alps… not just about food, they involved ceremonies and exchanges between different groups. The opportunity to climb the mountains was an important spiritual experience.” (Matthew Higgins, Rugged beyond Imagination: Stories from an Australian Mountain Region p. 13) Continue reading →

Birth of an art movement

28 July 2016

Leave a comment

Today marks 114 years since the birth of famous Western Arrarnta artist Albert Namatjira. Born at Hermannsburg mission on 28 July 1902, Elea, later christened ‘Albert’, learnt to paint with watercolours during the early 1930s, and had his first solo exhibition in 1938. Within a decade, Namatjira had become famous and his sons and relatives also began painting watercolour landscapes, forming what became known as the Hermannsburg School of Art. He is now remembered as a grandfather, uncle, teacher, leader and founder of an art movement.

Continue reading →

Introducing Julie Ryder, our artist-in-residence for 2016

27 July 2016

Leave a comment

I am excited to introduce Julie Ryder, our artist-in-residence for 2016. Julie is an accomplished textile artist who draws inspiration from the natural world, combining her scientific background and creativity to produce innovative artworks. Julie has started a six month residency at the National Museum of Australia and has received support for her project from the Australia Council for the Arts.

Our artist-in-residence program provides opportunities for artists to work with objects in the Museum’s National Historical Collection. This project will involve working with curators, accessing and researching our botanical collections and exploring the role played by women in early collecting practices in colonial Australia. Continue reading →

The Path of the Bogong – The Landscape

22 July 2016

Leave a comment

My name is Patrick Bailey. As an intern at the National Museum of Australia (and as part of the Australian National Internship Program), it has been my privilege to research and compile a report on interactions between human and non-human forces in the alpine region of Southern NSW and the ACT, and how they combine to form continual and changing expressions of community identity across time. This research is designed to contribute in part to the development of one component of a new gallery of environmental history at the Museum. This research explores key alpine areas in order to communicate Continue reading →

Visitors to Ntaria

15 July 2016

Leave a comment

The landscape of Central Australia has attracted millions of visitors since the area was opened to tourism, most notably following the extension of the railway line to Alice Springs in 1929. Where the local Aboriginal communities were displaced and banned, they are now leading conversations about land management and tourism. The watercolour paintings of celebrated Western Arrarnta artist Albert Namatjira have transported generations of Australians into his country, west of Alice Springs across the West MacDonnell Ranges, and today Namatjira’s descendants and kin continue to use their art to create opportunities and keep their culture strong.

These stories are being remembered and shared in a new exhibit about Ntaria (Hermannsburg), as part of the Landmarks gallery at the National Museum of Australia, from 28 July 2016.

Continue reading →

A prickly invasion

16 June 2016

1 Comment

The act of nurturing a single pot plant would appear to be a fairly benign activity. However, when Navy surgeon, Dr William Bell Carlyle, entrusted a prickly pear cutting to the care and protection of his servant, Mary Sutton, no one could have predicted the devastation which would result. In a period of less than 100 years the prickly pear multiplied and occupied over 60 million acres of Queensland and New South Wales, equivalent to the whole land area of the United Kingdom or New Zealand. Continue reading →