Strategic priority 2: Cherish our stories

OUR TARGETS

• Visitation to permanent exhibitions.
• Visitation to special exhibitions.
• Visitation to travelling exhibitions.

MEASURES

• 455,000 visits to permanent exhibitions.
• 233,000 visits to special exhibitions.
• 220,000 visits to travelling exhibitions.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

• Annual visitation to permanent exhibitions, including the permanent displays in the Gandel Atrium, was 532,314.
• The Museum displayed 13 special exhibitions at its Acton site during 2017–18, with total visitation of 204,182.
• The Museum toured five travelling exhibitions nationally, with total visitation of 520,016.
• The Museum exhibited its three international travelling graphic-panel displays in 17 countries, with an estimated 36,021 people viewing the exhibitions.

Analysis

The permanent, temporary and touring exhibitions mounted by the Museum this year brought the stories of Australia to life for national and international audiences.

Permanent galleries

The Museum’s refurbished Gandel Atrium now serves as a striking introductory gallery for visitors to the Museum (see The Gandel Atrium). Of the 532,314 visits to the Gandel Atrium, 443,112 extended through to the Museum’s other permanent galleries.

Special exhibitions at the National Museum, Canberra

The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers 1800–1804

This exhibition, in which the Museum is a partner, featured original artworks from the collection of the Museum of Natural History, Le Havre, of Australian animals and marine life, as well as striking portraits of Aboriginal people, rare documents and hand-drawn maps from Nicolas Baudin’s artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit during the 1800–04 voyage to the Southern Hemisphere of the Géographe and Naturaliste. The exhibition first opened at the South Australian Maritime Museum, Adelaide, in June 2016, and toured four national venues before arriving in Canberra. It was on show from 30 March to 24 June 2018 and attracted 27,684 visits.

Australian of the Year Awards 2018

This annual exhibition, developed by the Museum in collaboration with the National Australia Day Council, was on display at the Museum from 5 December 2017 until 18 February 2018. It featured objects chosen by the Australian of the Year finalists from each state. Due to its location in the Gandel Atrium, separate visitor statistics were not recorded for this exhibition while it was on display at the Museum.

A Change Is Gonna Come

This exhibition opened in the First Australians Focus Gallery on 24 May 2017 and closed on 28 January 2018. The title was inspired by the 1964 civil rights song of the same name, and the exhibition explored the ongoing struggle to achieve equal rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through significant events such as the 1967 referendum and the 1992 Mabo decision, and other remarkable stories of resistance and resilience. Visitation numbers for this exhibition are included in the permanent gallery visitation figures for the First Australians gallery.

Evolution: Torres Strait Masks

First displayed at the Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait and on display in the First Australians Focus Gallery from 19 May 2017 to 23 July 2017, Evolution celebrated the rich and continuing tradition of mask making in the Torres Strait, exploring the form of masks as contemporary expressions of artistic and cultural revival. Visitation numbers for this exhibition are included in the permanent gallery visitation figures for the First Australians gallery.

Freewheeling: Cycling in Australia

First developed in 2014, this exhibition explored the history of cycling in Australia through the Museum’s collection of bicycles and related objects. Freewheeling opened at the Museum on 13 April 2017 following its national tour, and closed on 9 July 2017. During 2017–18, Freewheeling attracted 7885 visits.

kanalaritja: An Unbroken String

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery touring exhibition kanalaritja: An Unbroken String celebrated the unique practice of Tasmanian Aboriginal shell stringing. On display were stunning shell necklaces created in the 1800s, alongside necklaces from acclaimed makers of today and a new wave of stringers who learnt the tradition at cultural renewal workshops. It was on show at the Museum from 10 August to 3 October 2017. Visitation numbers for this exhibition are included in the permanent gallery visitation figures for the First Australians gallery.

Lustre: Pearling & Australia

On display in the First Australians Focus Gallery from 23 February to 22 July 2018, Lustre: Pearling & Australia was developed by the Western Australian Museum in partnership with Nyamba Buru Yawuru, Broome’s Yawuru Aboriginal Corporation, in close consultation with senior Yawuru, Karajarri, Bardi, Jawi and Malaya elders. The exhibition explored northern Australia’s unique pearling tradition and wove together Aboriginal, Asian and European histories of pearling in Saltwater Country, to reveal insights into one of Australia’s oldest and grittiest industries. Visitation numbers for this exhibition are included in the permanent gallery visitation figures for the First Australians gallery.

Midawarr/Harvest: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley

Stunning artworks depicting the plants of north-east Arnhem Land, by Yolŋu elder Mulkun Wirrpanda and landscape painter John Wolseley, featured in this exhibition. On display were 60 bark paintings and memorial poles by Mulkun, showcasing intricately detailed Yolŋu plants, and complemented by a panoramic scroll painting of a floodplain by Wolseley. Midawarr/Harvest was on show from 17 November 2017 to 19 February 2018 and attracted 17,641 visits.

Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters

Songlines took visitors on a journey across the Australian desert in an Aboriginal-led exhibition about the epic Seven Sisters Dreaming. It included stunning artworks created especially for the exhibition, a state-of-the- art digital dome and a vibrant art centre. Songlines attracted the third highest visitation ever to a Museum exhibition, attracting 98,855 visits during its display from 15 September 2017 to 28 February 2018, including visits by 1174 school children. In June, the exhibition was recognised by the Museums and Galleries National Awards as the outstanding exhibition of the year, winning the prestigious Best in Show award. This exhibition was on display between 15 September 2017 and 28 February 2018.

‘So That You Might Know Each Other’: Faith and Culture in Islam

This exhibition featured collections of Islamic objects from the Vatican Anima Mundi Museum, the Sharjah Museums Authority and Australian Institutions. It was a celebration of Muslim people across the world, their daily lives, traditions and spirituality. The eclectic range of objects included musical instruments, armour, precious manuscripts, ceramics, jewellery and sacred embroidered textiles. It was on show at the National Museum of Australia from 20 April to 22 July 2018, and attracted 25,439 visits.

Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks

A travelling exhibition from Sydney Living Museums, Towers of Tomorrow featured 20 skyscraper models constructed by the Southern Hemisphere’s only certified LEGO professional, Australian Ryan McNaught. Visitors were able to create their own towers with more than 200,000 loose bricks in the hands-on construction area. The exhibition was on show at the Museum from 28 July to 8 October 2017, during which it was visited 26,678 times.

Exhibitions in the Xplore gallery

The Xplore gallery, a new space for boutique ‘pop-up’ exhibitions, hosted two short-term displays. Jack Wherra, Master Carver and Storyteller showcased the work of Kimberley artist Jack Wherra. Fifteen intricately carved boab nuts were displayed resting on individual mounts hand-sewn by the Museum’s conservators. The Museum also collaborated with the Centre for Digital Humanities Research at the Australian National University to photograph four of the boab nuts in 3-D for an interactive display in the exhibition. The exhibition was on show from 30 November 2017 to 28 February 2018.

Towards Equality: From Mardi Gras to Marriage celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The exhibition featured Love Wheels, the rainbow crocheted ‘yarn bombed’ bicycle made by Eloise Murphy, aka ‘Treble Maker’, during the 2017 marriage equality postal vote campaign (see also Love Wheels). The exhibition was on show from 2 March to 8 August 2018.

Visitation numbers for Xplore gallery exhibitions are included in the permanent gallery visitation figures.

National travelling exhibitions

The Museum toured the following travelling exhibitions nationally during 2017–18:

• Happy Birthday Play School! Celebrating 50 Years: 61,091 visits (2017–18); 101,274 total visitation
• Warakurna: All the Stories Got into Our Minds and Eyes: 12,922 visits (2017–18); 104,193 total visitation
• Evolution: Torres Strait Masks: 31,409 visits
• Australian of the Year Awards 2018: 114,433 visits
• The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers 1800–1804: 52,981 visits, in a partnership with other institutions.

National travelling exhibitions: non-traditional venues

The Museum has expanded its travelling exhibition program to non-traditional venues as it explores new partnerships and ways of delivering Australia’s stories to wider audiences.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie

This exhibition on the legacy of Governor Lachlan Macquarie is a collaboration between the Museum and Macquarie Group Limited. Since opening in 2014, the exhibition has remained on display in an exhibition space on the ground floor of the Macquarie Group’s Sydney headquarters in Martin Place. It has been visited 93,293 times, including 38,235 visits during 2017–18.

I Like Aeroplane Jelly

In August 2015, the Museum opened its first display at the Canberra Airport terminal. The 1920s Model T Ford truck used to advertise Aeroplane Jelly was installed along with multimedia equipment to allow airport users to search the Museum’s collections. More than 208,945 airport visitors are estimated to have been reached by this display.

International travelling exhibitions

The Museum toured the following travelling exhibitions internationally during 2017–18:

Travelling graphic-panel displays

In partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Museum regularly tours three graphic-panel displays inspired by Museum exhibitions and made available for local display via Australian diplomatic posts throughout the world. In 2017–18 the graphic panel displays were:

• Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route
• Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists
• Evolution: Torres Strait Masks.

Graphic-panel displays were exhibited in 17 countries including Samoa, Italy, Jordan, Chile, Spain, Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Argentina and Vietnam. The displays reached a total audience of over 36,000.

In partnership with Princess Cruise Lines Ltd, the Museum toured a graphic-panel display based on the Defining Moments in Australian History project for installation on five Princess Cruise liners in the Asia–Pacific region.

OUR TARGETS

• Implement the Legacy Collection Project Plan to reduce accessioning backlog.
• Acquire significant objects for inclusion in the National Historical Collection.
• 80% of the National Historical Collection stored in accordance with appropriate museum standards.

OUR MEASURES

• Legacy Collection Project Plan: Year 1 milestones met.
• A maximum of 650 new collection acquisitions.
• Improve storage and access facilities for two functional areas.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

• The Legacy Collection project to reduce accessioning backlog is ahead of target, with 3165 (target of 2500) objects accessioned in the reporting period.
• The Museum acquired 390 objects for the National Historical Collection.
• The Museum continued to place the highest priority on maintaining a safe, secure and accessible collection, with 82% of the National Historical Collection stored in accordance with appropriate Museum standards.
• Works were carried out to improve the storage facilities at two of the Museum’s sites.

Analysis

The National Historical Collection is the Museum’s core collection, comprising more than 230,000 objects. The Museum’s collecting activities are guided by its Collections Development Plan and its Collections Development Framework, which provide a structure and process for identifying, assessing and prioritising material to be collected. This year the Museum continued to maintain its storage facilities, with a number of critical improvements to its Mitchell premises.

Accessioning the collection

Accessioning is the process that formally registers an object into the Museum’s permanent collection. During the year, the Museum accessioned 3165 objects, ahead of its target of 2500 objects.

New acquisitions

Among the many significant acquisitions during the course of the year were the following collections:

Sir Jack Brabham’s prototype racing car

This 1967 BT23A-1 Repco V8 prototype was the last car both constructed and driven by three-time Formula One world champion Jack Brabham. It is one of only three extant V8 Formula One Repco Brabham cars and is a significant artefact of the history of motor racing in Australia.

Romper Stomper boots and The Silver Brumby costume

Although a New Zealander by birth, actor Russell Crowe has lived most of his life in Australia and has played an integral role in the Australian film industry over the past 30 years. This collection relates to two of his most celebrated Australian films: a pair of maroon leather Doc Marten boots worn for the lead character in Romper Stomper, and a pair of pants and full-length coat worn in The Silver Brumby.

The Magic Pudding puppets and props

These puppets were made by Christine Barker and Michael Fitzgerald between 1970 and 1988 for the Marionette Theatre of Australia. They include the characters Albert the Magic Pudding, Barnacle Bill, Possum and others from a marionette show based on Norman Lindsay’s iconic children’s story, The Magic Pudding. The Marionette Theatre of Australia was founded by Peter Scriven in 1965.

Cartes de visite album

This is a rare, intact, mid-19th-century British colonial official’s album of photographs which contains images of Australian Aboriginal people and themes as well as of Indigenous peoples from other British colonies. The album was compiled by naval surgeon Dr Alexander Rattray RN (1830–1906) during his travels in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, from 1866 to 1868. Of particular significance are photographs of Aboriginal people from New South Wales and Queensland, including some taken by missionary William Kennett at Somerset mission on Cape York.

Digging for Gold, 1880

This historically significant painting by Edwin Roper Loftus Stocqueler depicts everyday life on the Victorian diggings. It also represents the damage caused to plants, animals and soils by mining activities on the goldfields, and evidence of the entrepreneurship and hardship experienced by 19th-century artists.

Landscape with Ghost Gums, Kangaroo and Dog, 1935

This small watercolour painting on a beanwood panel is signed by Otto Pareroultja, one of the founders of the style associated with the Aboriginal painters working at the Hermannsburg mission in Central Australia. This painting is a significant early example of Pareroultja’s work and provides context for later examples of his art also held by the Museum. After Albert Namatjira, Pareroultja and his two brothers were the best-known Hermannsburg artists during the 1950s and 1960s.

Council approvals

The Museum’s Council formally approves the inclusion of objects into the National Historical Collection. This year the Council approved 94 collections, comprising about 4000 individual objects. The collections approved by Council included legacy collections and recent acquisitions, among them artworks and objects acquired during the development of the Songlines exhibition.

Improvements to the Museum’s storage facilities

Storage and conservation of the National Historical Collection is a continuing challenge for the Museum. At any time, about three per cent of the collection is on display or on loan. The remainder is stored in repositories in Mitchell, an industrial suburb on Canberra’s northern outskirts.

In January 2015, the Museum released its Strategic Property Plan (SPP), which identifies issues, risks and recommendations concerning the Museum’s leased property portfolio used for the ongoing storage and conservation management needs of the Museum.

In 2017–18 several improvements to the Museum’s storage facilities at 90 Vicars Street and 9–13 Vicars Street, Mitchell, were completed (in consultation with the property owners), including:

• at 90 Vicars Street, construction of a new large technology workshop and garage space to provide a controlled environment for detailed mechanical and hot works tasks, and building of a new chemical storage shed
• at 9–13 Vicars Street, installation of a new automatic entry gate, and carrying out of maintenance and small building works within the ethnographic store.

The electronic access control systems for both sites were upgraded to ensure strict access controls are monitored and audited.

OUR TARGETS

• Undertake scholarly research and provide subject-matter expertise to a range of Museum projects and activities.
• Lead or participate in collaborative research projects that support the core themes of the Research Centre.

MEASURES

• Research Centre Plan 2016–18: Year 2 milestones met.
• Three partnerships in place that support core themes of the Research Centre.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

• In its second year, the Research Centre Plan 2016–18 continued to support research activities, including contributions to talks, conferences and symposiums and the strengthening of international research partnerships with universities and museums in Japan and Germany.
• The Museum participated in seven Australian Research Council (ARC) grants with partner organisations during the year (see Collaborative research projects).

Analysis

Research and scholarship are central to the National Museum of Australia’s collection, exhibitions, publications and other activities. This research includes Australian history, care of the collection, and museological areas including audience evaluation and outreach, and is supported by the Research Library. Museum staff also regularly publish in industry journals and give presentations on Museum research activity.

The Research Centre Plan 2016–18

It is the ambition of the Research Centre, as set out in the Research Centre Plan 2016–18, to establish a growing program of rigorous and innovative research activities across the Museum, and to increase public access to Museum research through outreach programs and other dissemination strategies, as well as providing professional development opportunities for Museum staff.

International symposium

The Museum co-hosted an international repatriation symposium, The Long Journey Home: The Repatriation of Indigenous Remains across the Frontiers of Asia and the Pacific, with the Australian National University’s (ANU’s) College of Asia and the Pacific and National Centre for Indigenous Studies, on 7 May 2018. Speakers from New Zealand, Hawaii, Australia, the United States and Japan shared their expertise and experiences of repatriation through panel discussions and presentations. These presentations will be transcribed and made available on the Museum’s website.

The last day of the symposium involved a ceremony conducted by Yuji Shimizu and Tsugio Kuzuno, members of the Ainu nation, to mark the return of Ainu ancestral remains held by the Museum. The ceremony was conducted at the ANU and attended by Museum staff, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research partners, and scholars working with the ANU from interstate.

Relationship with Japan

The Museum continued to strengthen its partnership with the University of Hokkaido, Japan, to develop an academic teaching program focusing on Indigenous studies. The project is supported by a grant from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and involves partner universities from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Finland, Russia and Taiwan, as well as the ANU. The partnership anticipates facilitating Japanese students to study in Australia, Australian researchers to lecture and give classes in Japan, and the promotion of Indigenous arts and cultures in Japan. Dr Michael Pickering, Head of the Research Centre, gave a series of lectures on repatriation and on developing Indigenous exhibitions to the University of Hokkaido and at the Ainu Cultural Centre.

German–Australian Repatriation Research Network

In March 2017 the German–Australian Repatriation Research Network (GARRN) was launched at the Museum to support the sharing of information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains and sensitive objects held in German collections. During the year, members of the group exchanged research regarding the provenance and history of remains held by both countries, as well as corresponding over issues such as the role of museums in a post-colonial world. A second workshop and series of public talks and masterclasses will be held at the GRASSI Museum für Volkerkunde zu Leipzig, Germany, in December 2018.

OUR TARGET

• Develop and maintain the Museum’s online collections facility with a collections search function that promotes public participation.

MEASURES

• Key milestones during the reporting period achieved.
• 51% of the Museum’s collection available online via a collections search function.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

• During the reporting period the Museum continued to meet key milestones in the development and maintenance of the Museum’s online collection presence.
• The percentage of the collection now available online grew to 55%.

Analysis

Online collections information

The Museum achieved its target for collections available online via Collection Explorer, the front-end web program through which visitors can access information about the Museum’s collection, with 2709 objects added during the reporting period for a total of 55 per cent of the collection available. During the year, there were more than 100,000 visits to Collection Explorer, and more than 226,000 page views: an increase in traffic of 18 per cent and 21 per cent respectively on the previous year.

The Museum engaged in a number of other projects to support public access to its collections, including continuing work on the Collections Online project and the Collections Digitisation project.