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British Museum and National Museum oI Australia host dual
indigenous exhibition
IT is 97cm long, 29cm wide and has a ragged hole near its centre. Made from the bark of the spotted mangrove tree,
the "elemong" shield has few distinctive features, yet it is a rare and potent symbol of the first, tense moments of
contact between Europeans and Aborigines on Australia's east coast.
Thought to have been made by the Gweagal people, this deIensive weapon transports us back to that Iraught autumn day in
1770 when crew members Irom the HMB Endeavour, working under the command oI James Cook, tried to land at Botany
Bay but were challenged by two Aboriginal men.
The Aborigines had rejected Cook's oIIerings oI nails and beads, and the explorer resorted to violence, Iiring at them with
his musket. He injured one oI the men, who showed remarkably little Iear. The expedition's botanist, Joseph Banks, took up
the story in his journal:
A man who attempted to oppose our Landing came down to the Beach with a shield ... this he leIt behind when he ran
away, and we Iound upon taking it up that it plainly had been piercd through with a single pointed lance near the centre.
This shield has been in the British Museum's collection since 1771. It carries enormous historical signiIicance Ior
Australians, yet it has never been exhibited here.
That is likely to change, however, when the British Museum and National Museum oI Australia stage a highly ambitious
project: linked exhibitions in London and Canberra based on key objects Irom the BM's Australian indigenous collection.
The Canberra exhibition will mark the Iirst time these arteIacts have been back in Australia since colonial collectors obtained
them as giIts, objects oI trade or - more controversially - in the aItermath oI violent conIlict.
NMA acting director Mathew Trinca says the exhibitions are the most important project the National Museum has worked
on in years. "It quickly became clear to us that this wasn't just an exhibition," he tells Review.
"It is an entire program oI work. I think, honestly, that this is the most important work we're doing this decade.
THE AUSTRALIAN
ROSEMARY NEILL THE AUSTRALAN OCTOBER 05, 2013 12:00AM
National Museum of Australia adviser Henrietta Formile Marrie believes some artefacts in the British Museum collection should be returned to Australia. Picture:
Brian Cassey Source: TheAustralian
Contemporary artworks for the British Museum exhibition. Source: Supplied
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"There's also a national debate that we're Iostering about what this material is, what meaning it has Ior all Australians, as
well as reconnecting indigenous people around the country to what in many cases is the earliest material, extant, that
originated Irom their communities."
For Trinca, a man unaIraid oI loIty rhetoric, the Cook shield alone has untold signiIicance. "That shield we believe to be
remarkable," he says during an interview in his large uncluttered Canberra oIIice, "because it stands at the epicentre oI what
then Iollows. The misapprehension, the conIusion, that Iirst meeting between the Aboriginal people oI the Botany Bay area
and Cook, stands somewhat as an emblem oI a whole series oI encounters that take place across the continent in succeeding
years."
It is anticipated the shield will be exhibited at the NMA alongside Iour spears also acquired Irom Botany Bay, and on loan
Irom the Cambridge Museum oI Archaeology and Anthropology.
The joint project is aIIording NMA staII unprecedented access to the BM's treasures, widely regarded as the world's most
signiIicant collection oI Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arteIacts Irom the early days oI British settlement.
British Museum director Neil MacGregor tells Review: "I think a London audience will be astounded by the beauty and
signiIicance oI these objects and I hope they will be moved and impressed by what they learn about the deep history and
contemporary vitality oI Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands cultures.
"I am delighted that we will then lend many objects to the National Museum oI Australia, where both indigenous
Australians and others can view this material."
The linked exhibitions will likely open in 2015 - one at the BM and the other at the NMA on the shores oI Lake Burley
GriIIin. By then, Iive years oI cross-continental collaboration, research and consultation will have gone into the shows.
While they will employ diIIerent curators and the Iinal list oI objects has yet to be conIirmed, both will include weapons,
jewellery and utensils collected as the Iirst waves oI European exploration and settlement broke across the country, Irom
Cook's landing at Botany Bay, to bloody Irontier skirmishes in north Queensland and the Kimberley, to surprisingly
amicable exchanges in the embryonic West Australian colony.
Aboriginal leader Peter Yu, who is on the NMA's indigenous advisory committee, agrees the Canberra exhibition will be "a
milestone exhibition in the history oI the nation".
"I think it'll be a highly emotional one in terms oI what the cultural material represents in terms oI Iirst contact and
subsequent relationships," he says. "It will also provide greater insight into, and a reconnection to, the circumstances and
context oI the materials' origins ... Overall, I think this is potentially very signiIicant as a major reconciliation event."
Yu explains while reconciliation has been happening in Australia Ior some time, there has never been an event that Iocuses
on indigenous people's relations with early settlers and the British crown.
Already, the project is generating the biggest consultation with indigenous communities in the NMA's history. NMA and
BM curators have Ianned out to 15 indigenous communities covering every state and territory, Irom Albany in the southwest
to the Iar-Ilung Torres Strait Islands, in a bid to inIorm indigenous communities about objects that came Irom their regions.
In several cases, communities were astounded to learn arteIacts potentially made or owned by their ancestors were in the
BM collection.
And some activists are demanding those objects be repatriated to their original communities. NMA adviser Henrietta
Fourmile Marrie says she was overwhelmed to discover recently the BM has jewellery collected in Cairns in the 1890s that
is strikingly similar to a shell ornaments worn by her great-grandIather, Ye-i-nie, in a historic photograph.
Ye-i-nie was an inIluential community leader and the 1905 photograph shows a slight man oI regal bearing, his initiation
scars visible across his torso. He holds a heIty wooden shield and wears a shell headband, hairband and pendant, as well as
a large breastplate engraved with the words "Ye-i-nie/King oI Cairns/1905".
Marrie argues BM arteIacts Irom the Cairns region - among them shields with distinctive rainIorest designs and a message
stick on which a Iather commemorates the death oI his daughter - should be returned to the area or, Iailing that, put into
temporary custodianship at the NMA.
"Why do the British Museum want them?" she demands, her voice soIt yet insistent. "It has no relevance to them as a
people. It has no relevance to their culture; it has more importance Ior us here."
A Yidinji woman with empathetic brown eyes and a quietly determined manner, Marrie has worked Ior the UN and has
been a cultural rights campaigner Ior several decades. She points out when Aboriginal communities were dispossessed oI
their land, they were also dispossessed oI their cultural heritage.
Moreover, the victors not only write the history, they oIten keep the spoils oI that history. For these reasons, she argues the
BM arteIacts - many oI which are rarely on public display - eventually should be repatriated so contemporary Aborigines
"and the next generation can understand more about who they are as a people, and who they are as a nation".
Dennis Ah-Khee, a traditional landowner Irom north Queensland, agrees "those |BM| collections should come back into
this country". He says emphatically: "II the British Museum wants copies oI those arteIacts, we can produce them ourselves
and send them |the copies| back."
Ah-Khee says museums oIten Iail to comprehend the spiritual and emotional value oI indigenous objects. "I know a lot oI
our old people, iI those arteIacts come back here, they will cry, right, they will cry. We regard them as living things. They're
a part oI our history."
However, Torres Strait Islander Lui Ned David sees the issue diIIerently. He too has sat in on an NMA consultation and he
says oI the linked exhibitions: "I'm all Ior it, in many ways. It showcases us as two indigenous races to the rest oI the world,
and to our country. It tells a story.
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"More importantly, Ior us as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, I honestly believe there's a sense oI pride. It showcases
to us the good and bad |history|, there's some truth about it.
"Something on this scale Irom one oI the most prominent institutions on the planet - you don't ignore something like that,
and you don't try and do away with it. I think you embrace it."
The Tudu Islander was equally chuIIed when a spectacular crocodile dance mask, made Irom a metal saw, Ieathers and
turtleshell by his great-grandIather in the 1880s, was displayed prominently in the BM Ioyer in London two years ago. The
mask, he explains, was given by his great-grandIather, Maino, to British researcher AlIred Haddon, who in turn, donated it
to the museum. "It was a giIt; something Ior them to put on display so the rest oI the world would know about this great
warrior and chieI |David's great-great-grandIather|. I'm quite proud about it." In sharp contrast, David says he recently had
an "unbelievably painIul" experience with the BM. A co-chairman oI the Iederal government's advisory committee Ior
indigenous repatriation, he had campaigned Ior the return oI two Torres Strait Islander skulls Irom the BM. Although this
claim was supported by the recently deposed Iederal Labor government, the BM rejected it late last year.
"It |the decision| was downright one-sided Ior all the wrong reasons," says David, his voice quivering with emotion.
The skulls were acquired by Haddon and donated to the BM in 1889. David argues: "These are human remains. They
belong to my people and we are asking iI we can please have them back so we can give them a decent burial." He says the
skulls will not be publicly exhibited - museums would rarely, iI ever, display human remains these days - and are oI no
scientiIic use to the BM.
The BM decision resists the international trend Ior museums to return human remains to indigenous claimants, but the
museum's deputy director, Jonathan Williams, maintains "the trustees gave very careIul consideration to the claim". In
rejecting it, the board argued Haddon's acquisition did not interrupt mortuary processes, as TSI skulls were traded in the 19th
century.
The trustees also concluded public beneIit was best served by the museum retaining the skulls. While David remains a
strong supporter oI the Iorthcoming twin exhibitions, Ior him, there is a whiII oI hypocrisy about the spurned claim. The
BM, he says, has "reIused our claim. On the other hand, they are aIter our collaboration."
THE working title oI the NMA show is Encounters and, in a sense, the historical stories oI how the collected objects
brought whites and blacks together - in Iriendship, commerce and battle - are as revealing as the arteIacts themselves.
Indeed, Ian Coates, the NMA staII member who came up with the idea Ior the joint project, says these objects have "the
potential to change how we all understand Australian history".
Coates, co-lead curator oI Encounters, says the BM arteIacts "demonstrate the longevity oI Australia's indigenous people's
history in a way that words cannot ... They show that there is no single, easy narrative that describes Australia's colonial
past. The Irontier was messy, at times it was violent, at times there was Iriendship."
Certainly, the stories oI how the objects were collected suggest a broader spectrum oI relationships between European
settlers and indigenous people than conventional narratives oI white oppressors and passive black victims allow.
When Scottish pioneer and surgeon Alexander Collie met young Minang leader Mokare in Western Australia in the early
19th century, Iew could have imagined how close the two - separated by language and cultural diIIerences and the period's
cast-iron racial prejudices - would become. Collie had sailed alongside lieutenant-governor James Stirling to help establish
the Swan River Colony in 1829 and was appointed the Iirst government resident oI King George Sound (near Albany) in
1831. Mokare was Collie's interpreter and guide, and the two men became so attached that aIter each died prematurely, Irom
diIIerent illnesses, they were buried side by side in a makeshiIt graveyard.
Collie was also a collector and the arteIacts he gathered, probably with Mokare's help, are in the BM collection. Among
them are a spearthrower and Iearsome-looking axe.
Other exhibits conjure a more conIrontational history: one oI Iierce indigenous resistance to a relentlessly advancing Irontier
oI European occupation; oI attacks on colonial settlers Iollowed by Iar bloodier reprisals. Objects Irom the Kimberley
including an iron axe and glass-headed spear can be traced back to one oI the most inIamous police pursuits oI the colonial
era: the three-year hunt Ior Jandamarra.
Sometimes known as the Aboriginal Ned Kelly, Jandamarra led an armed uprising against European settlement and the
police in the 1890s aIter he killed a white policeman.
A hunting net and shields collected by sugar industry pioneer John Ewen Davidson speak oI Iurther Aboriginal resistance to
European colonisation in north Queensland in the 1860s and 70s. In 1866, Davidson wrote in his diary about the paralysing
terror oI an Aboriginal child caught up in an armed police raid: "One little girl took reIuge under my horse's belly and could
not move." The raid was a reprisal Ior local Aborigines' attacks on white settlers near Cardwell. Davidson observed: "It was
a strange and painIul sight to see a human being running Ior his liIe and see the black police galloping aIter him and hear the
crack oI the carbines."
As the conIlict continued, the cane Iarmer's attitudes towards Aborigines rapidly hardened. Just Iive months aIter he wrote
so movingly about the terriIied girl, he shot at two large groups advancing on his camp. "We Iollowed them up into the
scrub Iiring at them as they went," he wrote on June 24, 1866. "Some were wounded, but I saw some killed: there was
plenty oI blood on one or two shields which we picked up."
As Davidson's diary shows, some objects collected and donated to the BM - and which are likely to be shown in Encounters
- were acquired amid lethal violence, under circumstances that today would be considered unethical.
Should such items eventually be returned to their source communities? Or does the Iormidable reputation and reach oI the
BM - in eIIect, a universal exhibition and research centre - override such considerations? The vexed issues oI ownership and
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custodianship will be addressed at a conIerence the NMA plans to hold in tandem with the Canberra exhibition. Trinca says:
"The whole reason we're doing this is to open out the possibility oI having this discussion productively, Ior the nation."
Certainly, recent legislation means there will be no repeat oI a dispute that erupted in 2004, when Aboriginal activists in
Victoria took out a cultural protection order to stop three touring indigenous exhibits - a ceremonial headdress owned by the
Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, and two bark etchings Irom the BM - returning to Britain. Amid warnings that seizure would
put Iuture museum loans to Australia at risk, the Federal Court overturned the protection order and the indigenous exhibits
were returned to Britain.
A new Iederal law means touring arteIacts and artworks are insulated Irom attempts to keep them here; some believe this
legislation was passed with Encounters in mind.
Intriguingly, the NMA's consultations are already overturning mistaken assumptions about some arteIacts held by the august
London institution Ior more than a century. In north Queensland, amused indigenous people declared a hunting net collected
by Davidson and classiIied as a kangaroo net was actually a brush turkey net. In the Torres Strait, islanders told visiting
NMA staII that an object listed on the BM website as a charm was part oI a headhunting kit, while an arteIact listed as a
chest pendant was a pubic shell cover.
The NMA cross-checked these claims, and Iound the locals' observations were spot-on.
The NMA's Coates made a Iurther, stunning discovery about what many say is an under-researched collection. While on a
curatorial exchange with the BM, he spotted several watercolours - one Ieatured masked, grass-skirted men dancing around
a campIire - oI late 19th-century Torres Strait Islander liIe. The drawings were signed T. Roberts.
Coates guessed these were the work oI celebrated Australian painter Tom Roberts, something the British had not realised.
Still palpably excited, the curator says: "IdentiIying the Roberts drawings was deIinitely something oI a eureka moment - it
was, 'No, it couldn't be,' Iollowed by, 'Could it be?' - and then the excitement oI realising that these were by him, and that
they were a previously unknown body oI work which complemented his rich published account oI his time in the Torres
Strait." The BM and NMA now suspect there is a Roberts oil painting oI one oI these scenes in private hands and are keen
to hear Irom the owner.
Gaye Sculthorpe, who is curating the London show, concedes "a lot oI the collection has not been adequately researched or
published". But she says the research being poured into the linked exhibitions is helping to change this.
Digitisation oI the collection, she says, is giving researchers, including indigenous researchers in Australia, enhanced access
to it.
Sculthorpe is the Iirst indigenous Australian to win a staII job at the BM, and she says while the London exhibition will
include the colonial stories that Irame the exhibits, it will also Iocus on the objects' histories beIore white settlement. "These
objects don't just have one story to tell, they have many stories to tell," she says.
Both the Canberra and London exhibitions will include contemporary indigenous artworks, a statement about how
indigenous culture, Iar Irom being snap-Irozen, continues to evolve. Sculthorpe explains: "One oI the important messages oI
the London exhibition is to emphasise that the objects held by the museum, whether they're Irom the early colonial period or
contemporary objects, reIlect a living, diverse and dynamic culture. It's not a relic oI the past."
Abe Muriata, a Girramay man Irom the Cardwell area, is living evidence oI that. A painter and shield-maker with a big-
brimmed Akubra and a playIul sense oI humour, Muriata spent years teaching himselI a traditional art that was endangered
in his community. It took him three years to make his Iirst bicornual basket - an elegant, bell-bottomed aIIair unique to the
rainIorest people oI Queensland - and he largely achieved this by studying historical examples in Queensland museums.
Muriata argues museums help invigorate indigenous culture by conserving arteIacts and records oI cultural practices
undermined by government policy. "Many years ago in Queensland, a lot oI our people were removed |to government-run
settlements|, and it broke the tradition oI passing down the skills needed to manuIacture a lot oI the arteIacts," he explains.
A weaver oI 10 years' standing, Muriata has had his baskets exhibited in the Queensland Art Gallery and South Australian
Museum, and he is passing on his skills to others.
"I'm getting better all the time," he says. "This is not a trade you just pick up on a whim and say, 'I'm gonna make a basket'.
It took me three years to make my Iirst basket, and even then it was not top-quality stuII."
Like Muriata, Marrie has unearthed important aspects oI her heritage (a recording oI her grandIather speaking his traditional
language, a Iamily genealogy dating back to the 1860s) in Australian museums.
But unlike the selI-taught weaver, she is indignant she and her extended Iamily would have remained ignorant oI this rich
history iI she had not sought it out. She Ieels strongly that lost or broken traditions could be rekindled iI indigenous
communities had better access to old photographs, Iamily histories or language tapes held by museums.
The revelation the BM has shell jewellery that closely resembles that worn by her great-grandIather continues her
ambivalent journey oI discovery - the pleasure oI recognition, Iollowed by disappointment she didn't know about this trove
oI traditional treasures earlier. "We were quite overwhelmed by the amount oI our cultural heritage that is in the museum,"
she says. "Not just the arteIacts, but the written inIormation about them that is so crucial to our cultural existence and our
cultural survival."
Marrie has long campaigned Ior indigenous people to be better inIormed about the material museums hold about them,
writing in a 1992 paper: "The current situation regarding our heritage is a mess." She tells Review things have "improved
slightly" since then, and she applauds the NMA and BM consultations.
"It's great they have decided that the way Iorward is to have consultations with the communities where these objects and
cultural materials come Irom," she says. "It's something that's been missing Ior many, many years. Museums have never
really gone out there and consulted on the ground, so it's nice to see that shiIt in thinking."