Thankyou very much to Museums Australia for providing a bursary enabling me
to attend the recent national Connecting the Edge conference in Launceston on
behalf of the Furneaux Historical Research Association. Thanks also to the rest of
the FHRA committee for agreeing to cover my airfares and to Louise James of
QVMAG for putting me up for the duration.
I’m glad I took plenty of notes during the conference because it was 4 solid days
of presentations, talks and conversations which may well have turned to mental
minestrone otherwise.
Presentations I found particularly inspiring or interesting included:Patsy Cameron’s welcome to country wherein she took the time to evoke
Launceston’s layers of landscape and changing patterns of human occupation it’s
known as she welcomed us to it.
Professor Andrea Witcomb on evolving, (more) effective ways to present
Australia’s ‘difficult’ history in the context of a spiritual connection to country as
exemplified by the Melbourne Museum’s immersive, dynamic “First Peoples”
exhibition at the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre; on the way our history of
‘contact’ is in fact better seen as a history of ‘impacts’ (ultimately affecting all
parties).
Ray Arnold on LARQ - a poetic telling of his own, Queenstown’s, and his art
space’s intersecting histories within that that very particular landscape.
Rebecca Jones reflecting on perceived strengths and weaknesses of the
community museums of southern NSW, considering why they are or are not vital
elements of their various communities (whose history do they tell? Are they
merely stuff in aspic/naphthalene?..)
Maryanne Littlejohn (Sovereign Hill) giving an excellent overview of the
national history curriculum and its relevance/applicability to museums &
historical associations as well as detailing a number of online resources.
Tony Grybowski (Australia Council) cited encouraging figures: 89% of surveyed
Australians believe the ‘arts’ are an important part of education, 85% believe the
‘arts’ should be publicly funded, only 5% engage neither as maker of nor
audience for the ‘arts’ (48% identifying as makers).
Professor Libby Robin (ANU) on ‘the great acceleration’ since 1950 in human
technologies and the vertiginous excitement in contemplating our rapidly
changing future; the Anthropocene and the role of museums in not only
curating/collecting the stories of our past/s that got us here but engaging with
the big questions about the implications of and options regarding where we’re
heading.
Jane Clark (MONA) providing an insider’s perspective; elegantly balanced by
Jane Stewart (TMAG) on the ‘orderly world’ of that august state institution as
contrasted with ‘the disorderly world of collectors’ as exemplified by MONA.
Meredith Walker on asserting (and where necessary subverting) the histories
of dispossession and atrocity through appropriate interpretive signage and
acknowledgement within landscapes/country as well as the role of museums as
brokers, interpreters and advocates.
Viewing the TLC’s The Skullbone Experiment exhibition @QVMAG then having
TLC CEO Jane Hutchinson background the project (following which I did a bit of
further background internet research and watched a couple of the documented
school expeditions to Skullbone Plains www.skullbone.expeditionclass.com for
another, further enriching layer of engagement with and documentation of
human interactions with a particular site).
It was also great to be able to attend the opening of the 21 Objects-21 Stories
exhibition @QVMAG (the Furneaux Museum being 1 of the 21 contributing
Tasmanian museums/collections – out of a total of 140 public sector community
museums/collections in the state).