2010 Macmillan Brown Lecture Series
As part of the month long series of events to celebrate the bequest of John Macmillan
Brown, Associate Professor Roger Fyfe (Canterbury Museum Senior Curator of
Anthropology) will deliver the following series of lectures on the topic of The World
Under One Roof – who owns the past ?
Lecture 1: Temples to Science
Thursday 4 November 7pm,
Carter Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery
Museums continue to be a burgeoning worldwide phenomenon. They come in a myriad of
sizes and guises. Today it seems no community is complete without one or more ! But how
many of those amongst us who flock to museums in ever increasing numbers, both at home
and abroad, stop to ask ourselves ‘where did this peculiar notion called a museum come
from’?
Many people will be surprised to find that the modern museum has its genesis in some
rather inspired eighteenth century intellectual vision and values.
Lecture 2:
Museums in the Colonies
Thursday 18 November, 7pm
Carter Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery
It is frequently pointed out by historians that the great natural history and encyclopaedic
museums of Europe arose in tandem with the establishment of colonial empires. When
viewed in this light, efforts to organise, classify and display the material culture of distant
peoples apparently conforms to global colonialist ideologies!
So what happened when newly arrived colonial communities in the so called ‘source
countries’ (eg North America, Australia, New Zealand) set about establishing their own
museums? Were the inspired ideals of European museums diluted or compromised? A look
at the foundation years of Canterbury Museum might help give some answers.
Lecture 3:
Indigenous Heritage and Museums Today
Thursday 2 December, 7pm
Carter Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery
Encyclopaedic museums were institutions born of ‘Enlightenment” values and committed to
a belief that through the study of things from all over the world, truth would emerge. A
corollary belief was that museums would broaden cultural horizons and foster greater
understanding of cultural diversity.
For the last quarter-century however, emerging social forces have called these principles
into question. A worldwide rise in ethnic assertion and ever intensifying debates surrounding
cultural property issues have converged on museums – even raising questions over
legitimacy and public mission.