5 minute read
A MMAPSS milestone
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25 years of supporting Australia’s maritime heritage
Criss-crossing the country, all along our coastlines, rivers and inland waterways and around our islands, precious stories are being told about Australia, Australians and their relationship with the sea. Sharon Babbage celebrates the telling of these stories, the organisations that tell them, and their relationship to the museum.
THE STORIES AND OBJECTS that are held and cared for by cultural institutions, historical societies and community groups around the country are known as the National Distributed Collection. This collection helps us as a nation understand the role of the oceans, seas and rivers in shaping our lives, and one mission of the Australian National Maritime Museum is to support, explore, develop, promote and conserve it. One long-running and concrete way in which this aim has been realised is through the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS), an annual grants and internships program funded by the Australian Government through the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.
01 The Australian National Maritime Museum holds a watercolour ship portrait of the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company’s steamship Kiama, c 1861, by Frederick Garling. ANMM Collection 00003698
02 Gary Tonkin, scrimshaw artist. Image Albany’s Historic Whaling Station
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For 25 years, through MMAPSS, the museum has supported and encouraged cultural institutions around the country to care for, conserve and display unique local maritime items of historical and national significance for today’s audiences and future generations. Grants of up to $15,000 each and in-kind (non-cash) support are available for projects in the areas of collection management, conservation, presentation, museological training and the development of education or public programs that make Australia’s maritime heritage more accessible to audiences. Internships of up to $3,000 each are also available for staff and volunteers. Since 1995, MMAPSS has given more than $1.95 million in support of over 480 projects to organisations around the nation. The internship program, which began in 2000, has offered more than 60 internships.
The 2020–2021 funding awards Funding worth $125,000 was available for the current round of grants. We received a total of 44 project applications requesting more than $480,000 in funding, and grants and in-kind support were awarded to 26 projects. There were also two internship applications, both of which were successful. The museum congratulates the successful applicants and organisations and wishes them the best of luck in seeing their projects through. Selected projects are outlined below.
Bushfire-affected organisations Areas affected by the bushfires over the summer of 2019–20 were given special priority in the grants process this year. As described on our webpage ‘Remembering the fires from the water’s edge’, the museum felt a responsibility to reach out to affected coastal communities and maritime areas. Any organisation from such an area, regardless of whether its project concerned bushfire-related stories or not, was given extra weighting by the MMAPSS selection committee. Four successful organisations were bushfire affected; one project, by the Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society, aims to benefit eight such organisations along the New South Wales south coast.
01 ISNC Shipping Ledgers, ship John Penn, entry from 1871. Image Clyde River and Batemans Bay Historical Society Collection 02 Mary Seymour (1833–1913), the first female child born on Kangaroo Island, was the daughter of Nathaniel Thomas and Betty, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman brought to Kangaroo Island in the early 1800s. She is pictured in about 1905. Image courtesy Kangaroo Island Pioneers Association
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Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society Inc, NSW The society was awarded $6,525 for its project ‘Delivering the goods,’ to develop a public program to make the maritime heritage of the New South Wales south coast more accessible. The program ensures primary source content is available worldwide through thematic analysis and dissemination via eHive, and establishes an innovative online ‘community’ of South Coast maritime heritage. The society’s pivotal maritime focus commenced with Cook250 and will continue through to 2022, which marks the 200th anniversary of Lieutenant Robert Johnston’s exploration of the Clyde. This project builds on the conservation and digitisation of shipping ledgers of the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company (ISNC) from the mid 1860s to early 1880s, which show the ISNC’s role in the growth of coastal industries and commerce. The Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society will coordinate with museums and other locally held collections to engage in allied research and build an eHive online gallery of South Coast maritime heritage. MMAPSS funding is awarded for professional fees for a historian and IT consultancy. Additional research and extensive data entry are provided by the Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society’s skilled volunteers. Since 1995, MMAPSS has given more than $1.95 million in support of over 480 projects to organisations around the nation
Kangaroo Island Pioneers Association Inc, SA The association was awarded $3,200 for replacement of an interpretive sign at the Contemplation Seat Memorial at Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island. The site was developed as a place of reflection and a memorial to the Aboriginal women brought to Kangaroo Island by seamen in the early 19th century. It incorporates a handcrafted wooden seat atop a hill overlooking Hog Bay, Penneshaw, and is approached via concrete steps etched with the names of these women. The interpretive sign details the contribution these women made to the early settlement of Kangaroo Island.
Albany’s Historic Whaling Station, WA The station was awarded $4,500 for its project ‘The art of scrimshaw: A whaler’s pastime’. This follows on from the 2019–20 MMAPSS project ‘Whaler’s tales: Oral histories of Albany’s past whaling community’ and uses content from one of the interviewees, Gary Tonkin. Tonkin’s career as a meat inspector at the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company (CBWC) near Albany was followed by his transition to a world-renowned scrimshaw artist.
After the end of commercial whaling in Australia, the Cheynes Beach Whaling company was closed. The site is now a whaling museum known as Albany’s Historic Whaling Station. ‘The art of scrimshaw’ will use artefacts from the museum’s existing scrimshaw collection to showcase the maritime significance of scrimshaw craft, with the support of Tonkin’s in-depth scrimshaw knowledge. Albany’s Historic Whaling Station aims to enrich this scrimshaw exhibition and to enhance engagement by adding interpretive panels and visual presentations. Funding is awarded for design elements of this project.
The full list of 2020–2021 winners can be found at sea.museum/2020-grants
Sharon Babbage is Project Coordinator – Regional Programs and administers the MMAPSS scheme on behalf of the museum.
