24 Museums Galleries Australia Magazine – Vol. 27(1) – Summer 2018
Unparalleled resources for reviewing Aboriginal and colonial histories in Hobart
Reconsidering Australia’s history — The National Picture: The art of Tasmania's Black War
above:
Jonathan Holmes.
right:
Installation view of Benjamin Duterrau's The Conciliation [1840, oil on canvas, 119 x 168 cm, TMAG] and 10 Plaster Bas-Reliefs: Timmy; Attention; Trucanini, wife of Woureddy; Anger; Surprise; Mannalargenna, the chief; The manner of straightening a spear; Woureddy, a native of Bruny Island; Incredulity; Suspicion [1835, painted plaster, nine of which are approx 35 x 27 cm and Timmy is 55 x 39.6, TMAG]. Photo: courtesy of Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Jonathan Holmes
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Greg Lehman, ‘The Conciliation: A Founding Document’, June 2013, (online, accessed 30.10.2018) <https:// tawatja.com/2013/06/01/ the-conciliation-afounding-document/>. Lehman 2013. Lehman 2013. The National Picture: The art of Tasmania's Black War, curated by Tim Bonyhady and Greg Lehman, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2018.
n June 2013, Greg Lehman — co-curator with Tim Bonyhady of the compelling recent exhibition, The National Picture: The art of Tasmania's Black War* — published The Conciliation: A Founding Document.[1] In this article Lehman notes that the Museum of Australian Democracy (in Old Parliament House, Canberra) recognises a painting titled The Conciliation (1840) by the colonial artist, Benjamin Duterrau (1768-1851), as the 'first historical epic painting in the Australian Colonies’, and MOAD goes on to say that 'it now marks the long path towards legal acknowledgement of Tasmanians of Indigenous descent’.[2] Lehman argues that despite the Museum recognising the painting as a founding document in Australia's history, there has been very little in-depth research into its meaning. As he explains: Such is the poor level of awareness by most Australians of Aboriginal history, that few will be able to proceed very far beyond a basic reading of the picture’s denotive content. The group of figures are mostly Aboriginal.
One man is shaking hands with another. Some of the figures are gesturing toward this interaction. Others watch or are preoccupied. There are dogs and a kangaroo, as well as several spears. No buildings are in sight. It is probably daytime. For most viewers, progressing an interpretation of the painting as an historical document will be difficult beyond this reading.[3] When the impressively researched exhibition opened this year during Canberra’s winter, The National Picture drew together intensive collaboration between two museums and two scholars across considerable distance. The resulting achievement has produced both a remarkable exhibition and an outstanding publication of enduring value. First shown at the NGA but split across two floors (May– July); later more tightly configured in three adjacent galleries at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart (August–November), the exhibition’s importance in Tasmania has entailed a further showing in the north of the state (Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, where the tour will end on 17 February 2019).
