Assess the curatorial processes at the National Museum of Australia in response to changing attitudes towards First Nations people in Australia BY ALICE DIXON, YEAR 12, 2021 Attitudes towards First Nations people in Australia have changed dramatically throughout history and the National Museum of Australia (NMA), Canberra, is currently the leading institution reflecting contemporary attitudes. The NMA was constructed to represent the culture and history of First Nations people, an element of history that was silenced until the emergence of post-colonial thought in the 1970s. Repatriation of human remains, and sacred objects of First Nations people is the first stage of the NMA’s curatorial process and is fundamental in showing society’s greater acceptance and empathy towards First Nations people. To further reflect today’s increasingly respectful attitude towards First Nations people, the NMA includes First Nations people in the process of curating the displays at the NMA and deciding what is and what is not to be included. However, although the NMA’s curatorial process is inherently well-meaning, it causes harsh complications within the communities of First Nations people. Public attitudes towards First Nations people in Australia have been fluid since Captain James Cook’s 1770 voyage on the Endeavour, Britain’s first contact with Australia, and particularly since the colonisation of Australia in 1788. During colonisation, the British colonisers developed prejudices about the First Nations people they encountered and formed a highly dehumanising attitude towards them. First Nations people were traditionally disregarded as humans and rather viewed as “flora and fauna”.1 This is demonstrated by Sydney Parkinson, the botanical artist on the Endeavour, who included drawings of First Nations people in his collection of illustrations dedicated to plants and animals in Australia.2 As Australia’s colonisation progressed, First Nations people were included in public history, albeit through the dehumanising
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of the dehumanising attitude toward First Nations people and as stated by Alice Procter, it demonstrated how “institutions were complicit in the dehumanisation of colonised and racialized communities”.4 The colonisation of Australia caused the development of the dehumanised attitude towards First Nations people that once included in public history, museums further amplified. Post-colonialism, a movement that began in the late 1970s and continues to develop today, has been a driving force in the movement away from the dehumanising view of First Nations people, and a transition to a more inclusive and culturally sensitive attitude. A dramatic increase in advocacy and activism by First Nations people challenged the views of British Australians and their voices started being heard. Post-colonial historians began constructing histories that offered a voice to population groups that were typically marginalised throughout history. According to Dr Michael Pickering, Senior Repatriation Advisor at the NMA, the 1990s was the first time museums demonstrated this sense of cultural sensitivity towards First Nations people, specifically with the redevelopment of the Melbourne Museum in 1997.5 The increased consideration for First Nations people and recognition of their culture provoked new expectations of public history institutions. First Nations communities have been regarded as having a “Treasure Box” which involves the “heritage and history of the community”, and that public history has an obligation to uphold the “protection and celebration of this Treasure Box”.6 This post-colonial expectation of public history is explicitly seen in the NMA that opened on 11 March 2001, which aimed to respectfully recognise and represent the “Treasure Box” of First Nations people. With post-colonial attitudes gaining immense popularity by the 1990s, the NMA adopted this and became more culturally sensitive towards First Nations people, in comparison to museums during Australia’s colonial period.
lens of the colonists. The First Nations people were treated
Despite the prevailing positive post-colonial attitude
as natural history, resulting in their human remains and
towards First Nations people at the inception of the
sacred objects being predominantly included in natural
NMA in 2001, large controversy surrounded the NMA’s
history museums.3 This acted as a physical representation
construction. The design and construction of the NMA Pymble Ladies’ College
