National Museum of Australia

After experiencing a severe thunderstorm the previous evening, which included hailstones the size of marbles, we woke up on Wednesday morning to brilliant sunshine.    But it did not last, the rain came and it poured all day.    Luckily we were inside the National Museum Australia building.

And what a building!  It is based on the Boolean Knot, developed by George Boole.    

 And the windows are shaped as eucalyptus leaves.

 On the outside there is a long curved tail, which looks like a scorpion’s tail.    It is in fact a line connecting Uluru to the Central Government.    

In the centre of the building there is a Garden of Australian Dreams, which is a garden made of maps and symbols.   Every step you take in the garden equates to 100 kms across the continent.    This garden is visible from the many windows in the building.

The displays involve much recounting of people’s stories, no doubt this concept of story telling is related to Aboriginal story telling which is how they passed on their history.    So there are stories of people making journeys, arriving and leaving Australia, and people responding and adapting to the land over time.    It is very effective.  And certainly covers the land, the people and the Nation, all through Australian eyes and voices.

 The Irish Dancing Costume has stories relating to two Australian women who now live in Dubai, one who teaches Irish Dancing and another who makes costumes.

The dress below was worn by Miss Australia 1961, Tania Verstak.  The dress was used as a National Dress in the Miss World ompetition.    Tania Verstak was born in China of Russian parents.  She migrated with her parents to Australia in 1951.  

 A windmill from a station in outback Australia.

 A third of the museum focuses on the Torres Islanders and the Indigenous people of Australia.    Again the focus is on story telling, as well as displays of art and artifacts.  

Two women have taken up an old skill of making blankets out of possum skins.   Of course now they use imported possum skins from NZ where possums are a pest.    The display shows a traditional possum skin rug, plus modern rugs.  

The pictures above and below show displays of modern Aboriginal art.

The banner below focuses on the massacre at Coniston in 1928.   60 men, women and children were killed as a reprisal because a white dingo hunter had been killed by an Aboriginal man.   This man was never caught.    

 There is also a very thought provoking part of the museum which focuses on Kevin Rudd's 2008 speech, when he apologised to the Aboriginal people of Australia.    Added to this section of the museum there is a temporary display titled ‘No More Tears for Forgotten Australians’.   All very chilling!

It really brought home the fact that thousands and thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and put into homes.   They were mostly given no warmth or love in the children's homes where they were placed.  Often there were hundreds of children in the home, with only a few adults to look after them.   They were often abused, made to do forced labour, and it seems were used as guinea pigs in vaccination programmes.    Child migrants during the 1950s and 1960s were also often placed in the same homes and were often mistreated.   Australia has a past with a very poor humanitarian record!