report - Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST
OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Report by -
Dr Philip Jones -
2001 Churchill Fellow
‘To study Aboriginal collections in European museums’
1
INDEX
Introduction
…………………………………………………………..…
3
Executive Summary …………………………………………..……………
4
Programme…………………………………………………...…………….
5
Modus Operandi……………………………………………….…....
5
Exhibitions and Museology…………………………………….…...
6
Museums Visited: A Brief Summary of Results………………………. …
8
Neprajzi Museum, Budapest…………………………………..…….
8
Panstowe Museum, Warsaw…………………………………..…….
9
Musée de l’Homme, Musée des Arts Africain et Océanique…….…
10
Mueseum of Ethnography, Dresden…………………………...……
11
Museum of Cultures, Basel……………………………………… …
12
Pigorini Museum, Rome…………………………………………….
13
Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh…………………………………
14
Royal Albert Museum, Exeter……………………………………….
15
Royal Africa Museum, Tervuren, Brussels………………………….
16
Conclusions and Recommendations………………………………………..
17
‘Aboriginal Australia’ in European collections………………………
17
A ‘distributed collection’…………………………………………….
18
Museum practice……………………………………………………..
18
2
INTRODUCTION
This Fellowship involved a detailed survey of collections of Aboriginal material culture dating
from the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries, held in nine European museums. My objective
was to make a substantial contribution to knowledge about this crucial element of Australia’s
cultural heritage, and to understand something of the way in which Aboriginal collections are
managed and regarded within Europe.
During my Fellowship I visited eleven museums and undertook an intensive survey of Aboriginal
collections at nine of these. I interviewed the responsible curators and discussed the Aboriginal
collections within the broader context of European museology.
The main body of my work entailed a detailed survey of these little-known Aboriginal
collections. I examined and compiled a digital photographic database of more than 1,800
artefacts. My Fellowship began during the week of June 4, in Budapest, Hungary, and ended in
Brussels on 30 August, 2001. The Fellowship was preceded by a week’s visit to Valencia in
Spain, for the opening of an exhibition of archival photographs from the South Australian
Museum, which I had curated. Following the completion of the Fellowship I remained in Europe
to attend the opening of another South Australian Museum exhibition, ‘Boomerang’, in Warsaw,
Poland on 20th September.
This intensive but highly rewarding Fellowship programme would not have been achievable
without the support of the following individuals at the museums which I visited from June to
August.
Dr Wilhelm Gabor, Curator, Asian Collections, Neprajzi Ethnographic Museum, Budapest,
Hungary (4-9 June)
Robert Andrej Dul, Curator, Oceania Collections, Panstwowe Ethnographic Museum , Warsaw,
Poland (11-17 June)
Christian Coiffier, Curator, Oceania Collections, Musée de l’Homme, Paris (25-29 June)
Dr Françoise Cousin, Curator, Technology Collections, Musée de l’Homme, Paris (25-29 June)
Dr Yves le Fur, Curator, Oceania Collections, Musée de l’Arts Africain et Océanique, Paris (2529 June)
Beatrice Voirol, Assistant Curator, Oceania Collections, Museum of Ethnography, Dresden,
Germany (2 – 6 July)
Dr Christian Kauffmann, Curator, Oceania Collections, Museum of Cultures, Basel,
Switzerland (9-11 July)
Dr Marco Biscioni, Curator, Oceania Collections, Pigorini Ethnographic Museum, Rome, Italy
(16-23 July)
Danielle Serini, Curator, Oceania Collections, Vatican Ethnographic Museum, Rome, Italy (26
July)
Chantal Knowles, Curator, Oceania Collections, Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland
(30 July – 3 August)
Dr Len Pole, Curator, Oceania Collections, Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, England (20 – 24
August)
Dr Gustaaf Verswijver, Head, Anthropology Department, Royal Africa Museum, Tervuren,
Belgium (27-30 August).
3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Dr Philip Jones, Senior Curator, Department of Anthropology, South Australian Museum,
Adelaide, S.A. 5000. Tel: (08) 82077325 Fax (08) 82077422
Email: (work) [email protected] (home) [email protected]
Project Description:
This Fellowship involved a detailed survey of little-known collections of Aboriginal material
culture dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries, held in nine European museums.
A total of 1800 objects were examined and recorded in detail, and are now being incorporated
within a computer database.
Project Highlights:
The main highlight of the project was my successful listing and description of 1800 Aboriginal
objects, in a form which will facilitate their future access by researchers and by Aboriginal
communities. Of the nine museums surveyed in detail, the collections in Rome and Dresden
perhaps contained the objects of greatest ethnographic interest, relating to regions in southwestern and south-eastern Australia for which few early records survive in Australian collections.
The project also gave me the opportunity to examine current museum practice and theory in
Europe. My discussions in Paris relating to the development of a new ethnographic museum there
were particularly useful.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the curators mentioned above, who adjusted their own busy
programmes to accommodate me, and whose kind cooperation has helped ensure that their
previously little-known collections join a broader circle of scholarship and investigation.
Project Results:
I now have a clearer picture of the composition and signficance of European collections of
Aboriginal material, and have developed an insight into the history of their formation.
These collections are of immense cultural significance to Australia, and once the full results of
my Fellowship investigations have been compiled, I will be recommending a project to fully
document the European and North American collections of Aboriginal material.
I am preparing a series of cd-roms containing the results of my survey, relating to each museum
visited, and will lodge copies of these with those museums, as well as with relevant Australian
museums and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in
Canberra.
Australian museum ethnology is at a critical stage of development, following the museumbuilding phase of the 1990s. My Fellowship has underlined the importance of strengthening the
profession through dialogue and action such as joint exhibitions and research projects based upon
these little-known collections which link Europe and Australia. If realised, such projects will
bring a new contemporary relevance to these historic collections.
4
PROGRAMME
My objective was to survey museums from a range of European countries, rather than
concentrating upon museums in single countries such as Britain or Germany which hold the bulk
of Aboriginal collections in Europe. There were three reasons for this approach:
- It enabled me to to obtain a broad view of Aboriginal collections in Europe as a continental
phenomenon arising from the period of colonialism and imperialism centred in Europe.
- to better observe various methods used in different European countries to store, describe,
conserve and display ethnographic material.
- to build up a picture of a European-wide network of those individual collectors who are
represented in several museums.
My primary concern was to inspect, handle, and if possible, photograph and describe as many
Aboriginal objects as I could, within the time allowed by the Fellowship. From the nine museums
surveyed I have prepared a detailed database of more than 1,800 individual objects, with an
accompanying file of 5,000 digital photographs. I estimate that this composite collection from ten
museums represents perhaps 5% of the total holdings of Aboriginal artefacts in more than 80
European museums, a ‘distributed collection’ of some 30,000 to 40,000 objects.
In sampling and documenting these Aboriginal collections I had two main aims:
- to build up a picture of the total European collection in terms of the main categories of
objects collected, regions of Aboriginal Australia represented, and the significance of this
material when measured against the historic collections preserved within Australia.
- To understand something of the network of collectors who originally obtained this material
and to trace the subsequent trajectories of their collections towards European museums.
A wider aim was to build a picture of how these histories might contribute towards a better
understanding of this crucial but largely unknown element of Australia’s cultural heritage.
Modus operandi
My approach in the case of each museum was firstly to obtain access to the collections through
the relevant curator before arrival, by correspondence. On arrival I met the curator and discussed
the general background to the collection and possible constraints affecting my work. The curator
usually introduced me to the documentation system relating to the collection (usually registers
and card indexes rather than computers, even though these systems were also in use), and made
me aware of any additional documentation such as historical correspondence and archival
photographs relating to the collection.
The main part of my work then began, from a work station in the collection store itself. I
established myself at a work table with my laptop computer, digital camera, measuring rule and
notebook.
In several museums I was given free access to the collections at this point, enabling me to work
through the objects at my own pace, category by category, artefact by artefact. In three museums,
where existing protocols constrained the curator from offering this level of access, I worked with
the curator or curatorial assistant who brought me the objects one by one, and returned them to
their storage positions.
5
I had selected particular museum collections on the basis of their predominant holdings of
nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Aboriginal artefacts, before the material culture
traditions were substantially altered through European contact. The focus of my research was the
suite of tools and weapons in daily use by Aboriginal people across the continent. Because of this
emphasis, two categories of artefacts were not closely examined in this survey: Aboriginal art
objects, and restricted, or secret-sacred material. Aboriginal art objects, such as those among the
large Karel Kupka collection in Basel, have generally received most attention from specialists,
and I felt justified in omitting these from my survey. I documented ceremonial and ritual objects
when these were located but did not do so in great detail, as these objects have also been explored
more fully by specialists. I was only able to document a small proportion of a third category of
objects – that of Aboriginal spears – for other reasons. In the first place, spears are extremely
difficult to photograph satisfactorily, and have also been difficult items for museums to store.
Thus the spear collections in Brussels and Basel were stored separately and were not available to
me, while those in Paris, Edinburgh, Rome, Exeter, and Dresden were relatively inaccessible. The
Warsaw, Budapest and Exeter collections contained fewer than ten examples each.
My approach involved the close examination, documentation, measurement and photography of
as many Aboriginal artefacts as possible within the available time. I entered my data into a
Filemaker Pro database onto a 10 gigabyte hard-drive in a Toshiba laptop computer, resulting in a
database of some 1,800 individual records of artefacts. Supporting this is a file of some 4,500
digital photographs of the artefacts and 2,000 additional photographs of supporting
documentation such as data-cards. These photographs were taken with a Canon G1 digital camera
and were later backed up onto cd-rom copies.
My method was to enter details of each object onto my database, comprising a brief description
of the object and its dimensions, together with its provenance details (collector and locality if
available), and notes on any particular features. More than 90% of the object types encountered
were known to me, and I was able to confirm, correct or add suggested details regarding
provenance to each museum’s own documentation.
Exhibitions and Museology
Most of the museums I visited had at least some Aboriginal material on display within their
exhibitions. I made notes on these aspects as well as broader observations on the style of the
larger ethnographic exhibitions which usually focused upon other cultures such as Africa and the
Pacific. The amount of detailed analysis required to complete my project in each museum
allowed only a cursory examination of these exhibitions.
I was able to discuss the present state of museum ethnography with some curators at length, both
in terms of the status and future of Australian ethnography within these institutions, and in terms
of the profession’s broader situation. It clearly emerged from these discussions and from my own
observations that museum ethnography is, despite budgetary restraints, an integral part of cultural
activity in Britain and Europe. In Britain, like Australia, museum ethnography tends to operate
within a natural history or social history museum context, while continental Europe supports a
much greater proportion of dedicated ethnographic museums, whose brief extends from former
colonial possessions to European folk culture itself.
Museum ethnography throughout Britain and Europe is still experiencing a period of intense selfexamination and external critique, arising from the post-colonial experience. The active
participation of indigenous people from former colonies in these debates is helping to change the
6
nature of research undertaken by these ethnographic museums and is influencing attitudes
towards collections and exhibitions.
Museologically, my most rewarding period was spent in Paris, where I was able to participate in a
seminar involving staff of the two existing ethnographic museums, concerning the impending
construction and opening (in the year 2004) of the Musée Quai Branly, which will take the place
of these museums, merging their functions. This initiative has become controversial, and calls
into question many of the past and present ethnographic practices relating to research, fieldwork,
collection, storage and display. These issues have direct relevance in the Australian situation,
where there is increasing debate about the role of museums in popular and academic culture.
7
MUSEUMS VISITED: A BRIEF SUMMARY OF RESULTS
Neprajzi Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Generous access and valuable insights into the collections provided by the Curator of Asian
collections, Wilhelm Gabor.
I was able to photograph and document more than 210 objects, representing 95% of the
Australian collection.
Features:
- Aboriginal artefacts collected by the Budapest psyschiatrist and anthropologist, Geza
Roheim, during his research expedition to Hermannsburg, Central Australia, 1929-31. Mainly
ceremonial and religious artefacts. The collection varies in important ways from material
acquired by the South Australian Museum during the same period; evidence that the
Hermannsburg schoolteacher, H.A. Heinrich, was central to both transactions.
-
Small but valuable collection of rare nineteenth-century Aboriginal artefacts collected during
the visit of the Austro-Hungarian frigate ‘Panther’ to Sydney and northern Australia. I was
able to identify the source of this collection as a Sydney dealer operating ca.1890-1910.
Ceremonial trumpet
Hermannsburg
Roheim 132164
Spearthrower
Arrernte people
Roheim 132145
Emu feather plume
Hermannsburg
Roheim 132171
Stone axe
Arrernte people
Roheim 132137
8
Shield
Jervis Bay, NSW
‘Panther’ 72138
Panstwowe Museum of Ethnography, Warsaw, Poland
Generous access and additional data supplied by the Curator of Oceania Collections, Robert
Andrej Dul.
I was able to photograph and document more than 230 objects, representing 98% of the
Australian collection.
Features:
- Collection of physical anthropologist Hermann Klaatsch, with particularly significant
collections from Broome, W.A. and Cooktown, Qld, acquired ca. 1905.
- Important collection of South Australian Aboriginal artefacts obtained by the Polish doctor
Jana Lukowicz during his residence in Australia (1890s-1920s), together with documentation
relating to this collection obtained from his grand-daughter during my subsequent visit to
Poland in September.
I was able to organise and participate in the opening (by the Australian Consul to Poland) of the
South Australian Museum’s Boomerang exhibition at the Panstowe Museum on September 21,
following the completion of my Fellowship work.
Reverse of shield
Broome, ca.1905
Klaatsch, 5255
String chest-band
Port Darwin, 1905
Klaatsch, 13315
Details of clubs
Gawler Ranges?
Lukowicz, 10626
9
Spearthrower peg
Cooktown, 1905
Klaatsch 5103
Bark basket
Broome, 1905
Klaatsch, 11476
Musée de l’Homme, Musée des Arts Africains et Océanique, Paris, France
Limited access was provided to this collection by the Curator of Oceania Collections, Christian
Coiffier, owing to the impending move of collections to a new museum.
Features:
- Series of outstanding shields, spearthrowers and clubs, contributed to the Paris Exhibition,
1878, by Australian colonial governments, particularly those of Victoria and New South Wales.
I was able to learn about the evolving plans for a new ethnographic museum in Paris, obtaining
perspectives from several of the curators involved, from the Musée de l’Homme and the Musée
des Arts Africains et Océanique. I also attended a full-day conference on this subject, in which
the controversial plans and new directions for museum ethnography based in the new Museum
Quai Branly were debated.
Detail of club,
Coastal N.S.W.,
Early 19th century
Kodj axe,
S.W. Western Aust
Early 19th century
Lil-lil club,
Western N.S.W.
1879 Exposition
10
Spearthrower,
Victoria
1878 Exposition
Detail of spearthrower
Victoria
1878 Exposition
Museum of Ethnography, Dresden, Germany
Generous access to the collection and accompanying documentation was provided by Beatrice
Voirol, Assistant Curator of Oceania Collections, and by Frau Preuss, Registrar.
I was able to photograph and document 188 objects, representing 90% of the Australian
collection.
Features:
- An outstanding and little known collection of nineteenth century Aboriginal artefacts
contributed by a range of collectors, including the German engineer Franz Reuleaux , the
photographer H. Krone and the soldier G. Teichmann.
- Series of shields, clubs, boomerangs and baskets collected by the pioneer botanist Ferdinand
von Mueller, from Victoria, 1870s.
- Series of artefacts obtained by the first missionaries at Mapoon and Aurukun on Cape York
Peninsula, ca. 1900 and by the Moravian missionary F.A. Hagenauer from Ramahyuk
mission in Victoria, 1870s.
- Data-cards illustrating 28 Aboriginal artefacts lost in the bombing of Dresden.
I was able to closely inspect the Dresden Museum’s latest ethnographic exhibition dealing with
Papua New Guinea, one of the outstanding examples of its type in Europe.
Shield,
Murray River, S.A..
G. Teichmann, 1914
34578
Rush basket,
Yarra Yarra, Vic.
Von Mueller, 1875
9467
Hair belt, pearl shells,
Kimberley, W.A.
E. Clement, 1925
35044
11
Ceremonial bark figure
Victoria, 1870s,
A. Haganauer
68262
Painted basket,
Van Diemens Gulf, N.T.
A Schneidel, 1902
14362
Museum of Cultures, Basel, Switzerland
Generous access to the collection and accompanying documentation was provided by Dr
Christian Kauffmann, Curator of the Oceania Collections.
I was able to photograph and document more than 160 objects, representing 80% of the
Australian collection.
Features:
- Large and well documented collection obtained by the British collector, E. Clement, from the
Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia, 1890s.
- Important collection of Melville Island and Arnhem Land material culture dating from 1931
(a period not well represented in Australian collections) obtained by a Basel museum
expedition, supplemented by similar material collected by the missionary Rev. T. Webb.
- Significant ceremonial items collected by the Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow from
Arrernte people of Central Australia, sent originally to the Frankfurt Museum, then
transferred (the Frankfurt collection subsequently destroyed in war).
The curator, Dr Kauffmann, is one of the pioneers of contemporary museological practice and
ethnographic research in Europe and we had a very fruitful discussion on these subjects.
Rainforest shield,
Johnston River, Qld
P.G. Black, pre-1908
Va1
Ceremonial waninga,
Arrernte people
Carl Strehlow, pre1913
Bark ‘tunga’ basket
Tiwi people,
Melville Is., NT.
Prof Handschin, 1931
12
Feather plume,
East Arnhem Land,
Rev. T. Webb,
1931
Spearthrower,
Port Hedland, W.A.
E. Clement, 1890s.
Pigorini Ethnographic Museum, Rome, Italy
Generous access to the collection and accompanying documentation was provided by Dr Marco
Biscioni, Curator of the Oceania Collections.
I was able to photograph and document 290 objects, representing 90% of the Australian
collection.
Features:
- The core of the collection rests in the much larger ethnographic collection gathered by the
Italian scientist and scholar Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, who travelled to Australia during 1865
and made numerous ethnographic contacts who subsequently supplied him with well
documented collections.
- The Giglioli collection includes important contributions from the New Norcia mission in
Western Australia, the Ramahyuk mission in Gippsland, Victoria, objects collected by
Ferdinand von Mueller, and even three objects collected by Ludwig Becker during the Burke
and Wills Expedition, previously unknown in Australia. I was able to arrange for these
objects to be lent to the National Library in Canberra for a forthcoming Burke and Wills
exhibition.
I had discussions relating to the future possibility of collaborative ventures involving exhibitions
and research.
While in Rome I also had the opportunity to visit the Vatican Museum of Ethnography, where I
inspected the Australian collection, containing objects from the New Norcia Mission in Western
Australia (also represented in the Pigorini Museum). The Curator, Danielle Serrini, provided me
with photocopies of documentation relating to particular artefacts.
Hafted stone knife & sheath,
Pine Creek, ca.1891
E.C. Stirling to Giglioli
2472
Detail of taap knife, with
china blade,
Albany, W.A. 1888
Th. Carmel to Giglioli
89g.
Hunting net, worn as belt
New Norcia, W.A.
Bishop Salvado, 1882
25060
13
Shell necklace,
Northern Queensland
William Finucane, 1897
59399
Hafted stone adze
Bulloo River, Qld,
Ludwig Becker, 1861
Burke & Wills Exped.
93g
Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland
Generous access to the collection and accompanying documentation was provided by Chantal
Knowles, Curator of the Oceania Collections.
I was able to photograph and document more than 300 objects, representing 90% of the
Australian collection.
Features:
- A large and important collection of early nineteenth-century objects from south-eastern and
south-western Australia, transferred from the University of Edinburgh in 1850.
- A large and well documented 1890s collection from the Kimberley and Pilbara regions,
obtained by the British collector, E. Clement (complementing that seen in Basel, for
example).
- A collection of Arrernte objects from Hermannsburg, gathered by H.J. Hillier, a collector
well represented in the South Australian Museum.
- Small collection of objects obtained during the 1894 Horn Scientific Expedition to Central
Australia. I have now been able to identify many of the objects collected during this trip,
distributed throughout museums in Australia and Britain.
I had useful discussions regarding the present state of museum ethnography in Britain.
Detail of carving on shield,
South-east Australia,
Dr Broom, pre-1850
Uc.658
Decorated boab nut,
Kimberley, W.A.
Capt. Sturrock, 1906
1935.692
Wooden bowl, fibre cord,
South-east Australia,
University coll., pre-1850
Uc 106
14
Painted bark belt,
Darwin region,
1964.448
Skirt of emu feathers,
South-east Aust,
Collector unknown
1911.173
Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, England
Generous access to the collection and accompanying documentation was provided by Dr Len
Pole, Curator of the Oceania Collections.
I was able to photograph and document 255 objects, representing 98% of the Australian
collection.
Features:
- An outstanding collection of artefacts from the Kimberley and Ashburton regions of Western
Australia, obtained by the private collector and ethnographer Col. L. Montague in 1912.
- A varied collection of pre-1860 Victorian artefacts, obtained by the pastoralist D. Lloyd
Jones.
- Pre-1920 collection of south-eastern Queensland artefacts obtained by Dr H.E. Bridgeman.
- Collection of pre-1890s south-eastern Australian weapons, obtained by W.R. Hayman and
R.S. Harris.
Detail of spearthrower,
Victoria, 1860s
D. Lloyd Jones
86/1920/52
Glass spearhead,
Kimberley, W.A.
Col. Montague,
ca.1900
Reverse of shield,
Qld, 1860s
Dr Bridgman
15
Spearthrower,
King Georges Sound,
W.A.
Dr Teschemaker, 1860s
E1137
Detail of club,
Southern Qld,
J. Muir
Royal Africa Museum, Tervuren, Brussels, Belgium
Generous access to the collection and accompanying documentation was provided by Dr Gustaaf
Verswijver, Head, Anthropology Department.
I was able to photograph and document 132 objects, representing 95% of the Australian
collection.
Features:
- Collection of 1860s weapons from south-eastern Queensland, obtained by Belgium’s ConsulGeneral in Australia, Monsieur Morhange.
- Important collection of nineteenth century artefacts gathered by the Brussels collector J.
Vander Straete, through sales in Europe and Australia.
- Pre-1870s collection of weaponry obtained in Australia by the Belgian collector Jourdan.
I had fruitful discusions regarding the present direction and future policy relating to museum
anthropology in Belgium, particularly relating to collaborative work with African peoples.
Pearl shell ornament,
Kimberley,
M. Dumaulin, 1949
79.1.1534
Detail of shield, string mend,
Victoria, mid-19th cent.
M. Jourdan,
67.63.1430
Reverse of shield,
Showing fibre padding,
Southern Qld,
M. Mourhange, 1860s
67.63.1431
16
Gypsum widow’s cap,
Murray River,
A.S. Kenyon
(Vander Straete)
70.3.4
Detail of spearthrower peg,
Pilbara region, W.A.,
M. Jourdan,
67.63.2725
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Aboriginal Australia in European collections
The circumstances of colonialism have resulted in massive ethnographic collections in European
museums, originating from indigenous peoples of Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, and Asia. It
is a striking fact that while the collections from those regions have generally received concerted
attention from European curators, resulting in well-ordered collections, catalogues, exhibitions
and (more recently) collaborative research projects involving communities of origin, the
Aboriginal collections in Europe are generally poorly understood and remain relatively neglected.
The reason is that it has been the tendency in both British and European museums to regard
Aboriginal Australia as another Pacific island, so that the great diversity of Aboriginal cultures
across the country has been often overlooked, strengthening the stereotype of Aboriginal
Australia as homogeneous and primitive. This attitude expresses itself in European museum
exhibitions as well as in storage and cataloguing techniques. I found that although curators were
aware of the fact of Aborginal cultural, linguistic and material culture diversity, their own
specialisations lay elsewhere and they were unable to explore this theme. For that reason, my own
input in terms of supplementing their Aboriginal collection documentation was appreciated.
In general I found the Australian collections in European museums to be in a good state of
preservation. Curators placed a high value on the Aboriginal collections, even if this commitment
did not always translate into the material receiving priority in terms of exhibition or research.
A 'distributed collection'
My Fellowship enabled me to conceive of the Aboriginal collections in Europe not as a random
assortment of objects stored haphazardly in museum basements and attics, but as a 'distributed
collection', originating in similar circumstances during the colonial period. Similar forces and
factors were at work; similar motivations impelled traders, officials, missionaries, anthropologists
and antiquarians to gather ethnographic objects. Once in Europe, the Aboriginal collections were
also subject to the same forces which have seen other ethnographic material circulate from
collector to collector, and museum to museum.
Thus E. Clement's collections of north-western Australian Aboriginal material can be found in
more than a dozen European museums, and I encountered elements of it in Dresden, Basel, Rome
and Edinburgh. In Rome I located a photographic collection from a Victorian mission obtained by
the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller; the ethnographic objects obtained by him during that visit are
in Dresden. I identified several southern Western Australian objects, apparently de-accessioned
by the Western Australian Museum in about 1900, in Edinburgh, Exeter and Rome. I located the
previously untraced collections of the German physical anthropologist Hermann Klaatsch in
Warsaw, having been transferred from the Breslau Musum which had been part of Germany until
after the Second World War. Several collectors represented in the South Australian Museum, and
in other Australian museums, were also located in European museums, such as the missionaries
Carl Strehlow (Hermannsburg) and Nicholas Hey (Aurukun). Objects in the Hermannsburg
collection gathered by the Budapest psycho-analyst Geza Roheim, are inscribed with the same
writing as similar objects in the South Australian Museum collection, confirming that Roheim
was a recipient, not an original collector of these objects gathered in the first instance by a
17
schoolteacher at Hermannsburg. These are just a few of the particular conclusions arising from
my detailed examination of these European collections.
These conclusions point to the need to deepen and extend this research. Using an illustrated,
cross-linked database, it is possible to lay out and make sense of the full jig-saw of pieces which
remain in the historical and ethnographic record, both in Europe and in North America. By
treating these collections as distributed elements of a single collection, we will be in a position to
build a composite picture of the surviving record of Aboriginal material culture.
I strongly recommend that a funded project be instituted to extend the photographic and
documentary record of Aboriginal material culture to other European and North American
museums, with the aim of producing an integrated database. My project has demonstrated that it
is possible, using digital technology, to document and bring together the diverse European (and
North American) collections of Aboriginal material and to place these within their historical and
cultural context.
Museum Practice
My visits to European museums has reinforced one main conclusion relating to museum practice
in Europe and a potentially dangerous divergence from it which we faces us here in Australia.
Like us, European museums suffer many pressures regarding funding and government support. It
is clear though, that the practice of museum ethnography, and the responsibility for maintaining
and interpreting historic collections, is more firmly grounded in Europe. The programme of
exhibitions involving historic collections and their display is vibrant and often controversial.
Museum directors involve themselves directly in these issues, and politicians are aware of them.
Migrants arriving from former colonies are increasingly involved in debates relating to their
cultural representation within museums.
In the latest wave of Australian museum redevelopment during the late 1990s and early 2000s
exhibitions have understandably tended to stress contemporary Aboriginal issues. Historic
ethnographic collections have been enlisted mainly as as background rather than in their own
right. This style of exhibition has topical merit, but Australian museums are at risk of diminishing
public access to the rich cultural patrimony for which they are responsible. My experience of
European ethnographic museums has been that this complex issue is closer to the surface and is
considered more relevant to wider social debates. There a new emphasis on contemporary
indigenous issues and anthropological practice has not necessarily excluded or endangered the
concerns of traditional museology, and has not resulted in the marginalisation of historic
collections. A balance between tradiitonal concerns and contemporary issues has been maintained
by a profession which itself consists of experienced professional curators and a new generation
training to take their place.
In Australia the ‘critical mass’ of trained and experienced curators working with ethnographic
material is comparatively much smaller, operating at barely sustainable levels. A concerted effort
is required to document and analyise the cultural patrimony held in museum collections; it is not
enough to simply maintain them. This issue deserves greater recognition from museum directors
and boards who are setting future directions for Australian museums. Museum management and
senior curators should encourage and maintain research into the origins of their collections, and
ensure that the results are made available to the public and to Aboriginal communities. I see my
own Fellowship, and the conclusions resulting from it, as a contribution to that initiative.
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