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Archaeologist Mike Smith, curator Guy Hansen, historian Margaret Anderson and anthropologist Fred Myers reflect on the way their four different disciplines have approached physical evidence at the 2008 National Museum Collections Symposium.

Leading historians reflect on the ways in which collections can be used to interpret the past, and the issues and problems faced in doing so, in wrapping up the National Museum’s Collections 2008 symposium on material histories and objects as sources.

Curators outline examples of material culture research in Australian museums through objects including a wall-hanging crafted in a refugee camp, a military jacket, a wool collection, mining models and Australian Inland Mission Frontier Fête material.

Historian Mickey Dewar talks about her research into Mindil Beach, Darwin and the ways in which a cultural site intersects with a complex community history and memory, as part of her time with the National Museum’s Centre for Historical Research.

American writer and scholar William Fox discusses his research into how humans transform land into landscape, terrain into territory, and space into place, during his time as a Visiting Fellow at the National Museum’s Centre for Historical Research.

Curator Karen Schamberger tells the story of Guna Kinne’s Latvian national dress, assembled over a period of 20 years in Latvia, Germany and Australia, and now part of the National Museum’s National Historical Collection.

The great and controversial moments of 100 years of rugby league in Australia are discussed by sports historians Ian Heads, Sean Fagan and Geoff Armstrong and National Museum curator Guy Hansen.

The lives of a group of young sisters growing up on Baden farm at Grong Grong in country New South Wales around 1912 are revealed in a collection of journals, examined by curator Susannah Helman.

The relative merits of rugby union and rugby league football are debated by ABC Canberra sports reporter Tim Gavel, Brumbies media manager Nick Smith, Canberra Raiders media manager Ben Pollock and National Museum curator Guy Hansen.

A Dollond achromatic telescope used by Captain John Gore helps to tell remarkable stories about Captain James Cook’s Pacific voyages and the development of optics and navigational techniques, according to curator Michelle Hetherington.