Professionals and amateurs: different histories of collecting in the National Ethnographic collection

The National Ethnographic collection which now forms a major part of the National Museum of Australia's Indigenous collection was derived from four main sources. Comprised of about 20,000 organic items from Australia and the Pacific, the collection includes objects from the Australian Institute of Anatomy, the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

This paper focuses on the Aboriginal material in the collection and the series of professional and amateur collectors who influenced its composition over a period of more than 50 years.

David Kaus, National Museum of Australia

David Kaus is a Senior Curator in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program at the National Museum, with special responsibility for Repatriation. He has been with the Museum since 1984. David previously worked at the Australian Institute of Anatomy with the collections that were later transferred to the National Museum. David's research interests include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander material cultures and the history of collections of Indigenous material, especially those held by the National Museum.

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