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Curator Jay Arthur on the creation of an exhibition on the struggle for Indigenous civil rights from 1920 to 1970 for the National Museum. She examines the notion of the ‘untold’ story and the challenge in assembling objects to tell this story.

Libby Robin looks at the use of dead animal collections in museums. She examines the scientific precedents behind these collections and how they are evolving from representations of science to components of social history and art studies.

National Museum curators and researchers discuss the development of the Museum’s introductory Circa rotating theatre. They examine its function and the use of new narratives to explore the National Historical Collection.

Peter Stanley welcomes guests to the 2009 National Museum Collections Symposium and key speaker Howard Morphy delivers ‘Perspectives on exhibiting collections,’ looking at the significance of artefacts and the stories they can tell.

Museum consultant Brian Crozier considers how material culture might be interpreted by museums for popular rather than academic audiences. He examines the cultural contributions that museums may make in the study of history.

Elspeth Wishart outlines the challenges facing the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in exhibiting important two-dimensional artefacts. She relates how the museum must balance the needs of visitors with the care of these artefacts, a letter and a flag.

Curator Liz Gillroy discusses the development of exhibitions at volunteer museums in northern New South Wales. She examines methodologies, education, training and support from the wider museum sector.

Researcher, author and Irishman Richard Reid and photographer Brendon Kelson examine the role of the Irish in Australia, to be featured in a forthcoming National Museum book, The Scattered Children of St Patrick.

Curator Kirsten Wehner outlines the themes of the new National Museum of Australia permanent gallery, Creating a Country. It will look broadly at the history of Australia since European colonisation of the continent in the late eighteenth century.

Guna Kinne and Carmelo Mirabelli’s stories feature in the National Museum’s Australian Journeys gallery. They join curator Karen Schamberger and broadcaster Sylvie Stern in a discussion about their lives in Europe and Australia.