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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.

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.

The presence of objects from Tahiti in museums across the world is examined by historian Jenny Newell. She discusses the representations of Tahiti over the years and suggests how museums might renew Tahitian exhibitions and collections.

Environmental historian Libby Robin talks about the uses of environmental history in museums in Australia and New Zealand as a bridge between the traditions of natural and social history.

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.

Four National Museum of Australia curators provide examples of material culture research into a boomerang, tools used by Hmong gardeners, a dress worn at the opening of Parliament House in 1927 and objects from the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme.

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.

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.