Gallery tour

Photo: George Serras.

The welcome space reflects the traditional protocol of welcoming a visitor to another person's country.

The key piece in the Welcome Space is a multimedia dance installation. The dances are based on David Malangi's 1965 sculpture Snake, and on children's drawings which are part of the Museum's collection. A pressure-sensitive floor allows visitors to interact with the projection of Aboriginal dancers and images.

Photo: George Serras.

The Seven Sisters constellation lighting installation in the ceiling of the gallery's Welcome Space is evocative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cosmologies, creation stories, and guides to navigation present in the night sky. The associated display case features wooden containers with pokerwork designs depicting the Seven Sisters story.

Photo: George Serras.

The Ngambri and Ngunnawal people have lived in the Canberra region for thousands of years. They people have survived the enormous changes brought about by European settlement. This display acknowledges the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as traditional owners of the region through the display of a variety of stone tools.

Photo: George Serras.

Australian Aboriginal people have had a continuous relationship with the land over tens of thousands of years. They have adapted to many environmental changes through this time. These changes are often reflected in the landscape, art, and oral traditions. The  First Australians gallery shows that Aboriginal cultures have instigated many 'world firsts'. These include some of the earliest known evidence of art and some of the oldest ground-edged axes in the world. The ground-edge axe on display was made between 19,000 to 23,000 years ago. These ground-edge axe types are the oldest axes of this kind in the world. The craftsman sharpened the stone by grinding it against a harder stone. It was then fixed into a handle, for easier use.

Photo: George Serras.

Aboriginal people have been mining ochre at the Karrku ochre mine in the Campbell Ranges west of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, for at least 30,000 years. Ochre from Karrku is still prized for its intense red colour.

Rock paintings and engravings found throughout central Australia feature circles and concentric circles, animal tracks, crescents, dots and straight-line designs. Today Aboriginal artists use many of the same symbols. In the central Australia display, visitors can view designs that were pecked into the rock with a stone.

Photo: Lannon Harley.

This display features some of the Museum's collection of boomerangs from south-east Australia. The oldest known boomerangs in the world were found at Wyrie Swamp, near Millicent in South Australia. They are 10,000 years old. Boomerangs were used over much of mainland Australia for hunting, fishing, sport and to keep time for songs. Aboriginal craftspeople continue to make boomerangs in many parts of Australia.