Gallery tour

Photo: George Serras.

The diversity of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is reflected in the great variety of fibre containers produced throughout the country. Today, many Indigenous craftspeople combine traditional and contemporary techniques, forms and designs in their work.

Photo: George Serras.

For many generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have obtained a bountiful harvest from Australia's aquatic environments. Animals like fish, turtles and dugongs are hunted and shellfish and other invertebrates gathered. Some animals are hunted seasonally. A wide range of tools are used to harvest aquatic animals, such as woven traps, stone traps, lines and hooks, spears, harpoons, boomerangs and clubs. This display features some of those fishing technologies.

Photo: George Serras.

For at least 200 years, and up until the early 1900s, fishermen from Macassar (now part of Indonesia) regularly visited the northern Australian coastline. They travelled in search of trepang (sea cucumber), a highly sought-after delicacy. The Macassans employed Yolngu people from north-east Arnhem Land to work on boats, and to boil and dry the trepang. The influence of the Macassans on Yolngu culture is shown in this display.

Curator Alison Mercieca detailed her research on the Macassan trepang industry in a presentation at the National Museum on 9 July 2008.

 Listen to 'From Makassar to Marege' to the Museum: Trepang processing industry in Arnhem Land'

Photo: Gerald Preiss.

This display features a fishtrap made by Anbarra elder Frank Gurrmanamana and an audiovisual piece showing the making of the fishtrap. The fishtrap is woven from the rainforest vine mirlal. The Anbarra are a group of coastal people whose traditional lands are on the northern coast of Australia in central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Photo: George Serras.

We're Here is named after a poem by Tasmanian Aboriginal elder Phyllis Pitchford. The Tasmanian display presents the vibrancy of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture through a collection of contemporary works.

On show are traditional crafts with a modern take, including kelp armour crafted by Vicki West as a comment on Aboriginal resilience and the traditional use of kelp for carrying water. Kangaroo skin drums, paintings, shell necklaces and poetry also reinforce the message that Tasmanian Aboriginal culture is ongoing.

Photo: George Serras.

This display draws on the Museum's rich holdings of material from Ernabella. Ernabella Arts is located in Pukatja, 440 kilometres southest of Alice Springs, just below the Northern Territory border in South Australia. It is one of Australia's longest continuously running Aboriginal arts organisations.

Read more about the Ernabella Arts collection