Gallery tour

Photo: George Serras.

Dr Huggins, of the Bidjara / Birri-Gubba Juru peoples, is a historian, author and Aboriginal activist. She received the Australia Medal (AM) in 2001, for her work with reconciliation, social justice, literacy and women's issues. She was Commissioner for Queensland in the 'National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families' and a founding member of the Reconciliation Council of Australia. As the current Deputy Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland, she is continuing to pursue her passion for recording histories.

This display features an outfit worn by Jackie Huggins at three national events - Conference Reconciliation Convention, Melbourne (1997), Corroboree 2000 and Walk for Reconciliation, Sydney (2000) and Reconciliation Workshop, Canberra (2005).

Read more on the Jackie Huggins collection

Photo: George Serras.

The Link-Up display introduces the stories of three people taken from their families as young children. Link-Up reconnects Indigenous people with their culture and supports them in this vulnerable time. Link-Up New South Wales was founded in 1981 to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, removed as children, find their families and for families find their long-lost children.

Photo: National Museum of Australia.

This bark mission hut was constructed at the National Museum of Australia from materials brought from the Framlingham Mission near Warrnambool in south-west Victoria. Bill Edwards, who lived on the mission in a similar hut with his family during the 1920s and 1930s, supervised its construction by the people from the Framlingham community. The hut celebrates the memories of those who lived on the mission.

Photo: National Museum of Australia.

This display showcases some of the surfing gear made by Doolagahs Indigenous Designs Pty Ltd. Run by Shane Martin and Stephen Dixon, the business operates out of the Wreck Bay community in New South Wales. The Wreck Bay community was granted land rights over 403 hectares by the Commonwealth Government in 1987. Jervis Bay National Park was also transferred to the community in December 1995.

Photo: George Serras.

Wik Country is located on the western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. The main town centre is Aurukun. The Wik people have been fighting for a long time to have their rights recognised under Australian law. In a landmark case in 1996, the High Court of Australia ruled that pastoral leases did not necessarily extinguish native title to land.

This display features part of the Sea of Hands, first displayed outside the Australian Parliament House in Canberra in October 1997. The Sea of Hands was an initiative of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), a community organisation supporting the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Photo: George Serras.

In 1992 the High Court of Australia recognised that the people of Mer (Murray Island), one of the Torres Strait Islands, retained native title over their traditional lands. This landmark decision, known as the Mabo decision, was a turning point in Australia's legal history and enabled Indigenous people across Australia to seek legal recognition of customary links to their lands.

This display showcases a drum and drum sticks from the Mer region, together with an image of one of the three Torres Strait Islander men who fought the Mabo case, Father Dave Passi (2000).