Friends program

Join our guides Ernest and Catherine, wearing period costumes, as they share the history of Acton Peninsula on a one-hour walking tour. This guided tour will be followed by refreshments in our new Friends Lounge.

Cost: $12, $8 Friends (includes refreshments)
Friends Lounge and Museum surrounds

We recommend you wear comfortable shoes on this outdoor tour. Our tours are conducted at an easy pace, however participants must be fit to walk and stand for an hour. If you have any special needs please advise us at the time of booking. The tour may be cancelled in the event of severe weather and refunds or transfers will be made available.

The Museum continues its art workshops for adults with a disability. These regular workshops explore the exhibitions and themes in the Museum with art and creative crafts and are facilitated by artist Ali Aedy. 

Stamping on yourself

Look at stamps, banknotes and coins from 1913 and make your own personal stamps using rubber, lino and ink.

Cost: Adults (16 years and over) $10, $5 Friends
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021 (business hours)
Meet at the Information Desk

If you are deaf, hearing or speech impaired you can call the Museum through the National Relay Service: TTY 1800 555 677; Speak and Listen 1800 555 727; Internet relay and please request 1800 026 132.

View more information about our access programs

Our worldview denies the most basic feature of animal existence on planet earth – that we are food and that through death we nourish others …

Val Plumwood, 2007

In 1985 the eminent Australian environmental philosopher Val Plumwood was almost killed by a saltwater crocodile as she canoed along the East Alligator River in Kakadu National Park. The horrific incident inspired Plumwood to explore ideas about human death in an ecological context.

The National Museum of Australia, which recently acquired the canoe in which Plumwood was attacked, invites you to discover her extraordinary story and legacy. For one night only, see the canoe and join ABC broadcaster Gregg Borschmann in conversation with anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose, editor Lorraine Shannon, curator George Main and crocodile expert Grahame Webb talking about Plumwood’s work and how it helps us understand our – and the crocodile’s – place in the world. The event will be recorded as part of ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas program and will conclude with the launch of The Eye of the Crocodile, a posthumous publication of Plumwood’s essays.

Free
Bookings essential: bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021
Visions Theatre

Image: Portrait of Val Plumwood, 1997. Photo: Terry Milligan.

Val Plumwood canoe collection highlight

Friends program

Australia in 1913 was a young nation, barely 12 years old and full of energy and ambition to build a glorious future. The inauguration of the new Federal Capital in March that year was celebrated as the creation of an ideal city for the ideal society Australia intended to be. Join senior curator Michelle Hetherington for an exclusive look at the objects borrowed from fellow institutions in Canberra. The exhibition features stunning artworks and ordinary objects from the period. Immerse yourself in the music, photographs and newsreel footage of Australian life as it was 100 years ago.

Cost: $20 Friends around the Lake (includes refreshments)
Visions Theatre and Main Hall

Join members of our curatorial, conservation and registration teams as they delve into the importance of photographs, how we look after photographs in our collection and how best to manage, store and protect your digital and printed photographs at home.

Focusing on objects from our Glorious Days exhibition, programs in the ‘Door to store’ series highlight how to care for a collection – whether it’s our national collection or your private one at home.

Free
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021 (business hours)
Visions Theatre

BOOKED OUT

Come and be a star of the silver screen as we make a silent film inspired by our Glorious Days exhibition. Suitable for children aged 8–14.

Cost: $40, $20 Friends
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021 (business hours)
Meet at the Information Desk

Conversation with the 'Complete' desert archaeologist Mike Smith

Friends program

Dr Mike Smith has kindly offered to speak about his brilliant career and writing his latest book The Archaeology of Australia’s Deserts. Please join the Canberra Archaeological Society and the Friends of the National Museum of Australia for a relaxed afternoon listening to Mike and asking him those questions you were too shy to ask in front of a big audience. Mike is an entrancing speaker, full of anecdotes, and a meticulous archaeologist. Early in his career he did a study at Googong Dam which stands as a good benchmark for that area.

Gold Coin Donation (includes refreshments)
Friends Lounge

Join our guides, Ernest and Catherine, wearing period costumes, as they share the history of Acton Peninsula on a one-hour walking tour. 

Cost: Adults $10, Concession $8 
Numbers per tour are limited.
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or telephone (02) 6208 5021.
Group bookings can be made by arrangement. Please telephone (02) 6208 5021 to discuss your requirements.

Tour information

We recommend you wear comfortable shoes on this outdoor tour. Our tours are conducted at an easy pace, however participants must be fit to walk and stand for an hour. If you have any special needs please advise us at the time of booking. The tour may be cancelled in the event of severe weather and refunds or transfers will be made available.

See the Australian premiere of Gustav Mahler's 9th Symphony, arranged for large ensemble by Klaus Simon and conducted by Benjamin Northey.

Tickets: $50, $45 concession and Friends
Bookings are essential on the Canberra Ticketing website or (02) 6275 2700
The Hall

Friends program

Prominent women talk about their lives, work and passions. This month we welcome Marilyn Chalkley, former journalist and co-owner of Dream Cuisine patisserie.

Cost: $10, $5 Friends (includes refreshments)
Bookings essential by email friends@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5048 (business hours)
Friends Lounge

We continue our 'Music at the Museum' workshops for adults with a disability (16 years and over) with music therapist Julie Wright.

Come and join in the fun and explore our exhibitions through music.

For adults (16 years and over)
Free
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021 (business hours)
Meet at the Information Desk

If you are deaf, hearing or speech impaired you can call the Museum through the National Relay Service: TTY 1800 555 677; Speak and Listen 1800 555 727; Internet relay and please request 1800 026 132.

View more information about our access programs

Friends program

Friends of the National Museum and The National Trust invite you to join us for a fascinating look into the history of Acton from prehistoric to modern times. As well as an early gathering place for corroborees, Acton can boast the hosting of a courthouse, parsonage, piggery, sheep stud, administrative centre, hospital and now the National Museum and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. In an illustrated lecture, well-known Canberra historian and writer Allen Mawer will take us through the history of Acton, its central role on the development of Canberra, and its surviving built environment from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Cost: $10, $5 Friends (includes refreshments)
Friends Lounge

Friends program

Join curator Anthea Gunn on a special tour of the Glorious Days exhibition, with a focus on photography in 1913.

Cost: $12, $8 Friends (includes refreshments and exhibition entry)
Bookings essential by email friends@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5048 (business hours)
Friends Lounge and galleries 

Join us for hands-on art and craft activities inspired by the Museum’s collections and exhibitions. Suitable for preschool-aged children and their carers.

Cost: $12, $6 Friends
Limited numbers
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021 (business hours)
The Hall

Find out what was happening in Australia 100 years ago in our Glorious Days lecture series.

Join environmental historian Professor Tom Griffiths, as he discusses 'Australians in Antarctica, 1913'.

Free
Bookings essential by email bookings@nma.gov.au or phone (02) 6208 5021 (business hours)
Visions Theatre