Look out, aeroplane about!

The newly acquired F-111 in the restored WWII Bellman Hangar with wings and tail fitted. 

Image courtesy of Dr Richard Gates, Evans Head Living Museum.

On 5 August, the F-111 fighter bomber above traveled along the Pacific Highway from Ipswich, Queensland, on two super-wide trucks. It headed to the Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome–an exciting acquisition for them and one that arrived under police escort in the dead of night!

The F-111 will be reassembled by specialists at its new home at the heritage-listed aerodrome and opened to the public on Sunday 25th August. 

The fighter jets, known as ‘swing-wing’ bombers can fly up to two and a half times the speed of sound and were retired from the RAAF in December last year. Australia saw 37 years of service from the planes and for many they’re a modern-day icon. Always popular at air shows for their spectacular speed and sound display, this is your chance to get up-close and personal with one.

If you are traveling up north, why not stop in and have a look at what was once Australia’s fastest and most ferocious fighter?

We're building a website: Tell us a story!

With well over 100 museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural centres now registered on the website, M&G NSW is looking forward to telling your story in multiple ways.

Events and Exhibitions

Maybe you saw our long growing list of exhibitions and events when curiosity got the better of you and you clicked around the website. If you didn't, I'd suggest you log back on. It's impressive and it's hardly even begun. 

If you didn't see your museum or gallery events in the list then get in touch with us. We want an image, a date, a description and a link to your email or website. Then you can be part of our showcase of dynamic programming.

Articles

This week you would have noticed the story about the F-111 rushing through the night to the Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome. The new website is going to be chock full of stories like this presented in magazine style articles, with photos and videos.

Which means . . .

We want to hear from you. Did you open your doors as part of a community event? Tell us how it went. Got a new exhibition? Get in contact with us and we'll interview the artist, curator or visitors. We want to hear stories about your collections, people and communities. 

So get in touch. 

Meanwhile, who's on the website?

Golden Memories Millthorpe Museum already have a sophisticated web presence but took time to upload some very nice photos starting with this exterior.

Check out the MCA Australia. Nine glorious photos including images from their National Centre for Learning. Their images aren't only about art: they're about people creating, engaging and having a great time. 

Then again, when art is sharp, hot and gorgeous you can't get better than the slideshow MOP put together. I wish i'd seen this exhibition by Samuel Galileo Quinteros and Carl Cheleski.

MOP watched the five minute "how to" video and got straight into it. 

So what are you waiting for? 

Simply email us, register, watch the video and download or Website Guide. In ten minutes you'll have a brand spanking new profile page. 

We're building a website: Some great profiles

Since asking you to participate on the new M&G NSW website, we've been overwhelmed at the response. So many of you are embracing the opportunity to showcase your museums, galleries and collections.

Adding your museum to the website is easy. By registering on the website you'll receive an email with instructions on how to add images and information to your museum's profile page. Everything we're showing here is available to every one of you.

To see how easy it is watch this video.

The profile pages

Let's just take a look at some of the stand out profile pages:

The Australian National Maritime Museum was the first organisation to add their information. 

At the bottom of their profile page, the Museum's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds are constantly updating. Users can click on the arrows to see the most recent posts, tweets and videos.

Underneath the social media feeds are some of the exhibitions and events on at the museum.

Here's the Bradman International Cricket Hall of Fame.  They do a great job of showcasing their exhibitions with fourteen stunning images in their slideshow.

Tongarra Museum have done an amazing job, uploading 18 beautifully shot images of their collection. They've opted for the Ask a Curator button so visitors to the site can send an email directly with questions about the specific collection items. 

They also added links to their online collection and History Blog. 

We want you!

If you haven't registered on the website yet, or you want more information, contact Katie or Andrew:

E: comms@mgnsw.org.au

P: 02 9358 1760

For Whom the Bell Tolls . . .: Richard Bell Imagining Victory

Richard Bell, Broken English, 2009. HD video, production stills. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

If you like your art confronting, challenging and satirical, then Richard Bell’s show at Artspace is definitely for you. Imagining Victory is a collection of videos and paintings with related themes – racism, greed, elitism and the commodification of Aboriginal art.

Bell describes himself as ‘an activist masquerading as artist’, which should be enough to get you into the gallery because it’s a promise of something more than the usual gallery fare. This positioning allows Bell to step outside the arena and reorganise the stage; flipping roles, turning the big themes inside out and stripping them bare for all to see.

This is a show with significant social and political message and not one where the aesthetic concerns take centre stage. That’s not to imply that the works aren't visually appealing, they are―especially the large scale video piece The Dinner Party with its slow moving camera and muted sound track―it’s just that the aesthetic gives way to message. And the message is delivered hard and fast and leaves you with a slow ringing in the ears.

The video piece Scratch an Aussie is particularly successful. It cannot fail to bring you face-to-face with our own inherent racism through a series of Aboriginal centred jokes played out in a therapy session. We know these school yard jokes; we've heard them in pubs and in those moments we've laughed at 'otherness' in cruel and unkind ways. This universal past of ours circles and taunts us as viewer. It's strong and unsettling.

So if you are one who takes offense easily, best stay at home with your glass of red and your feet up. You’ll avoid the intellectual stimulation, the chance of self-reflection and the opportunity to see our culture from a different viewpoint. But you’ll also miss out on the challenging, and often poignant Richard Bell.

On until 11 August at Artspace. 

Or catch it at a regional gallery near you when the show goes on tour. View the tour itinerary.

Editing your profile page on the M&G NSW website

If you're having any problems registering or adding text and images to your organisation's profile page, this 5 minute video will show you how easy it is.



If you have any difficulty you can download our Website Guide.

Or don't hesitate to contact Katie or Andrew:

P: 02 9358 1760
E: comms@mgnsw.org.au

Icing on the Cake: Yamba Museum on winning an IMAGinE Award

Ghosts of World War I – 101 Local Heroes at Yamba Museum – The Story House in 2012. The Port of Yamba Historical Society built the exhibition around Peter Edmund’s research using local records, National Archives at the War Memorial, and interviews with veterans’ families. Image courtesy of the Port of Yamba Historical Society.

In 2012, Port of Yamba Historical Society won an IMAGinE award in the Exhibitions and Public Engagement category for Ghosts of World War I - 101 Local Heroes. This exhibition included the service records of 101 local heroes (including local Aboriginal Diggers) and objects from WWI, loaned by local families, partner organisations, and donations.

This wasn’t the first time the Yamba Museum had won an IMAGinE award. In 2008, Society President Marea Buist won an Individual Achievement award and, in 2011, the Museum received a Highly Commended award for their exhibition, Nursery Rhymes Exposed.

Because the museum is a successful veteran of the IMAGinE awards, I asked Marea Buist to offer advice to newcomers.

Why was Ghosts of World War I a successful exhibition?

It was successful but not for the reasons we anticipated. We plan exhibitions that will appeal to all ages but we didn’t think Ghosts of World War I would appeal to young people. As it turned out, we had many school visits and the children were interested in learning about this part of our history.

We also didn’t anticipate the community response. The exhibition was in the Old Kirk (the old Presbyterian church next to the main museum) and this created a spiritual context for the exhibition. It didn’t matter how many visitors were in the space they treated it more like a memorial than an exhibition.

Is it easy to prepare an IMAGinE nomination?

No, it’s never easy. How do you articulate a large project in so few words and images? How do you convey the goals of what you were trying to achieve? While your museum may think a project is fabulous, to a stranger it can mean absolutely nothing.

Completing the nomination takes a few weeks. Rather than trying to figure it out at once, we write a draft and then return to it repeatedly until we feel we’ve captured the essence of the exhibition. 

How did it feel when you won the IMAGinE award?

Fantastic. So many people put in so much work and effort and this rewarded their effort.

When you’re preparing an exhibition you don’t do it for accolades, but when your peers say that you put together an exhibition of real value then it’s the icing on the cake.

Beyond peer recognition, what value do you think there is in getting an award?

Winning an IMAGiNE award can provide great publicity. People are interested in what you’ll do next and expect a high level of quality. Maintaining this standard can be hard but it’s part of the challenge of sustaining a significant and relevant museum.

Peer recognition also builds networks between our museum and others. There’s nothing better than sharing advice with other museums and having this support reciprocated.

Any chance you’re nominating this year?

Yes, we are. VISION4CHANGE is a collaborative exhibition project between the Yamba, Grafton, Maclean and Lawrence Museums and is a first time partnership with a number of Aboriginal Elders throughout the Clarence Valley to share their stories. It’s been very special.

For further information about the IMAGinE awards including downloadable nomination forms go to our website.

The significance of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions

You might have heard that this year's NAIDOC Week theme is We value the vision: Yirrkala Bark Petitions. But do you realise just how significant the petitions are?

Here's a bit of an explanation about why they are so important.

In August 1963, the Yolngu people of Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land sent two bark petitions - one for each of the major moieties bloodlines – to the Australian House of Representatives. That's 50 years ago this August.

Yolgnu Elders, including senior artists Mawalan Marika and Munggurrawuy Yunupingu — the father of the lead singer of Yothu Yindi who passed away recently— were incensed that bauxite mining had been approved on Yolgnu land without their consent.

They were protesting against that decision and were asserting Yolgnu Law over Yolgnu Land. Earlier in March that same year, the elders had declared that the lands of Melville Bay, Cape Arnhem, Caledon Bay and Bremer Island were theirs and that the balanda (non-Aboriginal people) should keep out. They advised that 'Notices will be placed at all those places proclaiming the areas as belonging to Aboriginal people'.

Yet the mining went ahead.

The petitions themselves, despite the findings of a report handed down in October the same year, recommending compensation, protection of the sacred sites and 'monitoring' of the mining project, did not have immediate effect. They're now seen as having 'paved the way' for the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) proclaimed in 1976.

But what's even more interesting is that the petitions themselves were largely misunderstood. The traditional painting around the edge of the signed paper was judged to be ‘purely decorative’. Comparisons were drawn between the medieval process of illustrating a manuscript and the 'illustration' on a bark petition. It was seen as an 'added extra' with the real information being the bit on the paper. Such was our euro-centric perspective.

But in essence, the edge painting is the nuts and bolts of the petition – the bit which matters. The clan designs of pipeclay, charcoal and ochre are the part of the document that describes the legal relationship between the Yirrkala people of the Gove Peninsula and their land.

There's so much more to this story that's worth investigating - the transcript of the actual Petitions can be read on the Australian Government website, and be aware it's a moving experience especially in the context of history and the ongoing struggle for equality and fair treatment for Aboriginal people in this country.

On another part of the Australian Government website there's some great background information. Take a look the entry about the documents at the Museum of Australian Democracy. It's got the best images of the Petitions.