Research into Indigenous Australian Objects

This morning’s staff talk was given by Lissant Bolton, Keeper of the Department of Africa Oceania and the Americas. 

Together with the National Museum of Australia, the British Museum is embarking on a long term project to research and exhibit its important historic Indigenous Australian collection. The results of the research and community consultations will feed into an exhibition of 150 British Museum objects in 2015, which will show in both London and Canberra.

In Australia, many protocols for the research and exhibition of Indigenous material are now taken for granted: the joint project draws the British Museum into a long process of community consultation, whereby all the objects to be exhibited in Canberra in 2015 are discussed with source communities.