Location: British Museum

Date: 29 July 2015

Members of the Museum Ethnographers Group are invited to attend the British Museum to explore “The BP exhibition Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation” and speak to Gaye Scunthorpe the curator behind the show.  Indigenous Australia is the first major UK exhibition to present a history of Aboriginal peoples through objects and to celebrate their cultural strength and resilience.  This 60,000-year-old culture has continued in diverse environments of this vast continent; each group defining their own area, language and tradition.

This show has been met with positive feedback but has also received criticism for conveying the effects of colonialism on the indigenous population.  Poignant interpretation aside, Indigenous Australia is worth exploring.  A review in The Telegraph in April stated that the visitors’ experience is an all-too-familiar account of dispossession, malfeasance and massacres by the British; an approach that is all too familiar to British Museum shows. Regardless of contention, Indigenous Australia is a visual feast of traditional historic items and contemporary art.

This is a free event for MEG members
Numbers are limited and the event can accommodate no more than 20 people, places will go on a first come first served basis.
Those who want to attend should contact Tony Eccles tony.eccles@exeter.gov.uk