National Museum out of space

‘the Acton Peninsula . . . It’s a fright of a building, pretentious.’ I SO agree. It is seriously ugly and, IMHO, inappropriately lurid and post-modern for such a naturally beautiful location.

And I just find the displays boring – seen one axe, seen ’em all I’m afraid, and trying to make me feel guilty about a history I cannot change does not make me rush to return. Now, I am from Irish stock and have plenty to personally feel irate about towards the British and their colonial bastardry, but really, a bit of balance would be nice in a Museum that is supposed to represent the whole nation.

And I don’t see why I should have to pay heaps to see the more interesting, special exhibitions.

A stark contrast with the AWM, which is worth revisiting several times a year!

Part of the resentment towards the Indig aspects of the NMA is I think the revelation that the architecture of the building was based on the Holocaust museum in Germany. What an insult to Australians. It is simply ludicrous to draw a comparison between the Nazi holocaust and the misguided and at times culpable Australian government administrative treatment of Aborigines. I hate the way the NMA mocks suburban Australia – with that awful outdoor garden area. Suburban Australia has a lot to be proud of. I actually hate the NMA and what it has done to the Acton Peninsula. It’s a fright of a building, pretentious. That rusty ribbon of whatever pointing to Uluru is a crap of a conceit. The foyer space is a joke. The shop is a ripoff (and stocks some pretty dodgy ‘Indigenous’ items manufactured in South America and by exploited Gujerati peasants). BTW they aren’t even bothering to maintain the grounds – weeds everywhere. They should have kept the honest, solid Canberra Hospital building and turned it to other community purposes.

How about they put a roof over the silly concrete area in the middle of the museum?

I’m a bit surprised to see the abuse of the Indigenous galleries at the museum. I personally consider them to be outstanding and world-class, and far better than the collections of semi-random stuff which fills the rest of the place. Indigenous history is all too often over-looked (for instance, the AWM refuses to consider covering Indigenous Australian military history or the frontier wars, and doesn’t even cover them in its unbelievably dull – and almost hidden – gallery on Australian colonial militaries) and the NMA has done a great job of covering the experiences of Indigenous Australia.

“Ptext, the building is there regardless of what wonderful work the people employed there do – work that could equally be done anywhere else but the building and the site it occupies could be used for something more useful given that ‘apparently’ there is no space on the rest of the site. No?”

Fair enough.

The same crew who allowed the NMA to occupy the site totally diddled Canberra’s Indigenous groups. It isn’t well known that a consultant was brought in to convince the folks who ran the Indigenous cultural centre- that ended up at yamundi reach or whatever it’s called, totally isolated half way along Lady Denman Drive – to move their plans. I vividly recall an Indigenous fellow’s account in the 90s of the decision. “[The consultant told us] we would have been like a pimple on a pumpkin if we’d been near the gallery, in that area,” he said, and clearly believed it! They had been promised a presence on the old Canberra Hospital site. So ripped off! The result has been a disaster for them. I believe the government concerned (and I don’t know whether it was state or federal) is guilty of contravening the Trade Practices Act via a consultant. There’s no question – they were talked into giving up a prime, valuable spot near the Museum and swapping it for an unviable, unsustainable, worthless and isolated spot. The cynical, unethical consultant concerned knew exactly what he was doing. Probably to order.

Ptext, the building is there regardless of what wonderful work the people employed there do – work that could equally be done anywhere else but the building and the site it occupies could be used for something more useful given that ‘apparently’ there is no space on the rest of the site. No?

Ant,

Yeah apologies for that, for some reason my computer was playing silly buggers and typing everything backwards.

What it was meant to say is that there is plenty of room on Northbourne Avenue.

Has anyone stopped and thought that even though I disagree with all this ‘so called art’, the govt is actually doing this on purpose to keep those left winged, hippy, greenie, cyclists on side?

How much ‘art’ do we already have here and why is there such a great need for more. Honestly Canberra is becoming one big art centre. There are reasons why art is kept behind walls, 99% of it is crud!.

I went there recently and found it incredibly lacking in anything interesting.

War Memorial is infinitely better.

Witchcraft museum was pretty cool, bizarre, badly designed, under funded, over crowded with irrelevent rubbish, but cool.

And by witch, we are talking male and female.

Were they made of wood and float like Ducks?

justbands said :

I don’t think it’s a great musuem either, although my 11yo has always enjoyed visiting (much prefers the War Memorial though). One thing though….Australia has a very, very long indigenous history & a very, very short European one….do the maths.

Agreed Justbands, but just how much did a spear, basket or boomerang change in the tens of thousands of years that indigenous Australian’s had this great land to themselves? I for one am not sure why the place needs to have a majority focus on indigenous issues and culture, other than the fact hat original CEO and person who planned the original exhibition, a Ms Dawn Casey, was herself of Aboriginal or Torres Strait island ancestry.

Personally, I’d like to see the development of an Aboriginal Cultural Center where all tribes had the opportunity to display and educate the rest of us about their particular cultures, etc.. I’d hate to see these rich backgrounds and languages die out. I just don’t think the National Museum is the place to do it.

Oh Yeah and as far as space i think they are referring to their collection not their displays. The museum has a really huge collection and only a portion of it is on display at any given time.

Racist philistines!

Most of the “axes” look pretty damn random to me.

Those rocks adn fossils that Tim flannery finds every week on Two Men in a Tinnie would be tons more interesting.

Hahaha yeah those “axes” are a joke. As if they didn’t just pick up some random rocks.

trevar said :

Good grief! What’s with all the anti-Aboriginal rednecks on here? There aren’t normally this many!

Please don’t generalise. I’m an anti-excessive-displays of Aboriginal (alleged) axes redneck.

I reckon they could clear all those “axes” out and use them to gravel the gardens.

Pommy bastard said :

and the witchcraft museum is a load of feminist claptrap.

Surprise surprise: women being killed for the crime of being ‘witches’ might raise some feminist issues, no?

Or perhaps they were all killed for ‘dressing like cheap sluts’ or ‘acting like whores’ instead.

“calling indigenous australians the “B” word is just dumb”

You’re right, I should have held myself back. Swaggie’s dismissal of the role of AIATSIS annoyed me and I found it racist, but yes, better language could have been used.

Joebananas said :

I say we get everyone who is responsible for that hideous, boredom inducing monstrosity, lock them inside the Museum and then let Canberrans hunt them using their trillion-strong collection of Aboriginal spears and arrow heads. Kinda like paintball. But fatal.
That’d be a Night At The Museum I’d enjoy.

You get Ben Stiller to come and I am there!

phototext said :

“use the IATSIS building for something useful”

I’m guessing you mean the AIATSIS building Swaggie ?

http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/home

Maybe you should visit the website and see what it is that they do there before dismissing it in such an off handed way, or should the “boongs” be happy we didn’t wipe them all out ?

phototext, making reference to visiting the aiatsis website is fine, but calling indigenous australians the “B” word is just dumb. The aiatsis organisation has its place, but I still feel that the inclusion of an annex at their offices would have greater impact for the members of the community who are interested in the history of the aboriginal tribes of australia, whilst allowing the museum to grow its display space.

++ what sepi and trevar said.

I’m pretty sure that everyone on this site who is bagging out the Museum hasn’t been there for at least 3 years. (I’m biased because I used to work there until recently, but still…)

Seriously though, if you consider yourselves interested in museums, do yourselves a favour and go see Australian Journeys when it opens in January. I think you’ll agree that the Museum has come a long way.

“use the IATSIS building for something useful”

I’m guessing you mean the AIATSIS building Swaggie ?

http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/home

Maybe you should visit the website and see what it is that they do there before dismissing it in such an off handed way, or should the “boongs” be happy we didn’t wipe them all out ?

trevar said :

Good grief! What’s with all the anti-Aboriginal rednecks on here? There aren’t normally this many!

If you want to play the racism card, then thats fine, but I don’t think the museum represents Australia’s history very well. Instead it highlights the disasters and atrocities of Australia and even then, a lot of that is very subjective. The balance isn’t there.

I’ve been to the Smuggler’s museum in the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor. And the witchcraft museum at beaucastle in Cornwall. Both are small, badly planned private museums with very little funding. Sadly, I rank them both ahead of the NMA.

I don’t rate them at all. The Jamica Inn is owned by Cornwall’s BNP leader, and the witchcraft museum is a load of feminist claptrap.

Plenty of space there – fill in that ‘garden’ monstrosity, use the IATSIS building for something useful and rezone 75% of the Admin Offices for display use. Worries over…. Then bring down the prices at the cafe to encourage visitors back without leaving them feeling they were ripped off on their one and only visit.

Good grief! What’s with all the anti-Aboriginal rednecks on here? There aren’t normally this many!

Sure, the museum’s more boring than most, but it gets interesting down the end with all the Aboriginal stuff. Practically everything else is in our garage. And their visiting exhibitions are excellent… if you’re not too stingy to pay a fortune for them. Which most of the posters above me obviously are…

And the only reason there’s nothing interesting from the last two hundred years is because it’s all being hoarded by the state museums. Better that a national museum deal with the broad sweep of history, and not just the last two centuries anyway.

I really don’t think its that bad.

I haven’t been in a while but the last time i went was to see their own curiositys exibit which was really fantastic. Basically they picked lots of really unique and strange things from their collection and put them all in one exhibit. There were some really cool things there, my most favorite being the amazingly detailed tinkers truck.

Before that i saw the rare trades exhibit which was also fantastic.

If I never go back to that museum, it will be too soon. Underwhelming is an understatement. It should be renamed the National Archive of Political Correctness.

Save yourself the boredom and visit the War Memorial which is far better.

vandam said :

oevah nruobhtrn no moor llits si ereht

The sun is not over the yardarm yet so what’s your excuse for Drunken Posting?

there is still room on nrtbourn haveo

Whew – lucky for that!

NMA has changed a lot since it opened.

I think some people could pay a return visit.

It’s a good venue to for the short film nights etc.

there is still room on nrtbourn haveo? Huh?

oevah nruobhtrn no moor llits si ereht

Chill Winston.

Thanks fnaah, I just had a squiz on the NMA site and there seems to be a bit more going on than just indigenous exhibitions.

Recent exhibitions about topics such as rugby league, life savers and Ned Kelly would surely appeal to the hoi polloi.

Maybe the museum can … sponser some interesting visiting displays.

You mean like the Darwin exhibit?

http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/darwin/

Well, I don’t mind the NMA.

The National Museum is a bloody joke.

Well not all together. That big piece of canvas painted, well plain white seemed like a pretty sensible purchase at the time. How many hundred thou did they pay for that again? Money well spent anyway.

I remember a display of a kitchen that was pretty much the same as the one in the house I was living in at the time – pretty funny.

NMA = Epic fail

Bulldose the joint, or even better, put on a monster truck extravaganza and get Truckasaurus to demolish the joint. Get some kind of themed pub crawl going to coincide with it all. I’m sure that’d get the RiotACT subscribers to the place in droves!

You can get a similar visitor experience to the NMA out at Aussie Junk, but admittedly the coffee is better at the museum.

I too think the museum is about as interesting as an OH&S desk assesment.

I enjoy watching “Collectors” on the ABC, and think the every-day people displaying their bottles, ceramic cats and Ginger Meggs comics have much more interesting items to show.

Maybe the museum can auction off some of their crap and sponser some interesting visiting displays.

Thumper I’ve been to the Smuggler’s museum in the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor. And the witchcraft museum at beaucastle in Cornwall. Both are small, badly planned private museums with very little funding. Sadly, I rank them both ahead of the NMA.

I recently done a night shoot at the NMA – had access all areas – and I also visited the “Quaint” Ripleys “Believe it or not” museum in Key West USA, provately funded, and much smaller scale, but I also rated it much higher than the NMA.

All I remember from that place was rooms and rooms (endless rooms) of bits of rock with signs claiming they were Aboriginal Axes. Jeez they had a lot of axes. The visitor I was showing around was as underwhelmed as I was. They blew up a hospital and built this giant building for endless rock chips? We must have more interesting stuff, surely.

I don’t think it’s a great musuem either, although my 11yo has always enjoyed visiting (much prefers the War Memorial though). One thing though….Australia has a very, very long indigenous history & a very, very short European one….do the maths.

Its what happens when you put a bunch of corduroy-wearing lefty academics in charge of the place

Pretty much. Having some stuff that was actually interesting would also be good, especially if they could get some more culturally interesting material.

All the Aboriginal stuff gets pretty tiresome.

And Thumper (comment #7) – LMAO!

Roadrage77 said :

Its what happens when you put a bunch of corduroy-wearing lefty academics in charge of the place.

they could always foist the indigenous items onto AIATSIS, and create an annex exhibit there.

probably able to display a lot of the collection.

Its what happens when you put a bunch of corduroy-wearing lefty academics in charge of the place.

where are the fossils, the dinosaur bones, the megafauna skeletons, etc, etc?

in every other bl**dy museum across australia. you would think that the “National Museum” would at least have items from each of the other museums, wouldn’t you.

wrong. perhaps they need to keep only one ceremonial spear, a single boomerang, divvy the great hall up into more exhibits.

Joebananas said :

I say we get everyone who is responsible for that hideous, boredom inducing monstrosity, lock them inside the Museum and then let Canberrans hunt them using their trillion-strong collection of Aboriginal spears and arrow heads. Kinda like paintball. But fatal.
That’d be a Night At The Museum I’d enjoy.

I just sprayed instant coffee all over my monitor.

The National Museum is a bloody joke. The best thing was the first Holden in the foyer. As said above, the rest of the museum is just a big Indigenous guilt trip.

I say we get everyone who is responsible for that hideous, boredom inducing monstrosity, lock them inside the Museum and then let Canberrans hunt them using their trillion-strong collection of Aboriginal spears and arrow heads. Kinda like paintball. But fatal.
That’d be a Night At The Museum I’d enjoy.

Not to mention Phar Lap’s cricket box!

Far too much space taken up by indigenous token gestures rather than stuff that people actually want to see, like Dennis Lillee’s aluminium bat / Chopper Read’s severed ears for example.

Philistines!

The world’s largest collection of lycra from indigenous athletes. What am I bid? Thank you sir. Is there any rise on 25 cents?