Art. Culture. Issue 19 Antiquities. March 2018 Natural history. From the ground up In this issue A word from the Director, David Ellis

In 2018 we’ll be watching as the new Our Egyptian material is one of 2 Buku-manapanmirri 16 The Mummy Project Chau Chak Wing Museum emerges our many treasures and a renewed Coming together Opening an ancient coffin from the ground and enthusiastically program of analysis has been Community consultation in provides some astonishing planning the opening exhibitions conducted on our four mummies. The Arnhem Land is part of an discoveries. and programs. results, benefiting spectacularly from exhibition of Yolgnu culture being the latest scanning technology, will be developed for the new museum. 21 Fragments of history The current activity is a clear incorporated within the new gallery of First impressions are deceptive reminder of how close we are to the Chau Chak Wing Museum. 6 News with sherds of blue-and-white starting construction, and how ceramics. complex a task it is to build a Around this time last year I reported David Ellis, photo by Martin Ho 7 Wish upon a fish 21st century museum. on a new project: the conservation, Students contribute to the 24 Sphere of influence cleaning and assembly of hundreds in the Nicholson, and a set-design naming of new fish species. A spherical sculpture is more Dr James Flexner of the Department of plaster fragments that comprised by Frank Hinder for the 1963 Student complex and intricate than of Archaeology organised a section of pavement from Armana, Union Theatre production of The it appears. archaeological testing of the museum the ancient capital of the 18th Dynasty Bedbug. Both reflect teaching and 32 A stitch in time site in mid-2017, providing a great in ancient Egypt. This precious learning at the University and will 27 Good hair day Watercolours of textiles by a opportunity for student training. The decorated pavement is quite literally make fine additions to the new A portrait has close ties to former student are still exquisite, excavations bore out the prediction coming together. museum, where one of our priorities hairdressing in ancient Rome. 100 years later. of previous heritage assessments – is to extend the opportunities and that there was unlikely to be much The first section of three has been benefits of the collections to students. 30 Drawing inspiration 34 Scenes from the Nile by way of contextual remains – but reassembled and its colours are now TAFE design students use the Part 2 of our feature on a that didn’t stop the students clean and bright. It is ready for display Keep up to date with the project at: University’s collections to bring significant fresco-painted floor and volunteers gaining valuable in the new museum. This meticulous, .edu.au/museums their works to life. from Amarna in ancient Egypt experience and enjoying the thrill time-consuming work was in a of finding old coins and pottery. large part supported by generous You can also follow us on twitter 36 Voyage in time Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s donations for the conservation of @SydneyUniMuseum, or find us 8 From Bauhaus to Bedbug great-great nephew retraces a In this issue we will hear how these collections. Its companion on Facebook. A recent acquisition enriches momentous journey. preparations for an exhibition of section (stage 2) now awaits treatment the University’s history of cultural heritage from the Yolngu by contracted specialist conservators. David Ellis interdisciplinary, experimental art 38 Donor honour roll for 2017 people began with respectful Director, Museums and and drama. consultation with the Yirrkala, Two elements of the University’s Cultural Engagement We say thank you to the donors who are making an enormous Ramingining and Milingimbi history return home in the form of a 11 Return of the warrior difference to our achievements. communities in Arnhem Land. cast of a Parthenon frieze, previously Casting new light on an object that has returned to the 39 Making history Nicholson after 50 years. All the latest museums news, Sydney University Museums Education and Public Programs Muse edited by Luke Parker. from special guests to collecting Comprising the Macleay Museum, To book a school excursion, an adult education 14 Dig this! and University Art Gallery tour or a University heritage tour This edition contains names and images of people awards. +61 2 9351 8746 who have died. We acknowledge that, for some Students make fascinating findings The Macleay Museum and the University Art [email protected] people and communities, these may cause distress during test digs on the Chau Chak Gallery are now closed as we prepare for the and sadness. Where possible, cultural permission 40 Find your muse opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Macleay Museum to publish has been sought. Wing Museum site. Enquiries: For your diary: our upcoming The Nicholson Museum remains open: +61 2 9036 5253 Produced by Marketing and Communications, events and programs. Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and [email protected] the , February 2018. 18/7135 the first Saturday of every month, 12 to 4pm ISSN 1449‑0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 Closed on public holidays. Nicholson Museum CRICOS 00026A In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle General admission is free. +61 2 9351 2812 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) is a globally recognised certification Become a fan on Facebook [email protected] overseeing all fibre sourcing standards. Cover and above: Coffin for the lady Above: (Florence) Helen Wark, Above: Marble portrait of a Roman and follow us on Twitter. This provides guarantees for the Mer-Neith-it-es. NMR.29. textile study, Indo‑Portuguese woman, second half of the first sydney.edu.au/museums University Art Gallery consumer that products are made See story page 16 chasuble detail, UA1990.325 century AD. Donated through The Hon Enquiries of woodchips from well‑managed See story page 32 R P Meagher bequest 2011. Nicholson forests and other controlled sources Museum, NM2012.11 Sydney University Museums Administration +61 2 9351 6883 with strict environmental, economical See story page 27 +61 2 9351 2274 [email protected] and social standards. +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) [email protected]

1 Long-awaited greetings.

commemorate Miklouho-Maclay’s Macleay Museum, and the Watson Citizens of both Russia and Papua landing with the placing of soil from Bay Marine Station, the biological New Guinea cherish his memory. his homeland at his memorial. research station he founded for the The goals for our expedition were focused study of marine fauna. to establish cultural connections The opening of the photographic and cooperation with the leading exhibition at the Divine Word In 1887, Maclay and Margaret moved universities of Papua New Guinea University in Madang on 22 September to Russia, where he died after a long and Australia, carry out scientific 2017 was another important event. illness. Margaret and their two sons, research, continue working with Here we presented photographs Vladimir and Aleksandr, returned to the people of the Rai Coast and of Miklouho-Maclay’s objects and Sydney, and their descendants have recognise anew the achievements of drawings from the collection of Peter ensured the memory of Miklouho- the man UNESCO named a “Citizen the Great’s Museum of Anthropology Maclay and his humanitarian and of the World”. Voyage and Ethnography of the Russian scientific work were kept alive. Academy of Sciences. For more information, pictures For me, Miklouho-Maclay is a good and stories about the work of the in time My great-great uncle’s history is also example for the youth of the world. Miklouho-Maclay Foundation, visit: connected inextricably with Australia, His firm temper, consistency of aim, www.mikluho-maclay.ru – so our next stop was Sydney, where decency and commitment to the Miklouho-Maclay lived and worked principles of humanity once made Nikolay Miklouho-Maclay is the in the 1870s and 1880s. Here Nikolai him the hero of many books in the great-great nephew of Nikolai Nikolaevich married Margaret Soviet Union. In the period after the Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay Robertson Clark, the daughter of Second World War, two films were Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay was a Russian explorer and scientist who was the Premier of , produced about him, multi-volume Sir John Robertson. The expedition editions of his diaries were published, based in New Guinea in the 1870s. His descendant, Nikolai Nikolaevich team visited sites where he worked, and books about him were popular. Miklouho-Maclay, reports on a commemorative journey. including the , the

In 2017, ahead of Papua New Guinea’s gladly greeted the expedition team Academy of Sciences, stayed in Bongu 42nd Independence Day celebration, from “Maclay’s village” (Russia). village where the descendants of a Russian expedition prepared for “Maclay has come back and has Tuya, Miklouho-Maclay’s first friend a voyage to the Rai Coast of Papua called the rain,” they said to us, on the island, lived. A newly built New Guinea. glad to have the long-awaited rain house was given for the expedition and to be reconnecting with their team’s use, and everyone was On 15 September, we arrived on the Russian history. accommodated comfortably on the north-eastern coast of Madang, PNG. cocoa matting and mattresses. It was here, on September 20, 1871, To this day, the great humanist that the 25-year-old Miklouho-Maclay Miklouho-Maclay is venerated on the On 16 September 2017 the local landed after a 10-month passage from Rai Coast, with legends about him people, together with the expedition the Imperial seaport of Kronstadt passed down through the generations, team, celebrated the Independence on the Vityaz corvette. Unlike my and where even children are named Day of Papua New Guinea. Miklouho- ancestor’s meetings with local after him. It was just the same in Maclay had fought for independence people – which was often a nervous, Soviet Russia, where schoolchildren and against colonisation and slavery dangerous and difficult encounter – would learn about the history of (known in his time as “blackbirding”). the villagers met us with great honour. the Rai Coast in geography and with We were honoured by the visit Miklouho-Maclay’s diaries. of PNG’s Grand Chief Sir Michael Gathered on the shore in festive Thomas Somare, who was the first Once located at Watson’s Bay At the Mitchell Library dress, residents from the three The contemporary expedition prime minister after independence Marine Station, this sandstone reading room, with family villages near where Miklouho-Maclay team, which included academic and from Australian administration in 1975. plaque with Nikolai Miklouho- member Janie Maclay, the widow Maclay’s insignia is now in the of Paul Maclay, grandson of All images courtesy and © of lived (Bongu, Gumbu and Gorendu), curatorial members of the Russian Some 3000 coastal people came to Macleay Museum collection. Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay. the Maclay Foundation 2016.

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