Art. Culture. Issue 17 Antiquities. June 2017 Natural history. New home, new curator, new works A word from the Director, David Ellis In this issue we reveal the first Occupying about 8000 square Fraser, fresh from the British glimpses of the Chau Chak Wing metres, the new building will Museum and digs in the foothills Museum provided by architects triple the previous capacity of of the Jordan Valley. Johnson Pilton Walker. our museums. We reveal two new acquisitions: Situated at the ‘front door’ of the Subject to development approval, photographic works by renowned University, opposite Fisher Library, construction is planned to start artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, purchased the new museum will bring together around November this year. The at auction in New York with funds the collections of the Macleay building is due for completion at from the Morrissey Bequest for the Museum, Nicholson Museum and the end of 2018 with the museum purchase of East Asian material in University Art Gallery under one opening to the public in 2019. memory of Professor Sadler. roof. The Chau Chak Wing Museum will feature state-of-the-art Staff are busy researching and Our Schools Education Program exhibition galleries, object-based developing concepts for new continues to challenge and inspire study rooms, collection care exhibitions, digitising collections through object-based learning facilities and of course a café and conserving works. One of the linked to the schools’ curricula. and museum shop. challenges we are facing is our For many students, it is their first ability, for the first time, to show experience of a university. In our far more of the collections than current spaces we are close to has previously been possible. capacity. In the Chau Chak Wing Museum, however, the additional In choosing new items to display space allocated to object-based we also need to consider their learning will enable our schools conservation needs. We are program to expand and flourish. indebted to the many donors who have generously supported this Keep up to date with the project at critically important work. sydney.edu.au/museums In this issue, we introduce and David Ellis welcome our new Senior Curator Director, Museums and of the Nicholson Museum, Dr Jamie Cultural Engagement David Ellis, photo by Martin Ho Sydney University Museums Education and Public Programs Muse edited by Luke Parker. Comprising the Macleay Museum, To book a school excursion, an adult education Nicholson Museum and University Art Gallery tour or a University heritage tour This edition contains names and images of +61 2 9351 8746 people who have died. We acknowledge that, for The Macleay Museum and the University Art [email protected] some people and communities, these may cause Gallery are now closed as we prepare for the distress and sadness. Where possible, cultural opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum in 2019. Macleay Museum permission to publish has been sought. Enquiries: The Nicholson Museum remains open: +61 2 9036 5253 Produced by Marketing and Communications, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and [email protected] the University of Sydney, May 2017. 17/6552 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 General admission is free. In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle +61 2 9351 2812 Forest Stewardship Council Become a fan on Facebook +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) (FSC®) is a globally recognised and follow us on Twitter. [email protected] certification overseeing all fibre sourcing standards. This provides sydney.edu.au/museums University Art Gallery guarantees for the consumer that products are made of woodchips Enquiries from well-managed forests and Sydney University Museums Administration +61 2 9351 6883 other controlled sources with +61 2 9351 2274 [email protected] strict environmental, economical +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) and social standards. [email protected] In this issue 2 A world of memories 14 Reclaiming identity 28 Unnatural history Important Indigenous Complex issues of identity in A unique insect in the Macleay collections held by 19th century photographs of collections is not all it the University are now Tasmanian Aboriginal people. appears to be. recognised by UNESCO. 18 Redressing the balance 3 New digs Recently commissioned We welcome Dr Jamie Fraser, portraits acknowledge our new Senior Curator of the contribution of the Nicholson Museum. women academics. 21 On the road Secrets revealed about a previously mysterious collector of artefacts in the Macleay collection. 24 Hadrian’s legacy Exploring the infamous Emperor’s influence on the 1900th anniversary of his accession to power. 29 School spirit in Vanuatu The delicate balance of the 26 From the library of PN Barnett traditional and contemporary in A collection of tiny bookplates ni-Vanuatu education systems. reveals the personal symbology of their subjects. 32 Repair to remember Conservation work was recently 4 Planned to perfection undertaken on an important We are delighted to share object from the Nicholson the first architectural collection. impressions of the new Chau Chak Wing Museum. 34 Man bites dog A dog-shaped vessel in the 9 Time exposed Nicholson reveals the interesting The University has recently tastes of Mesoamerican cultures. acquired two stunning photographs by renowned 35 Making history artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. All the news on Sydney University Museums, from special guests to 11 Some impressions of Greece collecting awards. A new project seeks to identify sites depicted in historic 36 Find your muse photographs by one of our For your diary: our upcoming earliest curators. events and programs. Front cover and right: ‘Baining Above left: Adrian George Feint Above: [William J Woodhouse standing dancers’ hand-coloured lantern [bookplate for Thea Proctor], in a doorway at the University slide, photo: Ernest WP Chinnery, 1927 relief print, UA1990.714. of Sydney], glass plate negative, 1924–26, Gazelle Peninsula, East New See story on page 26. Nicholson Museum, NM2007.119.7. Britain province, Papua New Guinea, See story on page 11. transferred from the Department of Anthropology, the University of Sydney, 1990s, Macleay Museum, HP99.1.165. See story on page 2. 1 A world of memories – Jude Philp reports Australia’s oldest collection of academic anthropology records, on a vital resource documenting a number of Aboriginal of Indigenous communities in Australia and Indigenous communities of the engagement with Pacific region, has been recognised by the United Nations Educational, academic work held Scientific and Cultural Organisation by the University of (UNESCO) Australian Memory of the Sydney and recently World (AMW) Register. inscribed on the Promoting Australian documentary heritage with influence and world UNESCO Australian significance, the AMW register photographs (such as the lantern Memory of the contains a wide variety of material slide featured on the cover of including the Australian Indigenous this issue of Muse), audio-visual World Register. Languages Collection, First World material, reports, secondary War diaries, convict records, the sources, bark paintings and pearl Endeavour journal of James Cook, shell ornaments. Together, these and the Pacific and Regional Archive materials present a unique and for Digital Sources in Endangered often intimate record of life in Cultures (PARADISEC), which is Australia and the Pacific region partly housed at the University. in the early-mid 20th century. On Thursday 9 February 2017, A selection of the items is available the collections amassed by to view online via our collections the University’s pioneering search: sydney.edu.au/museums/ anthropologists, held by the collections_search University Archives and the Macleay Museum, was inscribed For a listing of archival papers, look to the register and celebrated at a for AP Elkin’s personal papers at ceremony at Canberra Museum and sydney.edu.au/archives Gallery. Included are field notes, genealogies, correspondence, Dr Jude Philp is Senior Curator, Macleay Museum Above left: Axe with iron head, Tiwi people, Above right: Ri:ji or jakuli (pearl shell ornament), collection attributed to anthropologist Charles Hart, Bardi people, possibly by Akamo, collected before 1928–29, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, transferred 1940, Kimberley region, Western Australia, transferred from the Department of Anthropology, the University from the Department of Anthropology, the University of of Sydney, 1960–64, Macleay Museum, ETH.1786 Sydney, 1978, Macleay Museum, ETA.2007 2 New digs – Paul Donnelly introduces Jamie Fraser, the new Senior Curator of the Nicholson Museum. Dr James (Jamie) Fraser has joined projects including in Jordan, Syria, “I recognise the unique position us as the new Senior Curator of the Iraq, Greece, Uzbekistan, India, of the Chau Chak Wing Museum to Nicholson Museum, succeeding Cambodia, Afghanistan, the Solomon transcend traditional boundaries Michael Turner who departed Islands, and Australia. Much of between Old and New World last year. We are most grateful to his fieldwork research in Jordan archaeologies, and to set new Candace Richards for her excellent has been under his own direction, agendas in developing integrated caretaking of the role of Senior towards his now-completed exhibitions that invite a broad Curator for many months until doctorate on the dolmens cultural response,” Jamie says. Jamie’s arrival. (stone-slab tombs) of