Learn more about Indigenous Collections leadership, staff and planning for a new purpose-built home for Indigenous Collections, on the Parkville campus.
Led by Dr Vanessa Russ, a Ngarinyin/Gija woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and Director of Indigenous Collections. A renewed and contemporary acquisition policy and strategic collecting practices are being developed to ensure that our remarkable collections are a resource of Indigenous knowledges, from old culture to contemporary living practices.
The Museums and Collections Department, led by Rose Hiscock, is currently planning a new facility to care for the vast Indigenous Collections held by the University.
The Place for Indigenous Art and Culture will provide care for cultural objects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origins. It will establish a new archive of Indigenous knowledges which draws together communities of origin and Country through relational connection and research.
The Place will comprise a new purpose-built building, the refurbishment of the former Vice-Chancellor’s Residence, outdoor spaces and the creation of a new Ceremonial Space.
Providing an on Country focused, accessible and purpose-built home for Indigenous cultural objects, artworks, natural history specimens from Country and archives, the Place will provide a safe and welcoming context to explore cultural knowledges, to add new knowledge to existing information and to map kinships and connections beyond the campus.
The project will create a context for communities of origin to revitalise their culture, to pass on knowledge and strengthen identity where it has been impacted by colonisation. In doing so, research, teaching and learning will be enriched through increased opportunities for greater cultural understanding, inspiring our Australian futures and presenting the ongoing expression of culture across generations and into the future.
For further information visit The Place.