Hi, Look there are countless moments that make up the story of Australia
but every now and then there’s a special moment, a defining moment.
I’m Mikey Robbins and I’m here at the National Museum of Australia
to check out their project Defining moments in Australian history.
What we’re going to do is we’re going to go behind the scenes,
we’re going to check out some objects that tell the stories
about these moments about who we are.
There are moments when you can feel time vibrate off objects ...
this is one of these moments.
These Ngunnawal tools are very, very old.
I’ve got Barb Paulson and Ngunnawal man Wally Bell here.
Hi, Barb. Hi, Wally. Could you take me through the tools?
These tools are part of what represents the local Ngunnawal community.
In the collection we have stone tools that date back as far as 15,000 years.
So they are pre-Federation.
Wally, could you take me through the tools individually
and tell me what they would have been used for?
What we have in front of us is a real variety of artefacts and materials.
The ones you see up here are all flake materials,
so they’re the pieces that have been flaked off a larger piece like this one here,
which is what we call a cooler.
You start off with a larger piece of material, which then has hammer stones struck against it,
which then produces these pieces that are discarded.
These would have been cutting tools?
Yes, most of them would have been ... the longer ones would have been used
like a knife or something like that used in scraping, say, kangaroo skin to clean the skin
or cut up meat and stuff like that as well.
Who would’ve been responsible for making these tools?
With our cultural practices we have men’s business and women’s business.
Mostly the men manufactured the tools
and that was a process that was taught from a young age.
Things such as stone axes take a long time to make
because of the fact that you’re clearly manufacturing something
that’s going to be used over a fairly lengthy period of time.
There still is ... around this area there are grinding grooves,
do those areas have cultural significance as well as historical significance?
To us ... they do have contain a strong spiritual connection for us.
It’s something that is hard to put into words.
It’s easy to talk about something that’s more tactile. I understand.
But with something that is more spiritual,
how do we convey that message to the wider community
Barb, I suppose that’s one of the jobs the Museum does ...
particularly with this defining moments project ... is trying to convey that sense of history.
Is there any specific challenges with Indigenous artefacts
when it comes to showing that history and explaining that story?
One of the things that we like to do is talk about stone tools
in a way that people wouldn’t otherwise see them
and know that, when you look at stone tools,
you’re actually looking at different types of aspects
that get expressed through cultural practice.
In stone tools you have the tools that were made for hunting,
the tools that were made for food preparation,
the tools that were made for clothing preparation or making.
So there’s a variety of different things that these stone tools were made.
What is really important is that they are evidence of cultural activity.
How does the Museum go about incorporating so much Indigenous history
into the 100 defining moments project?
It is also one of those things that get debated online
about how you actually represent that and what that means.
It’s also about the language that gets used within those sort of debates.
Things that get used like - is it ‘settlement’ or is it ‘invasion’?
Those kinds of debate that happen. Of course.
But what’s also really important for us is that a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
speak about history from now backwards, not from then forwards.
That is a perspective that is something that’s being shown through this particular 100 defining moments dialogue.
It’s really wonderful for that to come out. That’s an amazing way of looking at it.
When I came close to these objects
I could almost feel time reverberate off them.
How do you feel personally about this, Barb?
Well, I’m a Mullinjulli woman from Queensland so I’m actually from another country.
My material is held within - my ancestors made material that is in this museum.
Great. It’s not on display but it’s in here.
When I actually come in and see other people’s material displayed
it makes me feel like - it’s the way and the context in which it is displayed.
so it is a sharing of knowledge and cultural values
not just in terms of facts and figures.
When I look at stone tools particularly, I love the fact that they evidence history beyond the 200 years.
Of course. They evidence history that goes way back.
Wally is talking about 21,000 years ago.
Here in Canberra 21,000 years ago you still had evidence of Ice Age.
It was colder here then than what it is now.
To have people living within that environment, that takes quite a bit of skill.
Technology - technology and understanding of the environment to actually survive in it.
Wally, how does it affect you personally?
It makes me feel proud as a Ngunnawal man.
These are actual tools that were made by my ancestors.
Most of the tools that you see in front of you now have different uses as well.
You’ve got your hammer stones which were used for making food products -
grinding and hammering seed and all that sort of thing to make flour, to make bread.
This one here, for instance, as you can see there is a small indentation in it as well.
Some of these are what we call multi-tools as well.
That is both used as a hammer stone but that small indentation is where they also use it to make fire.
So it’s like a precursor of the Swiss army knife. This is right. More than one purpose.
Aboriginal people are pretty adaptable in relation to the requirements at the time.
If you’re looking at how things were used and all that sort of thing,
this one here with the broken - like an anvil stone
where you used say the smaller hammer stone to actually grind the seed.
That’s why it has that round bolus-type shape to it that’s actually broken.
Look, guys, thank you so much for your time today. It was a real pleasure to meet you. Cheers.
Thank you. In Ngunnawal language ‘yumalundi’, that means welcome.
‘yumalundi’. You’re most welcome. Thank you.
Thanks for watching, but it doesn’t end here.
We want you to join in the conversation.
Go to the National Museum of Australia’s website … that’s nma.gov.au …
and let us know what you think are the defining moments in Australian history.
We’d love to hear your opinion.
Once again, thanks for watching. See you soon.