– Hi everyone, Amanda here. – Hi, and I’m Kate,
– Welcome – to the National Museum of Australia
for today’s fun at home activity.
– Now Kate, I’m gonna catch up with our lovely Indigenous curator, Shona, today
and she’s gonna take me back through the exhibitions, so I’ll see you soon.
– Sounds terrific. Shall we count you out? – Okay.
– One, two, three!
– Hi Shona. – Hi Amanda.
– I’m so excited to be here today, back in this amazing exhibition.
But before we start, is it okay if I ask you to give some acknowledgements?
– I’d love to. First of all, we would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands
that we meet on here today.
The Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri people.
And we’d also like to shout out to all the other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers today.
– Where are we? – Well, we are right here in Canberra
in this amazing exhibition called ‘Endeavour Voyage: The Untold Stories of Cook and the First Australians’.
– And we’re right at the beginning of the exhibition, which I think this map is an excellent spot to start.
So, there’s a lot of orange lines going around that map. Shona, can you tell us what that is?
– Absolutely. Well this exhibition is all about two different perspectives of the ‘Endeavour’ voyage in 1770.
And really, Cook’s ship actually starts over here in New Zealand. And he travels along this line, right down the bottom
starting at Point Hicks, right down the bottom in Victoria. – Yep.
– And then as we go along through the exhibition, we stop at all these different points, ending up
right up the top, in Far North Queensland.
– That’s really interesting. So it’s not just from Cook’s perspective though is it?
– No it’s not. There’s lots of different perspectives in this story. And we’re also including the First Nations peoples’ voice —
– Who have been here for? – 65,000 years, plus!
– Amazing! Okay, so let’s go and explore some objects. – That would be great. I’ll show you some of my favourite ones.
– So Shona, we’ve just looked at the map to see where the boat went all the way around the coast of Australia.
It’s really good to think about what life was like on the ship.
– Oh absolutely, it was pretty confined. And actually, this object that we have over here
is a perfect example of why everything has to be very, very small.
This was a really important object actually. Joseph Banks used this as his portable stove.
He had a little nutmeg grinder, a salt and pepper pot, and also a little candle that helped light the way
for all of his writings and drawings. – That’s pretty amazing. That’s so tiny.
Joseph Banks was a really important person on the ship because he actually recorded everything he saw.
– And one of these items actually, this arched one used to have a little candle inside it
and it had a mirror on the door, and he would use this to not only write, but also to heat up the ship’s biscuits.
– Biscuits sounds delicious! – You would think it was, but actually it was quite gross.
In the biscuits — it was actually covered in weevils, which are tiny little insects. – Ew.
– And the only way Joseph Banks would eat them, was if he heated it up over the top of the candle,
and the weevils would literally walk out of the biscuit. – That’s disguisting.
– Pretty gross! – Thanks Shona, let’s look at another object.
– Okay.
– Shona I absolutely love this artwork, it’s so brightly coloured. And in fact, if you look really closely, you can see it’s the shape of the turtles.
– Yes, these were created by the Gumba Gumba ladies of Hope Vale. And they’re really talking about the importance of turtles
in their culture. – So when Cook arrived, would he have had an understanding
of the cultural significance of turtles? – I really don’t think so, no.
I think he was actually collecting or hunting these, to feed his crew.
– So that probably would have created a few disputes? – Absolutely.
This is really lovely actually. One of the artists talks about how she often sees the turtles snapping at the local jellyfish.
– I love that one. Shall we see somewhere else? – Yeah, absolutely.
– Let’s go.
– So Amanda, this is absolutely one of my favourite pieces actually. It’s done by Indigenous artist Michael Cook.
Have a look at it and tell me, what do you think? – I love it. It’s so much going on in this picture.
It’s amazing. And in fact, the first thing when I look at it, is I notice one thing. These aren’t Australian flags.
– That’s right. And keep guessing, what else can you see? – This looks like a very famous building in London
called the Big Ben, and it looks like it’s being attacked.
– I know, isn’t it great? What we’re actually seeing here is an artist telling a story about what it would be like
if London was invaded by Australian animals. I just love it. I think it’s great.
I love this little girl’s face — she looks like she’s delighting in the chaos.
– Yes, she’s running towards the goannas. And I notice, there’s a Cook book.
– Fancy that. It’s really clever, there’s so much happening in there. – So the best thing about artwork is, it’s really up for interpretation.
So you can look at this and come up with a story, based around what you can see.
So Shona, thank you, that’s such an amazing exhibition, so I really appreciate you showing us around today.
I think this is a really lovely spot to finish up. – Absolutely, isn’t it gorgeous? And look across here,
these are all the messages that audiences have left us in relation to this story. So many perspectives.
I really like this. This is ‘Remembering Cook’. So this one’s actually inspired by one of the artworks in the show.
And this one here. A beautiful message about, ‘We can all share Australia and take care of the land and the people’.
– It’s amazing, which kinda shows that it’s still a very relevant story today. But we’re finishing up for today, so we’re gonna say bye.
– Yes, well thanks so much for having me, and I hope to come back another week, so I’ll join you another time.
– We’d love to have you back Shona. Maybe next week. – Perfect.
– Thanks guys, I’m gonna go and join Kate and we’re gonna write some messages to add to this wall.
– Thanks. Bye. – Bye.
– Hi Kate. – Hi Amanda.
– I’m back. – Great to have you here. So what are we doing now?
– Well I was so inspired seeing some of those messages on the message wall in the exhibition, I thought we should create
our own message for kids to do at home. – Sounds terrific. And we actually have the template
up on our website, so you can download your very own person. Cut it out and write your own message.
– And when you’ve cut it out, you’ll have to make two little holes here because, you can get a paddle–pop stick or a pencil
and put it in. I’ve put a bit of modelling clay but you could use Blu Tack, soil, and that’s how you make your person stand.
And if you want, I’m actually gonna make a wall, just like in the exhibition. So this is my mountain and I’m gonna cut out a couple of layers
and glue them in a box and add my people. So I can write lots of different messages that connect to what
we learned in the exhibition. What are you going to make, Kate? – I’m gonna make a person and I’m gonna write a message.
And I might draw a picture on the back. I might draw what it was like to live on the ship, perhaps.
– Nice idea. I think I would really like to draw something to do with the land. So I’m going to draw a banksia on one side and on the other side
I’m actually gonna write a poem. Because banksias are really important because they connect with Joseph Banks.
And they also connect with Indigenous communities because the plants grow up and down the coast.
– Sounds terrific. – So I’m gonna get going and start drawing.
So thanks everyone. There’s lots of ideas and clues on our website. – See you guys.