More than a guulany (tree): Aboriginal knowledge systems

An Indigenous-led study of the significance of trees in southeast Australian Aboriginal cultures.

• Investigators

  • • Professor Brian Martin
    Monash Art, Design and Architecture
  • • Adjunct Professor Brook Garru Andrew
    Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne

• Funded by

  • ARC Special Research Initiative

• Undertaken within

  • Wominjeka Djeembana

The research will focus on understanding the traditional practices of carving and scarring trees, as well as contemporary celebrations of living trees in southeast Australian Aboriginal Cultures. We hope this will create better recognition of the complexities of southeast Australian Aboriginal cultures, improved access for Aboriginal communities to cultural materials in institutional collections and new insights and resources for arts, heritage and museum professionals to engage appropriately with Indigenous cultural heritage. The funding also supports an Indigenous PhD candidate to build their research capacity, practice and career.

Brian Martin

The project expects to identify new evidence of this significance and generate new methods in art-making and exhibition development to improve the awareness and understanding of Indigenous cultural heritage.

This should provide significant benefits such as better recognition of the complexities of southeast Australian Aboriginal cultures, improved access for Aboriginal communities to cultural materials in institutional collections and new insights and resources for arts, heritage and museum professionals to engage appropriately with Indigenous cultural heritage.

Project outcomes will include a forum, a website, scholarly publications and creative practice exhibitions.

Exhibition at Melbourne Museum

Photo by Eugene Hyland

A collaboration between Museums Victoria and Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous research lab, this brand new exhibition at Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Melbourne Museum shows that by connecting to the memory, material practice and cultural agency of First Peoples and their cultural belongings, we can understand how trees are so much more than an object.

• Exhibition details
• Museums Victoria website
• Catalogue (PDF 6.6MB)

Media

• 'Canoes, Shields and Shade: A New Exhibition Celebrates the Cultural Importance of Trees', Broadsheet (6 July 2023)
• 'More than a tree: The dark history of collecting Indigenous cultural materials', The Age (25 June 2023)

Talks