From Heritage to Terrorism by Simpson Brian;Simpson Cheryl; & Cheryl Simpson

Author:Simpson, Brian;Simpson, Cheryl; & Cheryl Simpson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Law
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2010-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

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Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Adelaide, Dr Deane Fergie, said the State would be the loser if the Pacific Island Gallery was altered. That’s the perfect thing about Adelaide in a general sense, we’ve changed so little that we’ve retained what other places haven’t. Dr Fergie said ‘the minute you pull it down you’ve lost a huge opportunity for making people reflect on how they think about Indigenous people’.20

The tension between the role of the museum operating in the traditional sense and the museum as business is clearly visible in this instance. All indicators at the time did point to the commercial viability of a greater display of Aboriginal culture and each state museum was looking to capture the tourist dollar through this form of attraction. Tim Lloyd, writing for the Adelaide Advertiser, had reported at the time: ‘Multimillion-dollar developments in Aboriginal Art at museums in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and particularly in Canberra’s proposed National Museum of Australia, are threatening to overshadow Adelaide’s considerable international reputation in this area.’21 But importantly he went on to comment that the Pacific collection ‘is the biggest Pacific display in Australia, rivalling similar collections in St Petersburg Russia, in the Smithsonian in Washington and in the Louvre in Paris, where a major upgrade has been announced’.22

The proposed new gallery was clearly the major focus for the government of the day. The Premier of the State at the time, John Olsen, left no doubt as to where he saw the value of an expanded Aboriginal gallery. He commented at the time:

The gallery would build on the museum’s extensive Aboriginal collection the largest in the world and would cover about 2000 square metres. It would draw people from around the world and push the museum visitor’s numbers toward one million a year. The gallery would become ‘a tourist icon’ the State could build upon in the future.23

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