An Indigenous curator for Indigenous artefacts: South Australia breaks new ground

Submitted by Paul Daley on Sat, 03/09/2016 - 7:46am

In appointing Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, the once conservative state museum has challenged how institutions should think about their collections

The South Australian Museum’s Indigenous Australian collection of 28,000 artefacts stands as one of the world’s most significant accumulations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and historical material.

Despite the depth and extraordinary value of this collection – much of it drawn from the vast portion of north and central Australia that became the Northern Territory in 1911 – the museum is renowned for its conservatism.

Nothing we do amounts to much unless we are doing it hand in hand with Aboriginal people

There is a growing wave of Indigenous cultural workers who are acting as agents of change