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The Berndt Museum of Anthropology is an anthropological museum in
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, Western Australia, founded in by Ronald Berndt and
Catherine Berndt Catherine Helen Berndt, ''née'' Webb (8 May 1918 – 12 May 1994), born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University o ...
. The Berndt Museum is currently located with the
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery is an on-campus art gallery at the University of Western Australia in Crawley. History The gallery was established in July 1990. Description It is supported by a "friends of" organisation. It contains collect ...
on the western side of the University of Western Australia's
Crawley Crawley () is a large town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a p ...
campus. Housing 12,000 objects and 35,000 photographs, the museum contains one of the finest collections of Indigenous Australian art and cultural artifacts in the world, according to the Collections Australia Network (CAN).Collections Australia Network
archived at Pandora. Retrieved 6 January 2015 The collection consists of contemporary and historical Aboriginal Australian material culture from regions such as
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
, the Kimberley, Pilbara, the South West and the Western Desert. The museum also houses substantial Asian and Papua New Guinean collections.


History

The Berndt Museum at the University of Western Australia holds one of Australia's finest and most important collections of Aboriginal cultural material and knowledge, manifesting in art, objects, archives, film, sound and photographs. The significance of the collection is renowned nationally and internationally, but its strength lies most in the inherent value to Aboriginal people and communities of origin and creation. The diversity of regions represented in the Berndt Museum holdings extends beyond Australia to Melanesia and southeast Asia; reaching as far as China, India, Japan and Egypt, firmly locating
UWA The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilities ...
and the state of Western Australia within the Asia-Pacific region. The Museum was founded by Professor Ronald and Dr
Catherine Berndt Catherine Helen Berndt, ''née'' Webb (8 May 1918 – 12 May 1994), born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University o ...
who came to
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
in 1956 to develop teaching and research in anthropology at UWA, bringing with them a large collection of material acquired during their field work in various areas of Australia and Papua New Guinea. This original collection was formally gifted to the university which, in 1976, established the Anthropology Research Museum to house it and several other collections transferred from
UWA The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilities ...
's Anthropology department. The museum's official launch and exhibits opened on 22 February 1979, showcasing collections from northeast and western
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
, the Kimberley, southwest
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, central Western Australia and the Western Desert. In 1992, two years after Ronald Berndt's death, the Anthropology Research Museum was renamed the Berndt Museum of Anthropology in honour of Ronald and
Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Chris ...
's contribution to the university, the field of anthropology and the Museum.
Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Chris ...
's death in 1994 resulted in another generous bequest to UWA and the Museum. It contained the remainder of their private collections, including a significant Asian collection, the Ronald and
Catherine Berndt Catherine Helen Berndt, ''née'' Webb (8 May 1918 – 12 May 1994), born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University o ...
Field Notebooks (under embargo until 2024) and the RM and CH Berndt Personal Archive of manuscripts, personal and professional papers.


Collections

The Berndt Museum holds a range of collections of national significance. This includes more than 11,500 items, 35,000 photographs, film and sound and multiple archives, and is considered to be one of the most significant collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and cultural material globally. The collections include Asian and Melanesian material, as well as representations from across the world that broaden its international appeal.


History

The Museum's history spans some 60 years of collecting with well over 100 years of historical and contemporary material that has continued to be supported, and with continued additions being made to existing donations by researchers locally, nationally and internationally. The Museum collections provide a means of encouraging the exchange of knowledge and igniting much-needed dialogue regarding culture, place, politics, law, identity and heritage.


Yirrkala Drawing Collection – UNESCO Memory of the World Register

The
Yirrkala Yirrkala is a small community in East Arnhem Region, Northern Territory, Australia, southeast of the large mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. Its population comprises predominantly Aboriginal Australians of th ...
Drawings were first collected and documented by renowned anthropologists,
Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Chris ...
and Ronald Berndt. Catherine and Ronald worked with the Yolngu Community in 1946 and 1947 and, when it was believed that
bark painting Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark. This is a continuing form of artistic expression in Arnhem Land (especially among the Yolngu peoples) and other regions in the Top ...
s with original designs would not survive local conditions and travel from a remote wetland setting to an urban one, rolls of brown paper and packets of crayons were called on to execute the designs in another medium. Yolngu from several clan groups were involved in creating the coloured crayon on brown paper drawings, many of which were inspired by land-based and interrelated designs evident on traditional bark paintings. The drawings produced by significant artists such as Mawalan and Wandjuk Marika, Munggurrawuy Yunupingu,
Narritjin Maymuru Narritjin Maymuru (died 1981) was a Yolngu people artist and activist noted for Bark painting. He began painting in the 1940s after time as a cook. After decades of work in 1979 he, and his son, became visiting artists at the Australian Nationa ...
and Wonggu Mununggurr are among the 365 works currently held in the Berndt Museum's Collection. In 2009, the Yirrkala Drawings Collection was successfully nominated for inclusion on UNESCO's Memory of the World Australian Register.


Photographic

The Berndt Photographic Material Collection (BPMC) consists of negatives in various formats and digital images that are diverse in provenance and subject matter. Although a significant number of researchers and academics make use of the photographic material, this collection is of particular importance to Aboriginal community members as a visual point of reference in making connections to family, place and culture.


Returning Photos Project

The Berndt Museum of Anthropology will act as point of contact for public requests for access to the photographic material compiled by th
'Returning Photos: Australian Aboriginal Photographs in European Collections'
project. The project, funded by the
Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...
under its Discovery scheme (DP110100278), collated and presents information about historical photographs of Australian Aboriginal people held in four European Museums: the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, and the
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen The (NMVW) () is an overarching museum organisation for the management of several ethnographic museums in the Netherlands, founded in 2014. It consists of the Tropenmuseum () in Amsterdam, the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, and the Museum Vol ...
(National Museum of World Cultures) in Leiden.


Archives

The Berndt Museum Archive contains a number of discrete collections documenting Australian Aboriginal knowledge, law and culture, socio-economic and political life, histories and interactions. The Ronald M and Catherine H Berndt Field Notebooks and Personal Archive are currently subject to a 30-year embargo that will lift in 2024.


Exhibitions

The Berndt Museum of Anthropology holds two major exhibitions annually, as well as associated public events. The changing program of exhibitions take place throughout the academic year and are held in the
Janet Holmes à Court Janet Holmes à Court, AC, HonFAHA, HonFAIB (born Janet Lee Ranford on 29 November 1943 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian businesswoman and one of Australia's wealthiest women. She is the Chairperson of one of Australia's largest ...
Gallery within the gallery.


Major exhibition listing

* ''Out of the boxes and into the Desert''. 13 July – 7 December 2019 – ''Out of the boxes and into the Desert'' explores the Berndt Museum of Anthropology's collection of paintings from the Central Desert. Following on from a recent storage project, the Berndt Museum seeks to provide access to works of art that have been inaccessible for decades. * ''Carrolup Revisited: A Journey through the South West of Western Australia.'' 9 February – 29 June 2019 – ''Carrolup Revisited: A Journey through the South West of Western Australia'' celebrates the artists well known for their role in the Carrolup School of Art. * ''Stockyards and Saddles: A story of Gibb River Station.'' 21 July – 8 December 2018 – ''Stockyards and Saddles: A Story of Gibb River Station'' explores the lives of those living and working on the remote cattle station of Gibb River in the East Kimberley region from the early 1900s until the 1990s. * ''In Light of Shadows''. 10 February – 7 July 2018 – Focusing on the Berndt Museum's Asian Collection, In Light of Shadows encourages audiences to question the meaning of light and/or darkness in relation to other cultures and within themselves. * ''Milingimbi: A Living Culture.'' 28 July – 16 December 2017 – The Berndt Museum along with the Milingimbi Aboriginal Art and Cultural Centre and the Janet Holmes a Court Collection present a selection of works from Milingimbi Island in north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. * ''Works of Art from Warburton''. 11 February – 1 July 2017 – The Berndt Museum and Warburton Arts Project bring to Perth a selection of works from the Ngaanyatjarra community's own collection.


Related publications

* Friends of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology (1993). Newsletter University of Western Australia, Friends of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Nedlands, W.A * Berndt Museum of Anthropology 1997, Berndt news : newsletter of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology University of Western Australia, Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Nedlands, W.A *


References


External links

* {{authority control Museums in Perth, Western Australia Anthropology museums 1976 establishments in Australia Art museums and galleries in Western Australia University of Western Australia University museums in Australia