Our Members’ event for July was an illustrated talk by Zoe Rimmer entitled Indigenous Culture, Here and Overseas.

Zoe Rimmer is TMAG’s Acting Senior Curator Indigenous Culture and her very informative and beautifully illustrated talk was appreciated by around 50 Members.

After an acknowledgment of the traditional owners of the land where TMAG now stands, Friends’ President John Sexton welcomed Members to a talk which, as he said, was in many ways overdue: it had been some time since the Friends had heard of the latest developments at TMAG in Indigenous Culture.

Guest speaker Zoe Rimmer told Members of her trip to North America and Europe last year on a Churchill Fellowship. She had visited a number of museums in several countries where items of great importance to Tasmanian indigenous culture were held, including several items that were, to the best of her knowledge, unique.

She also reported on her recent discussions in London and Paris regarding the latest round of repatriation talks with several major museums. She was able to report on the success of some of these talks with several museums, but also reported that there was a need for further discussion with some others. Overall, however, Members were left with the impression that considerable advances had been made in matters of repatriation, and that more success could be expected in the future.