Berndt Museum of Anthropology facts for kids

The Berndt Museum of Anthropology is a special museum in Perth, Western Australia. It was started by two amazing people, Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt. Today, you can find the museum at the University of Western Australia's Crawley campus, right next to the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

This museum is home to a huge collection of items – about 12,000 objects and 35,000 photographs! It has one of the best collections of Indigenous Australian art and cultural items in the world. These items come from many different parts of Australia, like Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, Pilbara, the South West, and the Western Desert. The museum also has important collections from Asia and Papua New Guinea.

Discovering the Berndt Museum

The Berndt Museum at the University of Western Australia holds an incredibly important collection of Aboriginal culture. This includes art, objects, old documents, films, sounds, and photographs. The collection is known all over the world. But most importantly, it holds great value for Aboriginal people and the communities where these items came from. The museum also has items from beyond Australia, including Melanesia and southeast Asia. You can even find things from China, India, Japan, and Egypt! This shows how connected UWA and Western Australia are to the Asia-Pacific region.

How the Museum Started

The museum was founded by Professor Ronald and Dr Catherine Berndt. They came to Perth in 1956 to teach and research anthropology at UWA. They brought with them a large collection of items they had gathered during their work in different parts of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

In 1976, they officially gave their collection to the university. That's when the Anthropology Research Museum was created to keep these items safe. The museum officially opened its doors on February 22, 1979. It showed off collections from places like northeast and western Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, and the Western Desert.

A New Name for a Special Place

In 1992, after Ronald Berndt passed away, the museum was renamed the Berndt Museum of Anthropology. This was done to honor both Ronald and Catherine for their amazing work. When Catherine passed away in 1994, she also left a generous gift to the museum. This included more of their personal collections, like a significant Asian collection. It also included their field notebooks and personal papers, which will be available to the public in 2024.

Amazing Collections to Explore

The Berndt Museum has many collections that are important to Australia and the world. It holds over 11,500 items, 35,000 photographs, films, sounds, and many archives. It is considered one of the most important collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture globally. The museum also has items from Asia and Melanesia, making it interesting for people from all over the world.

A Long History of Collecting

The museum has been collecting items for about 60 years. Some of the historical items are even over 100 years old! Researchers from Australia and other countries continue to add to the collections. These collections help people share knowledge and talk about culture, places, history, and identity.

The Famous Yirrkala Drawings

The Yirrkala Drawings are a very special part of the collection. They were first gathered by Catherine and Ronald Berndt in 1946 and 1947. They worked with the Yolngu Community. At that time, people thought that traditional bark paintings might not last well during travel. So, they used brown paper and crayons to create these designs instead.

Yolngu artists from different family groups made these colorful crayon drawings. Many were inspired by designs found on traditional bark paintings. Important artists like Mawalan and Wandjuk Marika, Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, Narritjin Maymuru, and Wonggu Mununggurr created some of these 365 works. In 2009, the Yirrkala Drawings Collection was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Australian Register. This means they are recognized as very important to human history.

Looking at Old Photos

The Berndt Museum also has a large collection of photographs. These photos are very important to Aboriginal community members. They help them connect with their families, places, and culture from the past.

Helping Photos Find Their Way Home

The Berndt Museum helps people access photos from a project called 'Returning Photos: Australian Aboriginal Photographs in European Collections'. This project collected information about old photos of Aboriginal people held in museums in Europe. These museums include the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum and the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Storing Important Stories

The Berndt Museum Archive holds many collections of documents. These documents share knowledge about Australian Aboriginal culture, laws, history, and daily life. The personal notebooks and papers of Ronald and Catherine Berndt are kept here. They will be available for everyone to see starting in 2024.

Exciting Exhibitions

The Berndt Museum of Anthropology usually has two big exhibitions each year. They also hold public events related to these shows. These changing exhibitions happen throughout the school year in the Janet Holmes à Court Gallery.

Past Exhibitions to Remember

• Out of the boxes and into the Desert (July – December 2019): This exhibition showed paintings from the Central Desert that had been hidden away for many years.
• Carrolup Revisited: A Journey through the South West of Western Australia (February – June 2019): This show celebrated artists famous for their work at the Carrolup School of Art.
• Stockyards and Saddles: A story of Gibb River Station (July – December 2018): This exhibition explored the lives of people living and working on a cattle station in the East Kimberley.
• In Light of Shadows (February – July 2018): This show focused on the museum's Asian Collection, making people think about light and darkness in different cultures.
• Milingimbi: A Living Culture (July – December 2017): This exhibition featured works from Milingimbi Island in north-east Arnhem Land.
• Works of Art from Warburton (February – July 2017): This show brought works from the Ngaanyatjarra community's own collection to Perth.