Museum of Sydney to transform into Aboriginal cultural space

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The Museum of Sydney, a site of Australia's First Government House, will be transformed into an indigenous cultural space dedicated to the culture and history of Aboriginal people.

This decision coincides with the start of NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week, a celebration in Australia that recognizes the culture and history of the Aboriginals in a week-long commemoration. 

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An Aboriginal cultural space will be established at the Museum of Sydney, the site of the First Government House in New South Wales.

Celebrating the announcement, indigenous dancers and a host of families checked out the exhibition, where the Aboriginals' Dreaming tracks map out the Ancestral beings' routes across Australia. The items and the exhibition will be reinterpreted and contextualized to represent the natives' stories and envisionings by reeling in Indigenous languages as a culture that lives on. 

“The Aboriginal cultural space will be a place where the community can talk openly and constructively about history and culture,” said Premier Dominic Perrottet. 

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“The decisions made and actions taken at the first Government House had profound and long-lasting impacts on Aboriginal people across this country and region."

“This site will create a place for these stories and perspectives to be shared, while celebrating the enduring living culture of Aboriginal people,” he said.

The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the Arts, Ben Franklin, said Australia should be a society that holds connections with the past. 

“Our history matters and it is filled with moments both dark and delightful. To acknowledge our past effectively, we need spaces where difficult truths and uncomfortable perspectives are free to be expressed,” Franklin said.

“History is happening now and we will work tirelessly with partners and community to bring into being a place that will engage with the past with a mind for the future.”

Jason Behrendt, the Trust chair for Aboriginal Languages, said the joining of the Aboriginal Languages Trust and Sydney Living Museums and State Archives and Records Authority is an essential step, though a first, in bridging a lasting relationship between mutual respect and understanding of Australian history. 

“For Aboriginal people, languages are part of our living culture. It is a fundamental part of identity – a physical, intellectual and spiritual connection to culture, country and community,” Behrendt said.

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