Week 2

This week brought on an excursion to the South Australian Museum.
The SA Museum is home to one of the largest Aboriginal collections which describes and sheds light on Aboriginal Art, Culture and their societies. The Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery expands over two floors and is a great exhibition to start at, for any one who is new to and those that are intrigued in Aboriginals lifestyle.

This Gallery was opened in March 2000 and was refurbish late last year (2011). The refurbishment saw the introduction of new lighting, signage and interactive screens.

The ground floor of the exhibition features mostly the hunting, gathering and craftsmanship techniques and various tools used. The center part of this floor features the main aboriginal tribes that inhabited South Australia and Adelaide.

The first floor introduces Aboriginal dreamtime stories, craftsmanship of carking, basket weaving and bark paintings. Similar to the lower floor, the inner section features information about Aboriginal tribes around Australia.

To appeal to all ages, interactive computer screens are situated around the floors allowing viewers to follow areas in more depth. The comfy lounges match quite nicely making the viewer linger a little longer.

Both of these floors are hard to navigate as they do not have a natural flow. The inner spaces break up the overall floor, but they do not have a flow into each section. The dark atmosphere lighting also does not help with the navigation, but maybe this is the intension. The intension to make your own path through the exhibition and discover each section are your own pace.

Overall, the exhibition is insightful and gives the viewer a good understanding into what Aboriginal lifestyles are. This exhibition was a great place for me to start to grasp aspects that intrigue and inspire me to look further. In particular I was intrigued in the first floor display with the dreamtime section. The Yuendumu School Doors was a particular interest that sparked my attention. The marks and patterns created movement and describes dreamtime stories. The next post will feature more on the Yuendumu School Doors.

The link below is to the South Australian Museum website that features the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery.

http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/whatson/whattosee/permanent/aacg