The Museums Galleries Australia (MGA) Indigenous 10-Year Roadmap was the focus of a recent event hosted by the Digital Government Policy & Innovation branch of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI).
The presentation at the Powerhouse Museum by MGA Director Alex Marsden and Terry Janke, consultant on the MGA’s 10-year Indigenous Roadmap, looked at how to advance greater participation and representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in museums and galleries.
Our goal was to learn from an exemplary effort to engage and co-design an all-of-sector roadmap with Indigenous communities across Australia. It reflects an important evolution, from consultation and recruitment strategies, both of which remain important to understand and embrace community values and needs in developing a mutually beneficial path forward.
The talk and roadmap sets out the values and principles the MGA commits to and the key stages of project delivery the MGA will embark on to progress its engagement and commitment to Indigenous culture and communities. The project also seeks to ensure that museums across Australia employ and invest in the development of more Indigenous staff to lead the work on protecting, curating and explaining Aboriginal cultural history. All museums across Australia have signed up to the roadmap and it offers inspiration, reflects lessons learned and provides a rough map for the NSW public sector to consider.
The MGA’s roadmap will be guided by five goals:
- Reimaging representation
- Embedding Indigenous values into museum and gallery business
- Increasing Indigenous opportunity
- Two way caretaking of cultural material
- Connecting with Indigenous communities
Across NSW Government, many agencies have detailed Reconciliation Action Plans, recruitment targets and internal support groups. Within the DFSI, we have been exploring the idea of country-centred design and finding mutual ways forward when working between cultures, as well as how we can learn from the many Aboriginal language groups across the state.
Some key take-outs from the presentation:
- The interest in engagement is mutual; 85 per cent of Indigenous people surveyed are “super keen or interested” in a closer connection with a museum or gallery.
- Only 21 per cent of museums have Reconciliation Action Plans, and 27 per cent have outreach projects with Indigenous communities.
- Representation of Indigenous people at an executive level is central to the incorporation of Indigenous values into the sector.
- There must be genuine collaboration and engagement during projects, not just a “tick-the-box" approach.
- The vision for 2029 includes establishing welcoming spaces, building strong relationships, getting more Indigenous people in positions of influence, celebrating Indigenous voices, and more.