Current exhibitions

People, Power, Politics: the first generation of anthropologists at the University of Sydney

In 1923, the International Pan Pacific Science Congress, meeting at the University of Sydney, resolved that the need for anthropological investigation was both pressing and a necessity for our region. Three years later Prof. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown took up the Chair of the first Anthropology Department in Australia.

Using images and objects taken by the first wave of anthropologists in the cultures they visited, this exhibition focuses on the Department in its early years when its members went into Australian Aboriginal and Pacific Islander communities to investigate and test the latest theories and methods of modern anthropology. No longer bound by ‘armchair’ theories, these men and women divided their time between their work as leaders in anthropological sciences and as initially ignorant, if powerful, recorders of other worldviews.

Macleay Museum 1 February – 20 July 2008

A series of talks and performances will be held at the Macleay Museum in association with this exhibition. Click here for event details for further details.

University of Sydney’s Anthropology Department hosts a weekly research seminar series on Thursday 3 - 6pm in Mills Building Room148. All welcome to attend. Click here for more details.

Footprints in the Mythic Landscape: A bark painting story

The paintings made by artists and ceremonial leaders on bark are one of the most internationally recognised aspects of Aboriginal culture. This new selection of works follows the paths and mythic landscapes of ancestral beings from the broad religious tradition shared across Australia.

The unique threads of this religious tradition as they are expressed and shared by artists in these works are celebrated in this bringing together of artworks from across the peoples of the Northern Territory.

Macleay Museum
24 February – December 2008

samples - Karin Findeis

Museums originated in the parlour collections of Europe’s scientists, philosophers and empire builders of the 16th and 17th centuries. For these collectors natural history specimens and cultural objects had equal value and wonder. In samples Karin Findeis illuminates the public, ordered and wonderful spaces of the curiosity cabinet through the portable and intimate medium of jewellery. Karin Findeis is a contemporary jeweller whose work reflects on the relationships between people and objects.

This project has been assisted by the Australia Council, the Australia-China Council and the University of Western Sydney.

Macleay Museum
14 March – 11 June 2008