Lustre: Pearling & Australia is a brand new exhibition showcasing the unique and important role that pearls and pearling have played in our nation’s history, and it opens to the public this Saturday, 20 June 2015, at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
This exhibition has been two years in development by the Western Australian Museum in partnership with Broome’s Yawuru Aboriginal corporation Nyamba Buru Yawuru.
WA Museum CEO Alec Coles said Lustre is about more than pearls – it explores the beauty, significance and intrigue of pearls and pearlshell across time and culture, intertwining ancient Aboriginal trade stories with the more recent industry development that transformed the north of Australia.
“Lustre also investigates the biology of the pearl oyster and its environment as well as the devastating impact of cyclones on the industry. It tells the unique Australian story of the pearlshell and the pearls that they produce. It also explores the relationships between the people of pearling and the industry that emerged in Australia,” Mr Coles said.
For at least 20,000 years Aboriginal people have valued and collected pearlshell, and it eventually became a vital element in long distance trade across northern Australia and into the desert.
“Lustre is an exhibition about pearling that is told largely from an Aboriginal perspective,” Mr Coles said.
“It pays tribute to the skills of Asian and Aboriginal indentured workers, many of whom gave their lives to the industry.
“We are particularly pleased to have received funding from the Department of Culture and the Arts enabling the Museum to engage and train two young Yawuru people as emerging curators. Working in close consultation with Museum experts their skills will be invaluable in developing a cultural centre for their region.”
Featured in the exhibition is a remarkable, 2,000-year-old near-round natural pearl recently discovered in an historic shell midden in a rock shelter in the Admiralty Gulf.
“This is an outstanding discovery, as pearls are rarely, if ever, found in what were rubbish heaps,” Mr Coles said.
The Museum will be using an iBeacon app, Everythere, for the first time. The location aware mobile app allows visitors to discover amazing content and audio through their smart device.
Lustre was developed in close consultation with senior Yawuru, Karajarri, Bardi and Jawi, and Mayala elders from Saltwater Country, and is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program which provides funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia.
The exhibition will be on display at the WA Maritime Museum until 25 October, 2015.
ENDS
Media contact
Flora Perrella
Media and Communications Coordinator
Western Australian Museum
(08) 6552 7804
