Due to the overwhelming success of February's program for children under five, 'Time to Play' will be running for one week after each school holiday and throughout February 2002! From Monday 15 to Friday 19 October, the program will be based on our exhibition Catching... the harbour - so come along and explore the surprising animal life of Sydney Harbour, have fun listening to stories and top off a great day by making a fish print to take home. For further details, please call Sarah Main, Early Childhood Coordinator, on
(02) 9320 6321.
On the afternoon of 24 May, our volunteers were joined by Museum management to celebrate the valuable contribution they make to realising the goals of the Museum. Professor Mike Archer, in his speech acknowledging their commitment to the Museum, announced that the volunteer contingent was the largest single group in the Museum and that each volunteer contributes some $97,000 worth of services in their average eight-year stint at the Museum. The afternoon culminated with a photographic session on the historic Barnett Wing stairs in the Museum's College Street Foyer.
Peter White, Aboriginal Heritage Officer with the Australian Museum's Aboriginal Heritage Unit, recently showcased the Museum's cultural services and new information technology initiatives to an international audience in Paris. Peter presented the prototype of an interactive CD-ROM called 'Keeping Culture' at the UNESCO New Technology, Anthropology, Museology and Indigenous Knowledge symposium. Developed with the Museum's multi-media unit, 'Keeping Culture' is a valuable guide that will soon be available to Aboriginal communities to assist them with the development and maintenance of cultural centres and keeping places in New South Wales.
Following the discovery early last year of fragments of unusual Lapita pots depicting three-dimensional moulded faces, scientists from the Australian Museum and the University of Sydney have just headed to Boduna Island in the province of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, on an underwater archaeological expedition. According to the Museum's Dr Robin Torrence, one of the most interesting features of the pieces (believed to be more than 3000 years old) is the intricate dentate-stamp decoration that depicts tattooing on the moulded faces. Since the decoration is so elaborate, it seems likely that the pots were used only for special occasions and ceremonies. The expedition team, which includes three archaeologists, two archaeological divers and one representative from the Papua New Guinea National Museum, hopes that by finding further examples of the ancient pottery, they may be able to piece together an understanding of the people who inhabited the region, their lifestyles, the trade they engaged in and, most excitingly, discover whose faces are depicted on these unique fragments. Stay tuned for further news on this exciting expedition.
Find out what it is like to be an Australian Museum ichthyologist. This fully supervised day-long program is aimed at budding young scientists in years 3 to 6 and includes a number of fishy activitiessuch as:
Limited places are available for this program. For information and bookings, call the Australian Museum Society on (02) 9320 6225.
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