Australia’s natural history museums, like many government institutions that played a role in colonisation, have been viewed with great suspicion by First Nations Peoples. Today, the Australian Museum stands firm in its commitment to acknowledge the wrongs of the past. Part of that process is truth-telling. In this episode, Laura McBride – Wailwan and Kooma woman, and Director, First Nations, at the Australian Museum – shares three important pieces of the 2021 exhibition, Unsettled.  

We hear from Aunty Fay Mosely, a Wiradjuri Elder who was taken from her family when she was ten years old; we will travel back to 1770 to hear the accounts of Kaureg Ppeoples on the arrival of Cook’s tall ship; and we will return to the present to learn an Aboriginal teaching of caring for one another and sharing with one another. 

Guests: Aunty Fay Mosley, Uncle Richard Waubin Aken, and Fleur and Laurance Magick Dennis 

Host: Laura McBride

Find images, extra stories and transcript at australian.museum/explore

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Elder Waubin Richard Aken is a Traditional Owner of the island of Tuined and appointed Tribal Historian for Kaurareg First Nations people. He works with elders of the Kaurareg lands and waters to strengthen alliances with the wider Cape York community. Richard was involved in the re-establishment of the Horn Island community through a Native Title Claim of the Kaurareg nation and actively participates in the maintenance of his people’s unique culture. 

Fleur and Laurance Magick Dennis Milan Dhiiyaan means “One Family or One Mob”. We are referring to all of us, all of humanity, as one family on mother earth. Milan Dhiiyaan provides Aboriginal cultural immersion experiences for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people of our Australian and global community. Milan Dhiiyaan is led by Wiradjuri/Wailwaan songwoman and senior cultural educator Nyimirr (Fleur Magick Dennis) and Wailwaan/Yuin songman and senior cultural educator Millmullian (Laurance Magick Dennis).

Aunty Fay Mosely is a strong Wiradjuri woman, Elder, artist and advocate for the Stolen Generations, working hard to support other stolen children in re-connecting with their families and cultures, and having their stories heard. 

Laura McBride is a Wailwan and Kooma woman and Director, First Nations at the Australian Museum. In this role, Laura leads the First Nations strategic direction and operations, as well as managing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Pasifika collections. Laura’s vision for the AM centres on prioritising and amplifying First Nations voices so that Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Pacific communities represent themselves and their cultures within the Museum. Laura’s projects at the AM include the development of Garrigarrang: Sea Country and the award-winning GADI exhibition. She conducted ground-breaking First Nations community consultation through The 2020 Project that informed the First Nations-led exhibition Unsettled, which she co-curated, that opened at the AM in May 2021. Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts (University of Sydney) with a double Major in Psychology and Australian Indigenous Studies, and a Master of Aboriginal Education (University of Technology Sydney). 

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