Christmas Tour of the new Boola Bardip | WA Museum

(L-R) Bill Bunbury, Bruce Baskerville, Alec Coles and Clare Menck at the conclusion of the tour | photo Lucy Hair

Members of the History Council of WA and the Professional Historians Association (WA) gathered at the entrance to the new museum on the breezy Monday evening of 14 December for a guided tour personally led by Museum CEO Alec Coles.  And what a tour it was! 

The lantern, now with a floating roof, above Hackett Hall | Photo Justin Owen

For just over two hours Mr Coles guided us from the top floor to the bottom, via a circuitous route that covered literally millions of years and square kilometres.  Some of the installations were spectacular, such as Otto the blue whale skeleton swimming through the air in Hackett Hall, or the Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters saga told along a twisting route of brilliantly illuminated artworks.  There were numerous chances to interact, from smelling the smoke of a woodlands bushfire to voting in a secession referendum (but which way did I vote?).  Spectacular architectural features such as the geometric copper-clad spiral staircase contrast with the warm textured limestone of the Old Gaol and its muscat grapevines framed by huge windows.  The features, exhibitions, installations and eponymous boola bardip are far too numerous to recount here, indeed to take in in a single tour.  While many impressions will be left from any visit, perhaps the one that sticks in my mind is the enveloping approaches to the design of the galleries, and the multiple ways in which the material evidence of the past is thematically presented and made available to historians to incorporate into their practice. 

The really is no adequate way to describe the new museum in a mere paragraph or two, it is an experience that needs to be visited and encountered, probably many times over, something that is highly recommended.  Some may find the names and logos of high-powered corporate sponsors on some of the galleries disquieting, the usual cafés and merchandising commercialistic, or the hireable venues appropriating, but these are part of the contemporary museum experience that mark our times.  On the other hand, the spaces and attention devoted to including Indigenous perspectives throughout the museum, not just in the exhibits and installations but place and room names and in the overall concept of boola bardip, or telling multiple stories, is inspiring and sets a model to be emulated by every other museum in Western Australia, from largest to smallest.  Our thanks to Alec Coles, a most knowledgeable and impassioned guide, for such a wonderous tour, and to whom much credit is due for the creation of this newest addition to Perth’s cultural landscape.

Bruce Baskerville