Bringing Country to the museum in Mangal Bungal: Clever Hands

Written by Lizzie Muller, Creative Engagement Advisor, Mangal Bungal

We have to start showcasing our culture and using our own natural resources from our Country; so that people who don’t have a chance to go back to Country get to see it firsthand in the museum.

Tanya Yoren, Dingaal Clan, Director of Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation and Mangal Bungal Creative Lead

Tanya Yoren is lead artist of Mangal Bungal: Clever Hands – three days of creative activities that bring to life stories behind the exhibition Connections across the Coral Sea: A story of movement.

The exhibition explores thousands of years of travel and trade between First Nations peoples of northeast Australia, Torres Strait, and Papua New Guinea. It features compelling new archaeological research from Jiigurru (Lizard Island).

As a member of the Dingaal clan, Tanya is one of the Traditional Owners of Jiigurru. Her vision is to bring her Country to Queensland Museum so visitors can connect stories and objects in the exhibition with the place they come from. Natural materials from the island (sand, shells, seed pods and She-oak leaves) create a physical connection to Jiigurru, combined with stunning animations of its cultural sites.

In this “home-away-from-home”, Dingaal community members will perform stories and dances, and engage visitors of all ages in hands-on creative activities.

Dingaal women Yaraguul, Kristen and Amanda looking out across Blue Lagoon, Palfrey and South Direction Island in the distance, Jiigurru (Lizard) Island, March 2023. Image: Queensland Museum, Bridget Wall.

Why is it important to create this home-away-from-home?

Over many years Dingaal and Ngurrumungu Traditional Owners have worked closely with archaeologists to uncover evidence of the extraordinary achievements and everyday lives of their ancestors. During field work, knowledge is shared in context, through voices and hands, gestures and drawing. Working together on Country is vital because Dingaal stories are profoundly connected to place.

Some of the richness of this personal exchange on Country will always be lost in museum exhibitions. But museums are more than sites of display. They are also social spaces and sites of encounter.

Mangal Bungal brings this embodied way of sharing knowledge on Country to the museum. Building on the rich resource of the Connections across the Coral Sea exhibition it creates a unique opportunity for the public to engage with Dingaal stories, in Tanya’s words, “firsthand”.

Jellico Yoren preparing ochre collected from Jiigurru (Lizard) Island, March 2023. Image: Deakin MotionLab 

Reconnecting with Country

The impact of Mangal Bungal goes beyond public engagement. It has also offered the Dingaal community themselves an opportunity to reconnect with Country and knowledge.

In preparation for the program Dingaal community members travelled to Jiigurru on a special trip to recall stories and gather natural materials to bring with them to the museum. This was a long-awaited return to Country for some elders, and a first visit to the island for some of the younger generation. That experience has guided the activities planned for Queensland Museum, which foster inter-generational learning.

Tanya describes natural resources from Country as a “survival kit” that is activated through techniques passed down through the generations by “clever hands”. Working creatively with materials from Country connects her to her ancestors. Mangal Bungal brings this survival kit to the museum, in her words to “bring stories and Dreamtime materials to life”. It is an act of generosity that invites the public to take part in this ongoing work of knowledge sharing and cultural endurance.

Flipping the script

In my own research I think about how to move beyond the colonial origins of museums. This question often foregrounds repatriation; the vital work of returning objects from museum collections to the Country they were taken from.

In Mangal Bungal, Tanya and the Dingaal artists take a different tack. Their experiment flips the script and brings Country to the museum. It shows how to turn the museum into a home where objects, stories and people can belong.

Connections across the Coral Sea highlights the circulation of objects and ideas. Coinciding with the exhibition’s final weekend, Mangal Bungal rekindles and expands that theme. By bringing Jiigurru Country to Brisbane, Tanya and the Dingaal artists, are using the museum as a place for cultural exchange.

Exhibitions are sometimes imagined as the end of long journeys of research and preparation. But they are better understood as sites of new beginnings. Audiences bring their own knowledge, create new meanings, and initiate new journeys through their encounters with exhibitions.

In this space of possibilities, Mangal Bungal brings ancient stories to new listeners, and invites audiences to join in the timeless telling of tales.

Explore the complete program of activities as part of Mangal Bungal: Clever Hands, at Queensland Museum from 7 – 9 July 2023.

Lizzie Muller is Mangal Bungal’s creative engagement advisor. She researches the future of knowledge co-creation in museums as Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney. Lizzie initiated Mangal Bungal in her role as Chief Investigator with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH).

Mangal Bungal is the third project in the CABAH Art Series, which commissions artists to engage audiences imaginatively in Australia’s deep-time story. It is a Queensland Museum event created in partnership with the Dingaal people through the Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation, and CABAH.

Mangal Bungal Credits

Tanya Yoren – Creative lead and Director of Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation

Dingaal Community, artists, performers, and advisors

  • Zyandah Deeral
  • Shailand Deeral-Rosendale – Director of Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation
  • Jamiel Gibson
  • Kenneth McLean – Chairperson and Director of Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation
  • Elaine McGreen
  • Stephen Pilcher (didgeridoo)
  • Little Vernon Roughsey
  • Blaneton Roughsey
  • Thudu Thompson
  • Theresa Thompson
  • Stanton Thompson
  • Bryanne Darkan Yoren
  • Phylicia Yoren
  • Susan Yoren
  • Vernon Yoren
  • Zykiem Yoren

Core creative support team

  • Bianca Beetson – First Nations engagement, Queensland Museum Network
  • Lizzie Crouch – Project initiator and creative producer, UNSW/CABAH
  • Shelley Dunlop – Museum project manager, Queensland Museum Network
  • Lizzie Muller – Project initiator and engagement advisor, UNSW/CABAH
  • Jodie Muraca – Engagement development and delivery, Queensland Museum Network
  • Martin Potter – Filmmaker, Deakin/CABAH
  • Avril Quaill – First Nations engagement, Queensland Museum Network
  • Sean Ulm – CABAH research and community engagement advisor, JCU/CABAH
  • Bridget Wall – Museum project lead, First Nations engagement, Queensland Museum Network

Queensland Museum Network

  • David Allen
  • Leitha Assan
  • Cathy ter Bogt
  • Laura Cantrell
  • Casey Davidson
  • Cassie Grace
  • Kelli Grennan
  • Kylie Hay
  • Merryn Major
  • Geraldine Mate
  • Karen Kindt
  • Maddy McAllister
  • Imelda Miller
  • Chris Michalas
  • Zoe McKinnon
  • Nicole Polzi
  • Sophie Price
  • Christopher Salter
  • John Stotchek

With thanks to the wider museum team for their support of Mangal Bungal: Clever Hands

CABAH researchers and team

  • Michael Kneppers
  • Kayla Turner-Kose
  • Ariana Lambrides
  • Ian McNiven
  • Jacqueline Wales, Communications and Media Manager, CABAH
  • Nathan Wright, Chief Operating Officer, CABAH

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