#Museum Of Western Australia

[fordhampr]

MY AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE, PT. XVII - A VISIT TO THE MUSEUM/ART GALLERY IN PERTH

MY AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE, PT. XVII – A VISIT TO THE MUSEUM/ART GALLERY IN PERTH

Wherever I travel, I always make a point of visiting the museums and art galleries to get a better understanding of time, place, culture, history…and back home in Perth was no exception. I grew up and was educated there in the 60s under the old colonial school system that had been so white-washed as to obscure any references to the first Australians, the aboriginal guardians of the land, sea and…

[lozarenn]

Cola Cafe & Museum, Toodyay, Western Australia. A great collection of coca cola related trinkets and retro memorabilia from the past 45 years.

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Western laughing tree frog (Litoria ridibunda), Northern Territory, Australia.

Image credit: Jodi Rowley/Australian Museum

[monoatelier]

年2021 月01 日17 WA Museum Boola Bardip Fujifilm X-T20 + XF18-55mm

[visualdiaryofedith]

I always love museums.

[southeastasianarchaeology]

ASEAN Maritime Museums Collaboration

Dr. Pearson's SEA-Collections project fosters ASEAN-Australia maritime heritage collaboration, highlighting shared histories.

via University of Sydney, 06 March 2024: Dr. Natali Pearson secures a $50,000 Australia-ASEAN Council Grant for the SEA-Collections Project, aimed at enhancing cross-cultural understanding through maritime museum collaborations in five ASEAN countries and Australia. The initiative will foster collaborative museological skills and develop digital exhibitions showcasing over 25 significant maritime…

[ajl1963]

Deco Doings - December, 2023

[mbari-blog]

We’ve got our eyes on you 👀

Using 3D imaging and computational modeling, researchers from The University of Western Australia, the UWA Oceans Institute, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and MBARI compared the structure and function of the eyes of hyperiid amphipods, shrimp-like crustaceans that dwell in the dim waters of the ocean’s twilight zone. 

Hyperia has evolved eyes that keep watch on a wide field of view but can only visualize objects nearby. Phronima—commonly known as the barrel amphipod—can see well into the distance, but at the cost of a very narrow field of view. Phronima has solved this problem by evolving a second pair of eyes for wide, but poor, peripheral vision. 

Learn more about the barrel amphipod in our Animals of the Deep gallery.

Images courtesy of MBARI Adjunct Karen Osborn, Smithsonian Institution

[herpsandbirds]

PLEASE DO YOU HAVE ANY FROGS???

Oh my sweet summer child, you've had the frogs here with you all along...

Magnificent Tree Frog (Ranoidea splendida), family Hylidae, endemic to the Kimberleys of Western Australia

Formerly in the genus Litoria.

photograph by Reptiles4all 

Goliath Frog (Conraua goliath), family Ranidae, found in Cameroon and Equitorial Guinea in West Africa

ENDANGERED.

This is the largest extant frog, growing to a length of 32 cm (12.6 in) snout to vent, and weighing up to 3.25 kg (7.2 lb).

photograph by Mark-Oliver Rödel - Berlin Museum for Natural History

Common Midwife Toad (Alytes cisternasii), male with eggs, family Alytidae, Spain

The male entwines the eggs around his hind legs, and carries them until they are ready to hatch. He then takes them to a body of fresh water.

photograph by Pedro Verdejo

Emei Mustache Toad aka Taosze Spiny Toad, (Leptobrachium boringii), family Megophryidae, endemic to SE China

ENDANGERED.

The larger males grow keratinized spines on the upper lip, which they use to defend territories, during the breeding season. The spines fall off after the breeding season.

photograph: Jingsong Shi

Starry Night Harlequin Toad aka Gowna (Atelopus arsyecue), family Bufonidae, endemic to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

Threatened by habitat loss and the Chytrid fungus.

photographs: Jaime Culebras & Beto_Rueda

[fordhampr]

MY AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE, Pt. XVI - PERTH'S RAAFA AVIATION HERITAGE MUSEUM

MY AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE, Pt. XVI – PERTH’S RAAFA AVIATION HERITAGE MUSEUM

Some of you may know that I am a history junkie…my father was in the RAF just at the close of WWII – he worked on engine maintenance and was stationed in the middle east incl. Palestine and Cyprus. As a little girl he used to show me his book on enemy aircraft recognition (silhouettes of planes) as well as British and Allied planes; I learnt to tell the difference between a Spitfire and a Junker…

[chaotic-archaeologist]

Is there an archaeology thing you wish someone would ask you about because you wanna talk about it and if so would you be willing to talk about it? Here is a picture of my cat in trade but you can look at the picture even if you don’t talk about something

You know what, there IS, and it's all courtesy of @micewithknives!

I'm in charge of teaching my very own class this semester, which means I have full control over the course and I can do pretty much whatever I want. I was given a hand-me-down syllabus and overall I'm not changing much because this is my first time doing something like this and I don't want to get too into the weeds.

But the course is Ancient Civilizations, and we're getting at AUSTRALIA WEEK, babeyyy!!!

I've taken a version of this class and seen examples for a couple more, and I don't think I've ever encountered Australia in a context like this. Ancient Civ classes tend to focus on urban centers and monumental architecture, which is (partially) the result of Western bias for what counts as a "civilization" and means that a lot of cultures get left out.

With Mice's help, I've been learning about early Australian archaeology, and there is SO MUCH TO LEARN! Way too much to fit into a single week, but classes like this are really only capable of giving a very general overview. Anyway, here are some of the readings I'm having my students do:

Mice, I'll turn the stage over to you if you have anything you want to add.

-Reid

[rickybaby]

‘Hell’ actually lives at the Motor Museum of Western Australia in Whitman Park, Perth! And she is one of the rare display cars that still has her Renault engine in!

[phoenixyfriend]

That one post about great domestic policy and HORRIFIC foreign policy just does not stop being true

Domestic Policy Win: The American Museum of Natural History in NYC is closing down two entire exhibits of Native American belongings in order to comply with a federal order that requires museums to obtain the consent of indigenous nations in order to display artifacts of native origin. The linked ProPublica article specifies that the exhibits in question are the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls. To quote:

The new federal regulations, which went into effect this month, prohibit the display of items subject to NAGPRA without tribal consent and ban all research done without tribal consent. In addition, the regulations closed a loophole that had allowed museums such as the American Museum of Natural History to keep ancestral remains and burial items by claiming that they are “culturally unidentifiable” — meaning in their view they could not be connected to present-day Indigenous communities based on available evidence — and therefore could not readily be returned to tribes.

Foreign Policy Fail: The United States, the UK, and several other nations, in response to claims that several members of UNRWA were involved in the Oct. 7th attacks, have cut funding to the relief agency in question. The Al Jazeera article profiles the Palestinian response, and also specifies that this funding was pulled after the UNRWA launched an investigation in response to Israel's allegations that 12 members of the relief agency were involved.

Australia, Canada, Italy and the United States said they would halt funding to the agency, while European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-member bloc would “assess further steps and draw lessons based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation”. Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom then also joined the list of countries pausing financial aid to the UN agency, whose facilities where displaced Palestinians sought shelter have been repeatedly attacked in Israeli air raids. Ireland and Norway, however, expressed continued support for UNRWA, saying the agency does crucial work to help Palestinians displaced and in desperate need of assistance in Gaza. - Al Jazeera

"One million displaced people are currently taking refuge in and around UNRWA buildings. They are the ones who will suffer as a result of this decision," said Mr Gunness, adding: "The curtailing of UNRWA services will also destabilise the region at a time when Western governments are trying to contain a regional conflagration." [...] The US, Germany and the EU are among some of UNRWA's biggest donors. - BBC

Unfortunately, the WSJ article is paywalled, so I can't access the full thing for a quote.

Anyway. Call your reps. I'm not even talking to just the Americans this time, call your fucking reps. If they aren't donating to UNRWA, then make them do something. Is the organization possibly a security risk, and the concerns legitimate? Maybe! But you cannot cut the funding that is keeping 2.3mill people alive on an already shoestring budget and not immediately put a backup security net in place.

Until then, pick a charity with a good rating, donate and signal boost it, and politely harass your politicians.

Politely as in "don't shout at or cuss out the staffers that man the phone lines," because they are not your reps, but also because your number is going to get blocked and then you won't be able to pressure them in the future. Do be firm, though.

I'm personally picking the PCRF this time, since one of the three remaining hospitals in south Gaza has been evacuated and shut down, and the evacuees reportedly include women who just got C-sections, which means the evacuees also include newborns, and medical care is in high demand. They're also currently focused on providing clean drinking water to the people of Palestine. That said, so is food, and shelter, and winter clothing. Pick a need, find a charity, and toss them some money.

[joezworld]

I did a Christmas

I wrote a Christmas story. It is of considerable length. @mean-scarlet-deceiver helped considerably in its creation.

No, you don't get it all at once. Also, I'm not tagging it any differently because a lot happens in this! If you want to find out, you gotta read it. (And put tags in your reblogs so I can see what you think of it. Please.)

June, 1985

The mail came over the span of a month. It came as postcards, letters, overstuffed mailers, and packages that weighed “a bloody ton!”

They came from as near as Cumbria and as far away as Western Australia. 

The paper ranged from lined yellow notebook paper to cream-colored heavy cardstock, and everything in between. 

Letterhead was common: SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON. Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, Hemel Hempstead. Hamersley Iron, Port Dampier, Western Australia. NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM, YORK. Government of Ontario Transit, Union Station, Toronto. North Yorkshire Moors Railway, 12 Park Street, Pickering, North Yorkshire, YO18 7AJ.

Bluebell Railway, Sheffield Park Station, East Sussex

Vale of Rheidol Railway, Park Avenue, Aberystwyth

Great Central Railway, Loughborough

H.P. Bulmers Railway Centre, Hereford

-

They were typed and hand-written in equal measure. Some were obviously transcribed verbatim. Others had notes from the oftentimes unwilling stenographer peppered throughout. One contained a second sheet of paper, informing the recipient that the author had been so enraged that he’d insisted on writing the letter himself. 

The letters started off normally, 

“Dear Oliver…”

“Duck,”

“7101” 

“Montague,”

“Ollie…”

“Brother,”

-

“I hope that this letter finds you well.”

“I’m pleased to hear you’re alright.”

“Let me start by saying that I’d be there myself if I were able.”

“THANK GOD THAT YOU ARE OKAY.”

“This will be a short letter. A longer one may follow.”

-

But very quickly grew… boisterous. 

“I cannot believe what’s happened.”

“I’m blindingly upset on your behalf!”

“How dare he.”

“IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT HE DID IT, AND YET HE DID.”

“[I don’t know what she said next but it sounded really angry]”

“Trust me when I say that I am going to deal with him.”

“-it exceeds any kind of disrespect amongst engines that I have ever heard of.”

“I had never even assumed one of their kind could stoop so low…”

“With that out of the way, let me be the first inmate to welcome you to the asylum...” 

[mybeingthere]

"When I carve shell it comes from our country.

I tell personal and spiritual stories.

It’s about keeping our culture alive, and, when I dance, I am proud of who I am."

Russell ‘Wossy’ Davey Jooda, Bardi dancer and pearlshell carver, 2015

Decorated pearl shell pendants from the Kimberley region, Western Australia. These have been incised with traditional Aboriginal as well as more contemporary designs, and filled in with red ochre.

"Pearl shell was the highly prized focus of ritual and exchange networks in Australia. Its glistening iridescent qualities embody the shimmer of water, rain, and lightning, evoking ideas of spiritual well-being and ancestral connection. Engraved pearl shell pendants were given to boys during rites that marked their transition to adulthood and were predominantly used and worn by men during ceremonies, attached by belts or necklaces of hair string, with the power to bring rain or heal the sick.

Known by a variety of local names (including riji, jakuli, longkalongka) they were, and in many areas still are, exchanged along a vast network of overland trade routes that extends along the western coast and across the vast desert interior as far as Australia’s southern shore, more than a thousand miles away. Carved from the shell of the gold-lipped pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima; a species not endangered in the region), each is engraved with a series of angular geometric motifs which are filled with red ochre and fat, or powdered charcoal to highlight dynamic designs.

These linear elements meander across the surface of the lustrous inner lip of the shell and are typically composed of three parallel lines which flow and interlock to create animated designs. The geometry of these interlocking zig-zags and meandering lines indicate the movement of water, so vital to life, in its many manifestations: the rain of storm clouds, the ebb and flow of tides, and the tracks of ancestral beings such as the Lightning Snake across the landscape."

https://museum.wa.gov.au/.../lustre-online-text-panels/guwan

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Thanks to @plokool and @killdeercheer for helping me put this together in a way that wasn't too usa or europe biased ^_^