Look what they've done to our library!

So said the Weekend Herald today about the Mitchell State Library. What they've done of course is a terrific refurbishment of all their exhibition galleries. They are now able to properly display a lot more of their treasured possessions.

I turned up in time for the traditional smoking ceremony, carried out on the front steps.

With the building appropriately cleansed, the visitors made their way in.  We were all pretty impressed.

Among the exhibits are six collections of  UNESCO-listed things. The 'UNESCO Six include the journals of many of the First Fleet participants, some magnificent photography collections, the Miles Dunphy bushwalking journals, and the original copy of Dorothea Mackellar's 'The Core of my Heart' (aka 'I Love a Sunburnt Country').

Several galleries of historical paintings too by local artists.











And the main reading room is looking as good as ever.

Museum of Sydney

I've long had a soft spot for  the Museum of Sydney, although it's very small, and doesn't have a great deal of stuff in it.



It's a pleasant space though, and does a good job of telling you a bit about the history of the city in the hour or so that you devote to it.






There's usually a special exhibition on, like the Lloyd Rees black & white drawings of early twentieth century Sydney that I encountered today.



The Museum of Sydney is at the junction of Phillip and Bridge Streets, on the site of the first Government House, a model of which is perched above some of the relics unearthed from the site.









One new (to me) permanent addition is the room devoted to the local aboriginal clans, and the unfortunate history of their early interactions with the British settlers.



I've always been most taken though, with the scale models of the First Fleet ships - usually all 11 of them, though one seemed to have gone missing today. Until I first set eyes on this, I'd somehow had much less of an idea of what Governor Phillip's amazing expedition half way across the world had been all about. And remember, they all had to stay within sight of each other!

Invasion Day

"Always was, always will be......... Aboriginal land". The continuous chant was loud, the numbers were large, and it made an interesting and meritorious alternative to the usual Australia Day attractions. The Invasion Day march went from the Block in Redfern into the city.

  
There were an awful lot of police officers on duty for it, a lot of them with video cameras. As far as I'm aware there weren't any untoward incidents requiring any subsequent use of the footage.

From the pointy political end of the issue, on to the softer sell. I walked back to Victoria Park in Camperdown, where the annual Yabun Festival of aboriginal culture was being held. 'Yabun', by the way, means 'music to a beat', and there was lots of music, plus traditional dancing demonstrations, and information and other stalls selling T shirts with the message below.

The Australia Day vs Invasion Day dichotomy comes up every year. And so it should. At least until they move Australia Day to the first of January, to commemorate the founding of Australia in 1901, rather than the day in 1788 that the British officers of the First Fleet erected a flagpole at Sydney Cove and declared New South Wales as a British colony. (This was almost a week after they arrived in Botany Bay, by the way.)

It's good anyway to see that the mainstream Australia Day organisers are incorporating indigenous performers and ceremonies into the proceedings too. Here's Jessica Mauboy singing the national anthem in the Gadigal (Sydney) language on top of the Harbour Bridge. Click here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g61BocUcss0