The WA Museum Boola Bardip opens later this month with a ground-breaking, internationally renowned special exhibition, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters.
Featuring more than 300 paintings and objects plus song, dance, photography and multimedia, Songlines shares the story of the Seven Sisters as they traverse the continent from Roebourne in Western Australia, through Martu and Ngaanyatjarra lands in the west, to the APY (Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands.
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters is the culmination of more than five years of collaboration between Aboriginal communities and the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Museum of Australia (NMA).
The display includes the world’s highest resolution travelling DomeLab, where visitors can immerse themselves in images of Seven Sisters rock art from the remote Cave Hill site in the APY lands of South Australia, as well as animated artworks, and the transit of the Orion constellation and the Pleiades star cluster.
Also opening at the new WA Museum Boola Bardip is a stunning collection of artworks from Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route. Yiwarra Kuju shares the story of the Canning Stock Route’s impact and the importance of the Country around it, expressed through Aboriginal voices and interpreted through Aboriginal eyes. Developed by local creative agency FORM, this extraordinary endeavour now sits in the collections of the NMA.
Both collections are coming to Western Australia as part of a special partnership between the WA Museum and the NMA that is now in its fifth year. Entry to the exhibitions is free of charge.
The WA Museum Boola Bardip opens on November 21, 2020. Close to 70,000 people have entered the ballot to be among the first to visit the museum during the nine-day opening festival, and the first 9,500 successful tickets have been allocated.
Work continues on allocating the remaining 47,500 tickets. For those who remain unsuccessful in the ballot, tickets will be available for subsequent weeks.
As stated by Culture and the Arts Minister David Templeman:
“It is fitting that our stunning new WA Museum Boola Bardip opens with the outstanding exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters.
“When it opened at the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Museum of Australia in Canberra it drew record crowds, and I am confident the people of Western Australia will be just as enthusiastic about this award-winning exhibition.
“We are also delighted to be able to display stunning artworks from Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route at the museum when it opens. This is a unique Aboriginal story of contact, conflict, survival, exodus and return, and it will be a significant part of the new WA Museum Boola Bardip experience.
“I encourage everyone to visit the new WA Museum and experience the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories woven throughout that share the unique stories of Western Australia.”
As stated by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt:
“Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters is an Aboriginal-led exhibition that takes visitors on a journey along the epic Seven Sisters Dreaming tracks.
“Created in partnership with the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Museum of Australia, Songlines was initiated by Aboriginal elders who wanted to preserve the Seven Sisters stories for future generations.
“It is a remarkable exhibition with much of its content and stories sourced from the Martu and Ngaanyatjarra communities of Western Australia.
“Just as it is locally very important, it is an exhibition of international significance and I am delighted that WA audiences will have the opportunity to experience it at the new WA Museum Boola Bardip.”
Culture and the Arts Minister’s office – 6552 5400
