Bronwyn Labrum, Senior Lecturer in the College of Creative Arts at Massey University takes us through the steps of how to read material culture.

First, what is material culture? Well, it’s that everyday stuff we have in our kitchens, the rinky dinky technology things that make our life interesting, and the clothes that we wear. But the key issue here is what happens to all this stuff once it gets into the hands of an historian. Bronwyn Labrum, Fiona McKergow and Stephanie Gibson have co-edited a book called Looking Flash (Auckland University Press). Bronwyn and the Museum Detective romp through a number of topics including kilts, feather cloaks, bathing costumes, survival wear and the iconic black woollen singlet. Somehow we venture off on topics as diverse as buzzy bees, cheap cardigans, Kiwiana, Joan of Arc and Paris Hilton…It’s a ripping good yarn.

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, was the keynote speaker at the 2008 Museums Aotearoa Conference held in Dunedin from 9-11 April.

David has led a number of big museum projects from the International Slavery Museum to, more recently, the new Museum of Liverpool. While David might be considered a bit a of statesman—the OBE certainly helps—his ideas are refreshingly provocative. You see, I’d intended David to debate whether museums were about stories or objects, and discuss the importance of really good mission statements, but then he started talking about how museums had a confidence problem which could seriously impair their ability to be popular. So if you’re interested in debates about elitism, democratisation, museum management, and government funding, keep listening!

This interview was recorded in one of the exhibition spaces at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and we were faced with both the ambient gallery soundtrack and the chime of the town clocks.

Peter Peryer has been taking photos for over 30 years. What he can do with the camera is phenomenal, and the way that he talks and writes about photography is even better. Peter is the second artist to be invited to live in a Plischke-designed home in Alexandra; the previous recipient of the Henderson residency was writer Vincent O’Sullivan. This house is totally, totally fabulous (in a Frank Lloyd Wright sort of way). The view is to die for: you look over the Clutha River and onto the far-away hills of the Maniototo that Grahame Sydney likes to paint. Peter is at the beginning of his residency, and we talked about the challenges he was facing photographing those quirky things that Alexandra is known for: autumn leaves, rocks, and rabbits. You can see some of his photos on his blog. Let’s hope he produces a 2009 Calendar.

Victoria Leachman, Rights Manager, Te Papa, guides us through patents, copyright, and intellectual property. We find out what kind of things you can copyright, why the criteria are so strict, what’s so special about being dead for 50 years (or 70 years if you’re from the UK), and what the deal is with Creative Commons licences.

Lucy Hoffman, Web Manager, Te Papa, is our guest interviewer. Here’s a pdf about copyright, supplied by National Services Te Paerangi of Te Papa.

For the second year running the Museum Detective has made it through to the finals of the New Zealand Radio Awards.

Please cross your fingers and toes for me on 3 May; this is the night when the winners are announced. Time to find a frock…

The Museum Detective visited Wellington during the International Festival of the Arts, and had a jolly good yarn about ukuleles, anarchy, and night-club bouncers with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. We reveal whether they actually all worked for the BBC, the link between ukuleles and fishing line, and what it means to play the whole universe of music through one instrument. This is real virtuoso stuff, and there’s even a museum connection!

Tony Marshall, Senior Librarian of the Heritage Collections at the State Library of Tasmania, lifts the lid on the Crowther Collection. The collection comprises an extraordinary assortment of books, many of which a lot were written by ex-convicts. There are also many non-bookish things like paintings, furniture, maps, whale oil, medical equipment, and, um, bladderstones. The bladderstones look like cute fossilised bird’s eggs and have a slight ‘medical whiff’ about them.

The State Library of Tasmania is certainly more than books; it has heritage collections, extensive archives, it serves the local school libraries, and operates as a public library, meaning it’s open for usual borrowing needs.

Bladderstones from the Crowther collection

Sue Atkinson is a museum volunteer at the Woodsdale Museum, which sits smack bang in the middle of the wopwops. Operated entirely by volunteer labour, this museum got off the ground two years ago with a number of grants. It now chugs along quite nicely by dedicated fundraising drives which involve a lot of good old fashioned farming hospitality.

The Museum is an old schoolhouse: one half of the building is dedicated to the history of the school, and the other rooms show domestic life in early-1900s rural Tasmania. We start the tour in the kitchen – two mannequins are seated at the table, mum and child. On the table are packages of food, and a cup of tea: you get the feeling it would be nice to sit down and have a wee chat about what life was like in Woodsdale in 1907.

Roger Fyfe, Senior Curator of Ethnography, Canterbury Museum dismantles a number of unflattering myths surrounding the Moriori of the Chatham Islands. Up for grabs were the following questions: Were they cannibals or cannibalised? Where did they come from—Polynesian or Melanesia? Were they the original New Zealanders, and did they arrive by accident? Are they extinct? And importantly, is the weather ever nice on this little cluster of islands sitting in the far eastern seas of mainland New Zealand?

While Roger gushes about the flora and fauna of the Chathams, and tries to convince the Museum Detective that he even got sunburnt there (once), he then settles into a heady discussion about the Moriori. We find out that there is plenty of evidence that supports the theory that the Moriori settlement of the Chathams was intentional, that the Moriori were enslaved by the early Maori and then whalers, they were not included in the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (the document that formed this little nation) which basically nullified their right to tribal land, and then we find out that the authors of Department of Education publications decided that the race had died out! Now that is serious bad press.

As usual, we find time for some tall tales and there’s a story about a certain ethnographer who stowed away in a ship with a meat pie tucked in his pocket in order to research the inhabitants of the Chathams. Indeed, that left me wondering if museum travel budgets have always been that meagre.

Well, Tasmania was wonderful and the museum and library folks were very welcoming. As promised here is a summary of my podcasting message to museums, art galleries and heritage organisations.

Seven reasons why museums should podcast.

• It can help build more audiences (especially the digital native generation.)
• Extend the virtual museums visitor’s experience (which we know is growing.)
• Enhance existing educational resources.
• Extend the reach of the museum’s public programmes e.g. lecture webcasts.
• Disseminate research undertaken by museum staff.
• It’s relatively low cost, low risk venture.
• It’s fun.

And what is podcasting?
In simple terms podcasting means radio over the web. What is nice to know is that broadcasting museum stories is not new. In 1952 Orson Welles was creating shows featuring objects from Scotland Yard’s Black Museum.

Podcast concepts:

1. Hidden Treasures – stories about objects from the storage rooms.
2. Audio tours of exhibits, heritage sites, botanic gardens, wildlife parks, historic homesteads.
3. What do you do? How do you do that? e.g. how do you stuff a penguin, clean a painting, pin down a bug, what is copyright?
4. Big ideas – discussions about heady topics e.g. evolution, time, survival, mathematical principles, colonisation …
5. Curriculum stories for schools.
6. Public lectures and debates – these should be recorded and uploaded to the web for people who couldn’t make the big night out.
7. Audio archives – making oral history accessible to the wider community (once the copyright and permissions have been sorted.)
8. Professional development – training audio that outline principles of good museum practice e.g. caring for your collection, how to accession objects, writing a collection policy.