Documenting Australia’s 2019/2020 bushfires

ABSTRACT

Vast, and unprecedented, bushfires swept across the Australian continent in 2019/2020 signalling a traumatic transition into the Anthropocene. As global heating and other dimensions of this new epoch transform our physical and emotional environments, how might museums empower people to face, accept and respond to the great emotional, cultural and technical challenges of our times? Framed within the museum’s broader thinking about the Anthropocene and imminent redevelopment of its environmental history gallery, this paper reflects on challenges and opportunities in the process of connecting with Australian communities to document the 2019/2020 bushfire season. It includes discussions of the acquisition of the Bungendore Firies’ Fridge and the community engagement work that surrounds the acquisition of a payphone – the only public payphone in the town of Cobargo in regional New South Wales – that was charred by the deadly fires. Museums, we argue, can and often do provide important spaces to collectively acknowledge and honour the material, ecological and social connectivities that hold our communities together and thereby empower people to respond with dedication.

KEYWORDS:

• Museums
• Anthropocene
• environmental history
• bushfires
• climate change

Notes on contributors

George Main is a Senior Curator and Head of the Centre for Anthropocene Australia at the National Museum of Australia. As an environmental historian and curator, his work focuses on Australian agriculture and the role of museums in fostering responsive ties between people and the more-than-human world.

Craig Middleton is a Curator at the National Museum of Australia and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. He joined the museum in 2019 with a strong background in contemporary Australian history, LGBTIQ+ histories, contemporary collecting, and critical museology.

Martha Sear is Head, Curatorial Centres at the National Museum of Australia. She leads the Curatorial Centres including coordinating the work of the team, research program, partnerships, ideas generation and development of the overall Museum experience.

Libby Stewart is a Senior Curator and Head, Centre for Defining Moments in Australian History at the National Museum of Australia. She has a background in the social impacts of war, democratic change in Australia, women’s suffrage, and modern political history.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).