Across the world's great museums — in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and across Australia — thousands of objects made by Luritja and neighbouring peoples sit in storage rooms and display cases, far from the Country and the communities that created them. The Luritja Museum Project is Ikuntji Artists' long-term commitment to finding those objects, naming them, providing cultural knowledge about them, and advocating for their return.
Since 2017, Ikuntji artists and art workers have travelled to museums, galleries and collections across Australia and Europe to visit, identify and share cultural information about Luritja objects held in overseas collections. This project has been proudly funded by the Australia Council for the Arts.
There are an estimated 39,000 Indigenous Australian objects held in collections across the United Kingdom and Ireland alone. Many more are held throughout Europe. These objects — ininti seed necklaces, coolimans, hair strings, spears, boomerangs — were made by people, for specific cultural purposes, in specific places. They carry stories. They carry Law.
For the artists of Ikuntji, this is not abstract heritage policy. These are objects made by their grandmothers and grandfathers. When artist Jeffrey Zimran visited a German museum, he described the experience this way:
"Sometimes they could hear us talking in language — and they could feel sad, missing the language and their home countries."
Both Walter Jugadai and Jeffrey Zimran have been clear about their desire to see the most significant Tjukurrpa objects returned to Australia. The Museum Project is how Ikuntji Artists works toward that goal.
In February 2020, Roseranna Larry, Keturah Zimran, Walter Jugadai and Jeffrey Zimran travelled to Germany and Switzerland, visiting three major institutions:
Among the objects viewed were ininti seed necklaces, coolimans, hair strings, spears and boomerangs — many of which the artists were able to identify and connect to specific Country and cultural knowledge. It was, as one caption read at the time: "The first time ever. Luritja women, holding objects from their Country, in a museum on the other side of the world."
Artist Keturah Zimran and art worker Kelly Dixon discuss the Museum Project — where they have gone, what they have seen, and the mixed emotions of encountering objects made by their own people held in overseas collections.
Walter Jugadai and Jeffrey Zimran travelled overseas as part of the same long-term museum research, visiting collections in international museums and providing cultural knowledge about objects from Ikuntji and surrounding language groups.
In July 2020, Desart filmed Walter Jugadai and Keturah Zimran at Haasts Bluff for the Desert Mob Symposium, reflecting on their experiences in Germany and Switzerland.
The Museum Project has seeded other significant outcomes, including the Story Necklace exhibition at the South Australian Museum and ongoing repatriation advocacy. This culturally significant work depends on funding to travel, visit and experience collections — and to hold meetings in community so that elders can examine photographs of the objects found on these trips.
If you would like to support the Museum Project, please contact us or visit our Support Us page. Donations to Ikuntji Artists are tax-deductible.
