The ground floor of the museum houses a large exhibition called Indigenous Australians, though I still find it alarming that an exhibition themed around aborigines sits side by side with displays on birds and insects, snakes, butterflies and stuffed marsupials. I mean, there's no display about white people and though I'm sure it's unintentional, it reminds me of the fact the whites in Australia considered the aborigines to be part of the plant and animal kingdom until relatively recently.
There's loads of indigenous art on display, including the first photo here, an aboriginal interpretation of the last supper, Judus Escariot turned away from Christ in the bottom right hand corner. Of course, this is Australia, so it's billy tea and damper (a type of Australian bread) in place of bread and wine, though thankfully not even a smear of Vegemite, which in my experience ends up mostly on the front of your clothes, or I suppose your robes, if your name's Jesus.
Anyway, I'm sorry if this is disrespectful and perhaps I simply don't understand art but some of the stuff on display is just crap, the sort of crap I could produce myself with a travel pack of Crayola poster paints, though as it all has a deeper meaning (and from what I can see, this usually involves a story about an emu doing a dance), I think we're supposed to stroke our chins and say we appreciate it.
Is Tony Hart still alive? Half of this stuff wouldn't have a chance in hell of making it onto this week's gallery, would it?
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