A submission that interrogates the current circumstances of the cultural material held in public collections in lutruwitaTASMANIA. The purposeful consolidation of the ‘cultural estate’ is advocated towards the community being more able to engage with the collections in a 21st context.

CORRESPONDENCE

OPEN LETTER _ Tasmanian Cultural Property

Almost despite lutruwitaTASMANIA's somewhat dark and gothic histories it is a 'treasure house' of contested and contestable ideas. Situated as it is at the edge of the world 'the place' is replete with every kind of story and cultural imagining – stories and imaginings that reach back in time and that seek a way forward.

It is now time to bring all these ‘treasures’ together into a unifying network of collections and rest them away from the clutches of Local Government and their bureaucracies given their demonstrated lack of aptitude and expertise.

A networked COLLECTIONlutruwita curated by 21st C experts under the ‘trusteeship’ of a trustworthy culturally alert governing body would be a lutruwitaTASMANIA cultural asset of the kind that there is clearly a need for when we look ahead.

The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s (QVMAG) collections are a poignant case in point. 

These collections have accumulated for more than 130 years to the point where the ‘governing body’ – the City of Launceston Council – currently claiming ‘ownership’ demonstrably lacks the aptitude and expertise to fulfil their obligations. Indeed, on the evidence, ‘Councillors’ have functionally abdicated any ‘trust’ invested in them.

That to one side, it is well past the time that lutruwitaTASMANIA's cultural treasures find their way under the trusteeship of appointed trustees who have the wherewithal to discharge their obligations.

It is well past the time to engage lutruwitaTASMANIA's musingplace’s Communities of Ownership and Interest (COI) with the diversity of, indeed the magnitude of, their cultural landscape. It is past the time that musingplace’s should be a ‘centre’ for the cooperative and collaborative interrogators of our cultural realities. 

Consistent with all this, it long past the time that citizens participated the telling their stories, sharing their understandings and being proactive in shaping their new and expanding understandings their ‘placedness’. 

Tasmania’s State Government has the authority to ensure that this can happen. The notion that Local Govt. should be funded to build disconnected bureaucratic fiefdoms was never sustainable despite the local misinformed cries of inequity that facilitated this outcome. 

The Tasmanian Govt. needs to relieve itself of the requirement to underwrite and endow Local Govt. to perform a function that they lack the wherewithal to deliver upon. Ideally, it needs to happen without delay.

The need is to ensure the equitable distribution of opportunity, and authority in our musingplaces. Our prosperity aught not be measured by ‘the wealth’ stored in musingplace’s storerooms. Rather the communities’ access to their contents, the prevalence of research, the effectiveness of the publication and promulgation of ideas and the numbers of people who can and do muse upon all that is there should be that measure.

 

21stvC musingplaces are places for contented and contestable ideas. They should no longer be populated with the 'gatekeepers' of assumed, convenient and asserted 'truths'. We have what we have until we discover more – and there is always more.

 

Wherever government allows wealth to accumulate out of reach, communities and their cultural realities fall into decay. Likewise, inequality materialises the wealth holders, vulgarises those who aspire to hold authority without accountability, and it brutalises the marginalised and all those who get to be trampled upon in the jostling to control who thinks what when.

 

The evidence points to the need for a ‘direct deliberative democratic process’ to begin the divestment of Local Govts ‘governance function’ relative to musingplaces within their jurisdiction.

 

Taxpayers and ratepayers often object to being poorly governed. However, those who control wealth have always objected to being governed at all. Arguably a networked COLLECTIONlutruwita curated by 21st C experts under the ‘trusteeship’ of a trustworthy culturally alert governing body might just enrich those who have been marginalised for far too long.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Ray Norman

Researcher, Cultural Geographer & Cultural Producer

 

For more information see: 

 

Ray Norman

Subject: MEDIA RELEASE Musingplaces lutruwitaTASMANIA

Date: Wednesday, 20 July 2022 at 8:25 pm

From: launcestonpr@bigpond.com

Ray Norman’s unsolicited submission relative to Musingplaces lutruwitaTASMANIA is now open for public scrutiny and comment. … See https://museumstasmania2022.blogspot.com/

 

Denied the opportunity to present a submission in any meaningful way to the City of Launceston (CoL), a Local Government authority currently seeking to shed itself of the obligations that come with the “ownership and operation” of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG), Ray Norman said today “ I was left with no other option but to go public in this way and especially so given that the CoL has declared its intention not to engage in a citizen’s forum cum assembly ”. 

 

For over two decades Ray Norman has been researching the governance and operation of publicly owned museum and art galleries and he says the “the QVMAG has been a kind of petri dish at the bottom of the hill I live upon along with my connections to other institution in Australia”.

 

Ray says “musingplaces are extraordinary places and more so currently than they have ever been as they lose their ‘gatekeeper of knowledge systems’ status along with universities”.

 

“Moreover, the great musingplaces of the world, like the British Museum, the Louvre, the V&A et al, are losing their status as shrines of colonising enterprise and empire building, and not before time. They have become contested places.” he says.

 

Yesterday’s Press Club Address by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek somehow underwrote the values of, and the importance of, musingplace collections in poignant ways. Interesting Ray likens lutruwitaTASMANIA’s musingplaces to the worlds “shrines to colonialism with the QVMAG being an exemplar in its nomenclature” he says. That and Tasmanian ‘placedness’ lends a nuance to the island’s musingplaces.

 

In regard to the QVMAG, it turns out that Rosemary Armitage MLC is a ‘poignant touchstone’ for the sensibilities in play. Ray Norman says, “ Rosemary Armitage is probably as close as one can get to being in conversation with someone who is the embodiment of the ‘political imperatives’ that have informed the governance and operational realities at the QVMAG”.

 

Ray observes that it is more than interesting that Rosemary Armitage was/is:

  • A ‘born and bred’ Launcestonian and in many ways she is representative of Launcestonian sensibilities and sensitivities;
  • A default QVMAG ‘trustee’ from 2005 to 2014 as a Launceston Alderperson;
  • As Deputy Chair of the default QVMAG Trustees in 2007-2009 she was complicit in the blending of the governance and management at the QVMAG;
  • As a default QVMAG ‘trustee’ from 2005 to 2014, as a Launceston Alderperson, she was an advocate for not overtly notifying Launceston ratepayers of the hidden QVMAG levy in their rate demands;
  • As a default QVMAG ‘trustee’ from 2005 to 2014 she accepted the strategic proposition that the QVMAG be operated by management as a ‘cost centre’ rather than a standalone institution ‘governed by expert trustees/board of directors’– thus abdicating their Aldermanic cum QVMAG governance function;
  • Curiously inclined to quote Einstein saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" albeit that apparently, he never said it; and
  • As the member for Launceston in Tasmania’s Legislative Council she has been disinclined to advocate for a change of governance at the QVMAG.

 

In addition,  Ray has observed that, paraphrased, Rosemary Armitage is clearly a member of that cohort of Tasmanians and Launcestonians who are quite comfortable with the colonial legacy cum peri-colonial status of Tasmania’s, indeed Australia’s musingplaces as if the status quo is sustainable in a 21st C context. Quotably, Rosemary Armitage has said, and paraphrased, ‘public museums are not there to put on exhibitions to do with issues such as forestry, mining etc. rather they need to be showing people the treasures in their collections .  That said, she might well agree with Pierre-Auguste Renoir when he said “"To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them."

 

However, the current City of Launceston Council is engaged in ‘very serious budget repair’ and is thus predisposed to rid the city of what is perceived by management as being its non-core cost centres – the QVMAG being high on the priority list.

 

Ray Norman has observed that in regard to the QVMAG “ the situation at Launceston’s Town Hall is a ‘mare’s nest’ – pun and double entendre intended – that is in urgent need of being unravelled”. Something, that that Ray says has been showing up in his ‘musingplace petri dish’ for decades.

 

It turns out that in 2022, two plus decades into the 21st C, the governance and management of lutruwitaTASMANIA’s musingplaces is non-trivial and that the QVMAG is a kind of exemplar of much of the cultural dysconnectivity discernible in musingplaces that has been found in lutruwitaTASMANIA.

 

For more information:

  

Date: Tuesday, 19 July 2022 at 4:37 pm

Dear Deputy Mayor and Councillors,

 

I write today with increasing alarm as events reveal themselves more and more overtly as the information coming to me from various and diverse sources increases. In particular, the press attention that the ‘State of the Environment report – (SoE)’ is receiving today, the obfuscation that surrounds it and in the light of that, the information coming to me from multiple sources suggesting that:

  • The natural science curator at the QVMAG has been “let go”;
  • That the circumstances are to say the least, contentious and concerning;
  • That the apparent intention is not to replace this curator at all; and
  • Furthermore, that this is indicative to the QVMAG’s natural history activities being downgraded, dispersed even, putting this collection at risk.

 

Moreover, in the light of the QVMAG’s long awaited and recently released ‘Futures Plan’ it is increasingly apparent that despite its 50 pages there is obfuscation deeply embedded within it.

 

Writing as I do as an ‘officially muffled and shunned constituent’, member of the QVMAG’s Community of Ownership and Interest (COI) and researcher who has their phone calls to council officers, and email correspondence, monitored I realise that this missive is ever likely to fall upon deaf ears and find its way into your collective waste bin with some urgency – but there we go.

 

The similarities to be observed between Sussan Ley’s obfuscation in regard Launceston Town Hall’s serial suppression of information become clearer each day as it becomes more and more shameful.

 

Following the advice offered, on the record, to me by GM Ryan and that Launceston constituents, in order to get ‘Council’ to consider and deliberate upon a matter, I/we need to win the attention and endorsement of a Councillor. On this matter I followed that advice only to:

  • Get the response that there was nothing to see here – paraphrased;
  • Get the response that the Councillor lacked the knowledge and thus it wasn’t anything he wanted to get involved in anyway; and
  • Get the response that, on his assessment, the numbers were not there to have the matter deliberated upon in Open Council.

That this might be seen as thinly veiled evasion and renunciation, it requires no further evidence.

 

Consequently, it is clear to me that a concerned citizen’s representation in any event is deemed to be a matter of ‘managerial discretion’ and that official discrimination is more than a possibility – and without deliberation, transparency or accountability and presumably facilitated by SECTION62/2 of the 1993 Local Govt Act.

 

I submit that the matter I raise here is to do with policy and is of some ‘strategic importance’ and thus a ‘governance matter’ given that the safety and security of the QVMAG’s natural science collection is clearly at risk. 

 

It is also of more than of some importance that this component of the QVMAG’s collections is the largest and currently of increasing importance – scientifically, socially and culturally … and well beyond lutruwitaTASMANIA.

. 

 

Moreover, these collections are in your custody and there is a duty of care that unequivocally falls to you!

 

When Minister Plibersek calls out the Morrison Govt. for supressing the ‘environment report’ (SoE) by extension she calls out Council’s obfuscation and recalcitrance here too and especially so given that:

  • The QVMAG’s COI deserves to be kept informed about strategic shifts in regard to QVMAG collection management and security;
  • Council declared a CLIMATE EMERGENCY in 2019 is strategic, and strategically it impacts upon the significance of the QVMAG’s collections and specifically the natural history component;
  • The deteriorating state of the kanamalukaTAMAR ought to be a research concern for institutions such as the QVMAG in the light of Launceston Council constituents, the QVMAG’s COI  and taxpayers’ investments in the institution; and
  • Council is asserting that kanamalulaTAMAR Estuary plan needs new funding from all levels of government while it squanders opportunities to contribute to better understandings of the level of environmental degradation of the estuary.

 

The level of disconnection that seems to be apparent here is palpable!

 

There is a certain irony in Launceston’s attachment to the Thylacine and the city’s complicity in the extinction of the species along with the Tasmanian emu –Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis. The data relevant to all this is held in the QVMAG’s natural history collection albeit that aspects of it have been serially and surreally suppressed – as are criticism and critiques such as my own. And, let’s not speak of palawa/pakanadecimation, their discrimination and their deep histories embedded and somewhat hidden in the QVMAG’s collections.

 

Moreover, Launceston’s geo-location in lutruwitaTASMANIA.at the confluence of an estuary and two significant waterways that drain to the sea via the confluence of these waterways and kanamalukaTAMAR is non-trivial. Furthermore, pre-European settlement at ‘the confluence’was lutruwitaTASMANIA’s most fecund environment – albeit that too has been and is serially and surreally challenged by a ‘city planner’.   

 

The SoE includes updates on some of our most unique animals and plants. It assesses our climate and the state of Country after the bushfires and floods. And it tells us what we can expect from extreme weather events. That as elected representatives you might claim to represent the ‘real world, lived experiences’ of your constituency, this beggars belief. That the city’s management intercedes in governance matters this, too beggars belief. It is also somewhat beyond comprehension that an ex-QVMAG Trustee, Rosemary Armitage MLC might also harbour the belief that museums and art galleries are not the places to exhibit contentious material.

 

That the SoE says that the "overall, the state and trend of the environment of Australia are poor and deteriorating" and that since Council in 2019 declared a CLIMATE EMERGENCY : 

  • Collectively, you have since then essentially sat on your hands is nothing short of unconscionable conduct;
  • That it appears that as Councillors and default Trustees of the QVMAG’s collections you exhibit a disinclination to protect the integrity of the QVAMG’s collection’s, the natural history collection in particular, that too is reproachable.

More to the point, much of lutruwitaTASMANIA’s and indeed Australia’s natural history is invested in the QVMAG’s collections, and the attributable values are inestimable. 

 

It is increasingly clear that in regard to the cultural, social and fiscal relevance of the QVMAG as an institution, it has exceeded its use-by-date given the colonial cum peri-colonial ‘baggage’ it harbours. Conversely, this is clearly not the case in regard to the QVMAG’s collections. Given all that is at stake the Federal and State Govt. need to intercede, withdraw and redirect any support along with any funding until such time as an ethical and equitable way forward can be established.

 

It has been put to me that at Town Hall there are hundreds of thousands of reasons as to why you as Councillors, and by extension management, actually ‘do things’. I disagree, I think that the number is inestimable and that every last one of them has a $sigh in front of it.

 

I look forward with interest to your collective expressions of whatever interest orc concern that you may have offer in regard to the matters I raise here,

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Ray Norman

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