Morrison Collection

The Morrison Collection, artifacts of the Wonnarua people and Kooris of the Hunter, is currently housed at the Australian Museum. The collection includes two canoes which are more than 200 years old and need to be housed in strict climate controlled conditions, boomerangs, spears, axe heads and handles and the original arch which was located in George Street, Singleton.

The WNAC has negotiated for the collection to be loaned to the Newcastle Museum to make these important artifacts more accessible to the Wonnarua people in their homeland of the Hunter.

The WNAC was successful in their federal grant application of $20,000 to fund the collection to be professionally photographed and available on a website and to train Wonnarua people as museum curators.

Negotiations are well advanced for the collection to be housed in Newcastle for three or five years and it may potentially be housed in the Singleton area in the future.

Information from The Australian Museum on the Morrison Collection:

The Morrison Collection was a collection of 124 Aboriginal cultural objects collected at the turn of the 20th century by Alexander Morrison in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. This collection is of interest to the Wonnarua people whose families lived at the St. Clair mission where many of the objects were made.

This group of objects was collected by Alexander Morrison in the New South Wales Hunter Valley during in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was purchased by the Australian Museum between 1975 and 1982 from John Magers, a dealer and collector of Indigenous objects. Objects from Alexander Morrison’s collection are also held by the National Museum of Australia……. READ MORE

The collection of Aboriginal artefacts dating to the nineteenth century is the latest addition to the Australian Museum’s ‘virtual’ collections. For more information, please read the pdfs below.

The Boomerangs Return

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Boomerangs Return: Reinvigorating Wonnarua Culture

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The Morrison Collection

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The Morrison Collection: Australian Museum

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