March 2017
The group visited the Travellers and Traders in the Indian Ocean exhibition at the museum, which tells the story of the voyages and people who travelled in the area over hundreds of years and of the objects which they carried—originating from many countries and often discovered in far distant lands.
The exhibition was in part inspired by the 400th anniversary of the placement of the dish which Dirk Hartog, a Dutch voyager, left on our shores. There were many Dutch travellers in the area, sailing to present day Indonesia to purchase spices for the Netherlands. Junks from China also traded in the area. Makassans (from Sulawesi in Indonesia) sailed in praus to collect sea cucumbers—a sort of edible echinoderm. Helpful equipment for travellers included astrolabes for location, universal calendars to identify future days and maps were drawn to chart the voyages of ships and the location of spices.
Artworks included a scene in an Indonesian market showing lots of tropical fruit, a copy of a Dutch painting of two cavaliers and their ladies and Dutch paintings of the harbours of Amsterdam and Batavia (the former name of Jakarta). A pottery display included blue and white objects made in China, which inspired the Dutch to copy and produce Delft ware.
A number of shells were displayed, including a fluted clam shell with a carved female face, which was used to store perfume. Another item was a shell necklace, found near Exmouth, which is one of the oldest pieces of jewellery found in the world, dating from 32,000 BP (before present day.)
Cloth was also widely traded and there were examples from India and Indonesia. A fossilized Elephant Bird egg, found at Cervantes in 1992, was an amazing piece to see. This huge flightless bird lived in Madagascar until it became extinct in the 17th or 18th century.
An Aboriginal group have collected polluting materials from the sea and made them into a massive crocodile which was hung above the display.
One very large exhibit was of the very intricately and beautifully carved surrounds and two doors of a Hindu temple from Bali which have scenes from the Ramayama painted on them.
We were introduced to the exhibition by a museum guide and then we all returned to study it in detail. It proved to be a really fascinating and revealing tour which we all enjoyed.
Margot Bentley