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Tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal history is out of storage and on display in Launceston, as part of northern Tasmania's first permanent Aboriginal exhibition.
The First Tasmanians: Our Story will officially open tonight at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG).
The exhibition has been two years in the planning.
QVMAG director Richard Mulvaney said the focus is on Tasmanian Aboriginal history before European settlement.
"We deliberately wanted to tell the story of the 40,000 years of Tasmanian Aboriginal occupation — not just concentrating on the most recent times," he said.
"When you go through an exhibition like this ... (you) understand the complexity of Aboriginal society before white contact.
"I want people to be in awe of how Tasmanian Aboriginal people adapted to this environment and climate ... they lived here very successfully and very well for a very long period of time.
"I just don't think that's understood."
The exhibition includes dozens of items from the 19th century, including spears, clubs, shell necklaces and a basket belonging to the well-known Tasmanian Aboriginal historical figure Truganini.
Much had been in storage for decades.
"We've had a collection of Indigenous material for some time and I've had a concern that we've not had it out and we've not really told the Tasmanian Aboriginal story," Mr Mulvaney said.
"This is an exciting day for everyone involved in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery."
QVMAG curator Jon Addison is thrilled with the depth of the exhibition.
"There is more necklaces going into this display than any other single object type except maybe stone tools," he said.
"This reflects the fact that necklaces are one of those few areas where the cultural practice has continued, uninterrupted, since the first Tasmanians first started making them.
"We're representing continuity, change and development through time."
'We tell our story, our way'
Aboriginal artist Lola Greeno has been involved in planning the exhibition.
"I think it's going to be fantastic for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community because we are trying to show the whole story," she said.
"That's what we want, to teach everyone from the children through (to the adults) the history and the awareness about what happened in the Aboriginal history of Tasmania.
"The gallery follows a story through from our cultural practices, the women's practices, the men's work, about the fires, about the environment, the men's watercraft, bark canoes, and all of the men's tools.
"(It) looks at the shelters, the east coast and west coast huts, and also the stories regarding the stars and the moon — what that relates to in Aboriginal terms.
"We tell our story, our way."
Bringing back culture 'slowly'
Aboriginal artist Rex Greeno constructs bark canoes and has one on display in the exhibition.
"When I retired about eight years ago, I read a book ... and it just showed some drawings and a few sketches," he said.
"Down the south-west coast, there's lots of bays and rivers to cross so it was a lot easier for the people to just rush into the bush, make the canoe and duck across the river.
"These canoes that I've made are the first canoes made in the world since the last 180, 190 years or so; we are bringing it back. Slowly, but we are bringing it back."
Project manager Greg Lehman is confident the gallery will expand in coming years.
"This gallery is not the end of the project, it's actually the beginning of a much larger opportunity for Aboriginal people in northern Tasmania and QVMAG to come together to work out what next," he said.
"This is going to be a very major resource for schools and anybody.
"I'd really like people to feel that they've been invited into a really special opportunity to hear some things that they're not going to hear anywhere else."
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, art-history, indigenous-culture, aboriginal, aboriginal-language, launceston-7250
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