From Glenelg Shire to Sydney as museum skills recognised

Published on 23 January 2025

Glenelg Shire Council’s Collections Management Coordinator Agostina Hawkins is a familiar face around the Shire as she shares her knowledge with local history groups and community as part of her role.

But Agostina recently was able to extend her own knowledge when she was selected as one of only 10 participants from throughout Australia to attend the National Maritime Museum - Museum Administrator’s Course.

The week was a jam-packed program of talks and workshops and covered themes such as:

• Exploring the sector and a global look at maritime museums, exploring topics such as how maritime museums can interpret issues such as the declining health of the world’s oceans, sustainability and the environment whilst still providing an uplifting experience.
• Telling stories – how do museums choose which stories to tell and how to share them.
• Maritime Archaeology – featuring a presentation by the archaeologist who discovered the final resting place of HMS Endeavour and how to make shipwreck stories more appealing to younger generations.
• Collections Management – with an access to all areas tour of the National Maritime Museum including their collections storage areas and digitisation studios.
• First Nations Programming – where Matt Poll, the Indigenous Program Curator, led a tour of the latest exhibition, Shaped by the Sea, which included culture and tradition alongside new technologies.
• Education and Learning – including time in the learning hub at the museum.

As well as the talks and workshops the group were also given a fleet tour which included the yacht Ena, HMAS Onslow and the replica Endeavour and were taken out onto Sydney Harbour on the replica Dutch VOC (East India Trading Co) tall ship Duyfken.

They even fired a paper towel canon towards the city of Sydney.

Agostina said it was “a fantastic learning and connection opportunity which would help in further developing and telling our own cultural collection stories, shipwreck stories across our facilities and the process of dual storytelling in the new co-curated spaces with Gunditj Mirring at the Portland Maritime Museum”.

“This is an intense, week-long course in museum practice,” she said.

“The aim of the course is to share knowledge, develop museological skills, make connections and build a sense of community amongst the maritime museums and heritage organisations of Australia.”

The course was fully funded, including accommodation and travel, through the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme, a partnership between the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.

This annual outreach program provides grants and training to staff at regional museums and organisations.

Caption: Glenelg Shire Council Collections Management Coordinator Agostina Hawkins (fifth from left) on board the replica tall ship Duyfken in Sydney Harbour along with the other participants from around Australia at the National Maritime Museum’s Museum Administrator’s Course.