PANEL TALK: Representing Convict History in Museums

Join us for a lunch time talk with CMAG’s Curator Nicole Sutherland, the National Museum of Australia’s Senior Curator Craig Middleton, and PhD Candidate (ANU) Matthew Cunneen and their discussion about the changing perceptions and understandings of Australia's convict past and how museums deal with this confronting history.

In August 1978, Sidney Nolan created a series of 31 drawings based on Marcus Clarke’s Australian convict novel, For the Term of His Natural Life. Nolan’s drawings focussed on the convict experience in Tasmania, taking Clarke’s novel to a darker territory of the artist’s own imagination. The drawings are currently on display in the Nolan Gallery at Canberra Museum and Gallery until 23 February 2025.

Image credit: Sidney Nolan's series For the Term of His Natural Life on display at Canberra Museum and Gallery, 2024. Photo: Dominic Northcott