THE NGUYEN COLLECTION OF ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN ARTS (NCoAAA): HOW DO NON-ANGLO EUROPEANS IN AUSTRALIA DISRUPT THE POLITICAL AND RACIAL BIASES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS IN AUSTRALIA?
The Nguyen Collection of Anglo Australian Arts is a private collection of Anglo Australiana. Focused on artefacts and materials that evoke the colonial histories and growing Nationalism of so-called Australia, the collection includes objects such as an original leather convict hat, convict irons, a Federation Flag, White Australia medallions, and an invitation to the Trump and Morrison reception party at the White House Rose Garden.
Accrued overtime through purchase, donations and swaps, the collection covers the artistic and material achievements of Convict, Federation, and White Australia. More recently, the collection has expanded into the topics of the Children Overboard, One Nation, and other dubious moments of this young nation.
The project inverts who has the right to buy up, collect, and ultimately take control of someone else’s cultural property. Beyond the racist presumption that Asian migrants are the sole reason for driving up astronomical house prices to gentrify once Anglo-dominant enclaves, this project proposes that Asians can also buy up the inglorious cultural trophies and material paraphernalia of colonial White Australia.
As a private collection, the project also challenges the gate-keeping role that national institutions like collecting museums and universities traditionally have over the looted cultural materials of the colonised.
Instead of curating a sanitised or uniform national narrative, as this collection continues to grow, NCoAAA will open itself up collaborations with artists, schools and researchers keen on engaging with the anti-colonial spirit of our collections.
We provide free online and in-person access to these objects and archives. Artefacts from the collection can be borrowed and shared for learning and creative purposes without the usual administrative burden and image copyrights that are strictly guarded by national institutions and their holdings.
