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, an invitation to the Trump and Morrison reception party at the White House Rose Garden, etc.
Accrued overtime through generous community donations and swaps, estate auctions, and hard rubbish the collection covers the artistic and material achievements of Convict, Federation, the White Australia Policy, Refugee Overboard, One Nation, and other inglorious moments of our young nation.
The project inverts who has the right to buy up, collect, accumulate and take control of someone else’s cultural heritage. Beyond the racist presumption that Asian migrants are the reason for astronomical house prices because they are buying up local housing stock and gentrifying once Anglo-dominant suburbs, this project proposes that Asians can also buy up and display the uncomfortable 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 ethnographic museums and university traditionally have over the looted cultural materials in their collections. 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 this collection.
We provide free online and in-person access to all our resources and materials. Objects from the collection can be accessed and borrowed for learning and creative purposes without the usual administrative burden and image rights that are strictly held by institutions and their holdings.
