The bushfire-affected camera pictured here is one of 25 household items, some burnt, some surprisingly whole, that represent(s) all that remains of the home and possessions of the donor after the Black Saturday bushfire raced through his home town of Kinglake in February 2009.

It is part of the Victorian Bushfires Collection held at Museums Victoria.

THE INVISIBLE FARMER

"We care about the environment we live in."

Amelia Bright describes herself as a "non-generational farmer," having married into a farming lifestyle. She is one of the owners and operators of Amber Creek Farm - 165 acres of farmland in Fish Creek, Victoria. "It’s our responsibility to keep our waterways in the best possible condition and care for the soil and to fix any erosion that was here prior to us coming. It’s our responsibility, and it is part of the reason we farm."

Together with her husband Dan, and her two young daughters Hazel and Delilah, Amelia produces pasture-raised Wessex Saddleback pigs and runs the family farm with an underpinning ethos of "ethical and regenerative farming".

"Being an environmentally positive entity is our highest priority. Therefore running our business and farm using environmental farming principles that increases habitat, sequesters carbon, enhances waterways and improves water quality, is paramount."

Curation notes by: Catherine Forge, Curator, Invisible Farmer Project, Museums Victoria.

Amelia is driven by the belief that "everyone who owns their own small patch of land needs to take responsibility for the path that the planet is heading."

Amelia and Dan have worked hard in the past eight years to revegetate their property with native plants and trees, strive towards a neutral pH soil balance, create compost locally from pig and cow manure and to follow zero waste and organic farming principles. Their hard work has paid off and the farm is now entirely off-grid and self-sustaining. In tandem with the pig farm Amelia and Dan also operate a sawmill that uses locally sourced salvaged timber and supplies the farm’s compost, firewood, animal bedding, shelters and pig 'home pads'.

According to Amelia, climate change, food security, food mileage and consumer awareness are all important challenges that need to be considered when farming, and when purchasing food. For this reason she is a strong advocate for the "local food movement" and runs her business to the motto "know your farmer, know where your food comes from." Amelia was integral in establishing the Prom Coast Food Collective, as well as a Community Supported Agriculture scheme that allows her to sell her pork directly to local customers. "Our products are mostly sold within a 30-50km radius or less", reflects Amelia, "by having a farm and being a farmer I get to be connected to our property and to our land and our community; that connectedness overall is really important."

Curation notes by: Catherine Forge, Curator, Invisible Farmer Project, Museums Victoria.

In 2018 Amelia was recognised by the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) and the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) with the 2018 Emerging Leader of Victorian Agriculture award.

This celebrated her commitment to the environment and her efforts in "championing regional vitality, small farm viability, and bringing the best produce to local families."

She continues to work towards upholding her commitment to environmental principles, educating consumers about local food and teaching her two daughters about the environmental farm principles: "It’s a brilliant education for her [Hazel] to see how food is produced and how animals and ecosystems interact with each other… and we’d really like her to grow up really capable to see that Mum and Dad can wield a hammer, and so can she."

These photographs are part of an interview that was conducted by curator Catherine Forge for Museum Victoria’s Invisible Farmer Project Collection. The Invisible Farmer Project is a nation-wide project documenting the untold stories of Australian women in agriculture, re-defining the term 'farmer' and challenging the stereotype that farming is a male domain. At Museums Victoria, project curators have been interviewing and photographing women involved with agriculture across Victoria and Australia-wide, and a recurring theme arising from these interviews has been that of climate change and environmental adaptation. Women like Amelia have spoken about their fears about climate change, the varied ways that they are responding to challenges such as drought, and the vital work that they are doing on their farms to adapt to future environmental challenges.

Curation notes by: Catherine Forge, Curator, Invisible Farmer Project, Museums Victoria.

CLIMATE CHANGE RISK TO PACIFIC NATIONS

Acknowledgement

We offer our respect to / loto faka’api’api

This earth / Papatuanuku

This sky / Ranginui

This ocean / moana

These ancestors / Tipuna

We acknowledge the sovereignty of the Kulin Nation
and elders past, present and emerging

With our ears / teliga

With our eyes / mata

And with our spirit / Wairua

We learn / poto fakapotopoto

Oceania is vast, Oceania is expanding, Oceania is hospitable and generous, Oceania is humanity rising from the depths of brine and regions of fire deeper still, Oceania is us. We are the sea, we are the ocean.

Epeli hau ofa

We as people of the land and the water have deep connections to family, earth, sea, sky and animals. This forms the basis of our cultural strength and specific identity connecting family stories to place. Through tangible and intangible cultural heritage, cultural integrity and sovereignty is maintained.

Curation notes by: Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator, Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment, Museums Victoria. Tongan, Australian, links with Aotearoa. Born on Narrm/ Melbourne.

What happens when storm surges and rising seas wash away houses and vegetable gardens in islands where there is limited cash economy?

Adaption strategies such as retaining walls and mangrove plantings are not long term strategies. Food, shelter and lives are at risk. The movement of people due to climate change is happening now and basic human and Indigenous rights are not being met. Larger nations such as Australia are helping through education and foreign aid but need to do more. What happens to tangible cultural heritage that remains behind?

In the State of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia more than 800 people from outer atoll communities have migrated to the main island due to climate change impacts. Local government has responded with strategies to help relocate and help in sustainable food production and access to services. I will say here that I am not from the State of Yap and do not want to talk on their behalf but rather I am sharing a personal perspective of a Pacific wide issue that we all share.

The Yapese are a very proud people and maintain very strong ties to customary land and ancestral knowledge despite years of colonial annexation and influence from Spanish, Japanese, German, English and American governments, particularly during the Second World War.

What is at risk of being left behind are cultural heritage sites, customary knowledge and connection to land.

Curation notes by: Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator, Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment, Museums Victoria. Tongan, Australian, links with Aotearoa. Born on Narrm/ Melbourne.

Yap is the home to malal, dancing grounds where Rai, large circular customary stone money is displayed like an open bank vault.

Rai is given value and mana according to agreement between communities and high ranking individuals. Each one is named to an individual and family. Originally mined and brought by specially made raft from Palau 500 kilometres away over many hundreds of years, knowledge and meaning is attached to stories of place. Chiefs still use the exchange and gifting of Rai to sort out disagreements over rights and customs. The placement and position on country detail a complex code of marriage, conflicts and deep apologies that are handed down from generation to generation.

Of particular interest is the story of the Rai that fell into the sea between Palau and Yap on its journey to community. Despite this its location was noted and it was still gifted to a family and entered the customary economy where its prestige and story continues today. Could this reflect the future of the Rai and Malal and other cultural heritage sites of Pacific nations where knowledge and location will still activate traditional connection to custom?

Curation notes by: Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator, Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment, Museums Victoria. Tongan, Australian, links with Aotearoa. Born on Narrm/ Melbourne.

To me as an Australian-born Tongan, identity is tied to community and community to homelands and homelands to heritage and heritage to meaning.

Through the complex lens of the diaspora, tangible cultural heritage in Tonga, such as the Ha’amonga O Maui and old capital in Mu’a on the main island of Tongatapu, represent cultural strength, longevity, history and science.

What would happen if rising sea levels claimed this icon of Tonga? Would the stories still be handed down and songs sung and meaning ascribed?

Curation notes by: Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator, Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment, Museums Victoria. Tongan, Australian, links with Aotearoa. Born on Narrm/ Melbourne.

Museum collections can play a role in making living cultures visible and creating connections between customary knowledge holders, audiences and stakeholders through education and sharing stories of connection.

Museums Victoria has two Rai stones in our collection acquired during the 18 and 20 century. The one pictured was transferred in 1976 from the National Gallery of Victoria and was originally donated by the government of Japan.

Museums need to unpack colonial histories held in their collections. Customary knowledge holders and researchers need to work together to name and ascribe meaning to taonga. This just as important to diasporic communities in Victoria who maintain connections through customary exchange, ceremony, social media and sending money to source communities back home.

As a child I visited Melbourne Museum often and always gravitated to the Rai stone on display as a connection to place and time. Somehow I understood its significance beyond its dusty label as taonga, customary treasure with ancestral ties that link to people and the land and sea. Can loss of this connection due to climate or colonial history of source communities be mitigated by knowledge and location of customary rights beneath the water? Perhaps we all can be guided by the path laid down by peoples of the islands of the State of Yap.

Yap Day, March 1 – 3

Curation notes by: Sione Napi Francis, Lead Curator, Te Pasifika Gallery Redevelopment, Museums Victoria. Tongan, Australian, links with Aotearoa. Born on Narrm/ Melbourne.

BLACK SATURDAY & THE POSSUM NESTING BOX

Black Saturday, 7 February 2009, was the greatest bushfire disaster in Australia's recorded history.

This burnt and blackened possum nesting box was recovered from the Lake Mountain plateau on the Echo Flat ski trail near Marysville, Victoria, after the Black Saturday fires swept through.

It had been part of a conservation program to monitor the numbers of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum. Counting the nests in the boxes gave conservation officers an idea of how many possums lived nearby in the wild.

After the fires the boxes became not just tools for surveying numbers, they formed part of the first line of defence in the possum’s survival.

The 2009 Victorian bushfires began in late January and culminated on Black Saturday. In over 100 locations across Victoria 400 fires were recorded. Sadly, 173 people were killed and 414 injured. Over 3,400 properties were destroyed or damaged. Over 10,000 km of fences were burnt and more than 11,000 farm animals were killed or injured. Nearly 430,000 hectares of land were razed, and more than 1 million native animals perished. In terms of Victoria's public lands, over 287,000 hectares were burnt, including almost 100,000 hectares of national and state parks and reserves, and nearly 170,000 hectares of state forests and reserves. The most severely affected parks were Kinglake National Park, Wilsons Promontory National Park, Bunyip State Park, Cathedral Range State Park, and Yarra Ranges National Park.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

The tiny Leadbeater's Possum is a faunal emblem of the state of Victoria.

An endangered species found only in Victoria, this little nocturnal marsupial lives mainly in the tall Mountain Ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands. The possums make elaborate nests in tree hollows out of bark and fibre. They feed on plant saps, wattle gum, spiders and insects.

At the start of the 20th century the possum was thought to be extinct but in 1961 it was rediscovered near Marysville in Victoria. Even before Black Saturday in 2009 there were concerns about the high risk of extinction as the possums need mature (100-200 year old) trees for nesting and a dense middle story of wattles for feeding and movement. These habitat requirements are threatened: by industrial forestry practices which remove the hollow bearing trees possums use for nesting; by humans clearing land for houses and farming; and by the increased frequency of bushfires.

In the past, wildfire has created and destroyed suitable habitat for Leadbeater's Possum. The intense fires of Black Saturday destroyed natural hollows and left very little canopy or understory, leaving limited food and shelter for the surviving Leadbeater’s Possums.

Fire in the Kilmore East Murrindindi complex, which burnt areas including Kinglake and Marysville, damaged 43% of the possum's known habitat, which was previously reserved for their protection.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

This bark nest is part of the Museums Victoria Natural History collection and was collected in 1867 by Sir Frederick McCoy.

The Leadbeater’s Possum creates an elaborate nest out of shredded bark (pictured) which they build in the hollows of old trees. They harvest the strips of bark from the long smooth trunks of eucalypts.

The subalpine woodland on the Lake Mountain plateau, dominated by Snow Gum, is estimated to have supported between 100 and 300 Leadbeater's Possums prior to the Black Saturday fires. Leadbeater’s Possums live in colonies of between three and twelve possums.

Parks Victoria rangers and researchers had installed 30 boxes in Lake Mountain to survey numbers of the possums in the area. Prior to the February 2009 bushfire, Leadbeater's Possums had constructed nests in 28 of 30 boxes.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

The reverse of the nesting box shows the burnt remnant of a Leadbeater’s Possum nest inside it.

In the aftermath of the fires, Parks Victoria officers visited each of the 30 nest boxes to determine the extent of damage and whether any possums had survived.

Black Saturday was particularly intense at Lake Mountain, severely burning 95% of the plateau. Just two nest boxes remained intact, while 22 were totally destroyed and a further six were badly damaged. Many natural hollows were also badly damaged or destroyed by the fires.

In one nest box, an entire, intact possum colony, containing a breeding pair and two offspring, was found. Some single possums and another family were found later. These few possum families were all that were ever known to have survived the fires in Lake Mountain.

Parks Victoria and the Friends of Leadbeater's Possum worked desperately to aid the recovery of the Lake Mountain Leadbeater’s Possum population. All damaged and destroyed nest boxes were replaced. New boxes were installed at locations previously inhabited by colonies nesting in natural hollows. Additional boxes were also erected in the small patches of green, unburnt habitat.

In June 2009 supplementary feeding stations were established to assist the surviving possums through the winter months when food resources may be critically low. Friends of Leadbeater's Possum volunteers hiked or skied nine kilometres to replenish the feeders twice weekly.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

In a twist of sad news, in late 2011, two years after Black Saturday, Leadbeater’s Possum numbers in Lake Mountain suddenly plummeted.

Remote video footage showed feral cats prowling around the food stations. A decision was made to capture the remaining possums (only three were ever found) and take them to Healesville Sanctuary for safety.

Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum reported in 2013 that two new Leadbeater’s family groups had moved into the Lake Mountain area and despite the continued threat from feral cat predators at least one colony was known to still be in Lake Mountain in 2014.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

There were few possums left in the burnt areas of Lake Mountain, but how many were left at all?

After the 2009 fires, fear over the Leadbeater’s Possum survival led to a sustained survey effort to find out how many possums lived in the Leadbeater’s 70 km x 80 km known habitat range.

Community groups and Victorian government agencies went to the forests seeking possums. And this remarkable citizen science – government science partnership found more possums in the wild than anyone thought would be there. Since 2014 over 300 verified Leadbeater’s Possum colonies have been detected in unburnt areas of the Central Highlands, which is higher than had been feared, and sightings have increased with the implementation of new monitoring technology and community citizen science engagement.

State Government policy on timber harvesting now includes a 200 m exclusion zone around any area where a Leadbeater’s Possum colony has been verifiably sighted. Nest boxes and artificial tree hollows, specially constructed by tree arborists, have been placed throughout the Leadbeater’s habitat and possums occupy both the artificial tree hollows and the nest boxes.

Bushfire and logging remain major threats to the survival of the Leadbeater’s Possum. This means that as our climate changes and high intensity bushfires become more frequent, the possum is at greater risk of extinction.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

The Leadbeater’s Possum nest box was donated by Parks Victoria after being collected by a Parks Victoria ranger involved in the Leadbeater’s Possum Recovery Program.

The burnt and blackened case evokes the heat and intensity of the fire that hit Lake Mountain in 2009, and the charred remains of a nest within forms a powerful symbol of the impact Black Saturday had on native wildlife and ecosystems.

But this is a cultural as much as an ecological story which tells of community and our relationship with forests, wildlife, climate, and fire. The stories around the nesting box and the Leadbeater’s Possum will continue to grow and build new chapters as we build new relationships with the Victorian bush.

As climate is becoming more variable and more people are living closer to bushland, fire will continue to impact our lives and shape our history.

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

While bushfires occur every year, some have a devastating impact on communities and landscapes.

The most catastrophic of these bushfires have been named after the day of the week in which they occurred; for example: Black Thursday 1851, Black Monday 1865, Black Sunday 1926, Red Tuesday 1898, Black Friday 1939, Ash Wednesday 1983 - and now Black Saturday 2009.

In the weeks following the bushfires of February 7, 2009, Museum Victoria set up the Victorian Bushfires Collection to preserve and document objects and stories from the fires. It includes bushfire-damaged objects, emergency services equipment, oral histories, artwork, images, and material from public education campaigns.

Museum Victoria hopes the collection will not only lead to greater public understanding of bushfires and their effect on communities but also assist in the healing process (through commemoration and the sharing of stories).

Curation notes by: Liza Dale-Hallett, Senior Curator Sustainable Futures, Museums Victoria, Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, History of Collections & Scientific Art, Museums Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.