Object Matters – Details, episodes & analysis

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Object Matters

Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney

Arts

History

Science

Frequency: 1 episode/27d. Total Eps: 51

The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney's monthly podcast series. Host Dr Craig Barker asks guests to choose any one item to discuss from the museum’s collections of art, archaeology, natural history, science and culture.

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🇬🇧 Great Britain - Visual Arts
14/10/2026
#75

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https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/
34 shares
https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/about-us/our-people/craig-barker.html
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https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/our-research/paphos-theatre.html
17 shares

https://twitter.com/DrCraig_B
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https://twitter.com/ccwm_sydney

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52: The statue of William Charles Wentworth and Adelaide Ironside

Episode 52

Saturday, December 23, 2023 • Duration 58:17

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by historian and author Dr Kiera Lindsey. Together they discuss her new book on colonial Sydney artist Adelaide Ironside titled Wild Love. Together they examine speculative history, writing biographies and art in colonial New South Wales, and explore Adelaide's complex relationship with University of Sydney founders William Charles Wentworth and Sir Charles Nicholson.

Guest: Dr Kiera Lindsey is a creative historian who works across the public and academic sectors. She works at the History Trust of SA (HTSA) as South Australia’s History Advocate.
She has over twenty years of research and writing experience in the area of nineteenth-century, Indigenous and women's histories and have also published nationally and internationally on the topics of speculative biography and life writing. She had served as Vice President of the History Council of New South Wales as well as a member of the Sydney Living Museum's Curatorial and Public Engagement Advisory Committee. She features regularly on radio and podcasts, and was a consultant and on-camera historian for a 4-part series entitled LAWLESS: The Real Bushrangers which first aired on Foxtel's History Channel in 2017. Kiera has also designed two online public history courses on the GLAM sector. Wild Love was published through Allen & Unwin in November 2023, joining her first book The Convict's Daughter, and a volume coedited with Donna Brien on the topic of speculative biography. Wild Love was the produce of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) while she was at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Follow Kiera on X: @LindseyKiera

Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram.

Object details:
Pietro Tenerani, life-size statue of William Charles Wentworth, marble, 1861.
Purchased with funds from public subscription 1861 [UA1861.1]

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51: Fragment of terracotta cult statue from Cyprus

Episode 51

Monday, November 27, 2023 • Duration 49:28

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou, an archaeologist and curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the 2023 Sir Charles Nicholson Lecturer. Together they discuss the Being An Islander project and associated Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as Anastasia's archaeological interests in material culture in island environments, including Crete, Sardinia and Cyprus, where they discuss an Archaic period cult sanctuary site called Salamis Toumba.

Guest: Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou is Curator of Greece, Rome and Cyprus at the Department of Antiquities of the Fitzwilliam Museum. She is responsible for research and exhibition projects and permanent displays in the fields of Greek, Cypriot and Roman collections of the museum. Anastasia gained her PhD in Classical Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (2008) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Topoi Excellence Cluster, Freie Universität Berlin (2009-2010), prior to joining the Fitzwilliam Museum. She served as leader of the 4-year research project ‘Being an Islander’: Art and Identity of the large Mediterranean Islands, (2019-2023) which aimed to critically re-examine the concept of island life through material culture.
In 2023 she visited the University of Sydney as the Chau Chak Wing Museum's Sir Charles Nicholson Lecturer. Follow Anastasia on X: @AChristophilop1 , Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow on X and Instagram.Fragmentary human head, terracotta, Salamis , Cyprus, Cypro-Archaic, 750-475 BC. Donated by the Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge 1947 []

50: Heba Abd el-Gawad on Rethinking Egyptian Antiquities in Museums

Episode 50

Wednesday, November 1, 2023 • Duration 34:50

In this special episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Egyptian archaeologist Dr Heba Abd el-Gawad. Together they discuss the unique role ancient Egypt plays in museums globally, the missing modern Egyptian voice in ancient Egyptian exhibitions, decolonising collections and her work as part of the AHRC-funded project ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage: views from Egypt’, partnering with UK museums and archives to communicate the history of cultural dispersal and examining opportunities to create dialogue with modern Egyptian communities.

Guest: Dr Heba Abd el-Gawad is an Egyptian archaeologist.
She is the project researcher for the AHRC funded project: ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage: Views from Egypt’ at the Institute of Archaeology, University College of London aimed at amplifying the voice, visibility, and validity of modern Egyptian communities in UK museums. She has previously led various curatorial roles in the UK. Heba specializes in the history of Egyptian archaeology focusing on the past and present Egyptian perceptions and representations of the collection and distribution of archaeological finds from Egypt to the world. Follow @GawadHeba on X.

Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram.

49: Transport amphora with shell encrustations

Episode 49

Friday, October 20, 2023 • Duration 35:23

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Natali Pearson of the University of Sydney's Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC). Natali is a critical heritage scholar, so together they discuss her work on the maritime heritage of Southeast Asia, including her own work and her recent publication on the Belitung shipwreck in Indonesian waters, and the importance of Australians knowing our nearest neighbours better. Moving from Southeastern Asia to the Mediterranean, together they discuss the second century BC transport amphora (Greco-Italic style) covered with shell encrustations, and muse upon the sea's influence on human cultural history, trade and transportation of commodities and the importance of the encrustation as part of the object's history.

Guest: Dr Natali Pearson is a critical heritage studies scholar at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, specialising in maritime heritage in Southeast Asia, and an Honorary Associate in the Discipline of Archaeology. She hosts the SSEAC Stories podcast. Her research interests and experience include the ethics, provenance and laundering of underwater cultural heritage; heritage diplomacy; and the management of shared wrecks. Her book Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck was published in 2023 by University of Hawaii Press. She is the President of the Indonesia Council and an Expert Member, International Council on Monuments and Sites-International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management. Follow Natali on X: , Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow on X and Instagram.'Greco-Italic' Transport Amphora with shell encrustations, Gulf of Naples near Baiae, Italy, c. 200-130 BC. Donated by Sir Charles Nicholson 1860 []

48: Researching the Dru Drury butterfly collection

Episode 48

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 • Duration 45:42

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by zoologist and 2023 Macleay Miklouho-Maclay Fellow Dr Angel Luis Viloria Petit, who has recently completed his research in Sydney, examining historic collections of butterflies.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum houses the natural history collection of Alexander Macleay (1767-1848) largely amassed prior to his arrival in the colony of NSW in 1826. Many of the insects were acquired by Macleay from other naturalists, including Dru Drury (1725-1804) who published three volumes on butterflies. In his three months in Sydney, Venezuelan-based Dr Viloria has examined thousands of specimens in the collection and has successfully identified more than 260 primary type specimens, many from Drury's collections dating back to the 1770-1790s, identifiable from hand-painted illustrations from within those publications.

Together they discuss Angel's career and research, the history of insect collecting, and early European collectors and the process of identifying primary type specimens in two hundred year old collections of butterflies using historical hand-painted illustrations.

Read more on Dr Viloria's research while in Sydney. is a zoologist and entomologist at the Ecological Centre in Caracas, Venezuela and Senior Researcher at the Centre of Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations (IVIC), specialising in South American lepidoptera. He received a first degree in Biology from the Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela, and his Doctorate of Philosophy (zoology) from a joint program of the University of London (King’s College) and the Natural History Museum, UK. He has pursued investigations on a variety of subjects related to zoology, theoretical biogeography, history and philosophy of the biological sciences. However, his main interest is on the systematics of butterflies of Tropical America, especially the Andean browns, members of the subfamily . In 2019-2020 he held the Simón Bolívar Visiting Chair at the University of Cambridge. He is is author and co-author of 110+ scientific papers, 210+ popular science articles and 8 books, including the standard reference, . , Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow on Twitter and Instagram.The Dru Drury collection of butterflies and moths within the Macleay .

47: Judy Birmingham and the Archaeological Excavations at Irrawang

Episode 47

Friday, September 22, 2023 • Duration 28:04

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum intern Isabella Trope. Isabella is a student at Macquarie University and has been researching a collection of ceramic sherds in the museum's education collection donated by Judy Birmingham in preparation of them being used in school education Object-Based Learning programs.

In this conversation they discuss the influence of pioneering Australian archaeologist Judy Birmingham and her work at Irrawang pottery workshop near Raymond Terrace, where between 1833–56 James King produced commercial ceramics. In 1967 Birmingham lead an archaeological excavation conducted by the student Archaeological Society of the University of Sydney; the first ever historical archaeological excavation in Australia. They talk about museum internships and about developing educational activities with school curricula links, as well as the important role Judy played in the development of archaeology in Australia.

Guest: Isabella Trope is a history and archaeology student at Macquarie University who has recently completed an internship at the Chau Chak Wing Museum. She works as a Volunteer Content Producer for Historic Houses Association of Australia.

Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram.

Object details:
Collection of 23 sherds from the 1967 archaeological excavations at Irrawang, New South Wales, donated by Associate Professor Judy Birmingham, 2009 [IRN268679]. Also discussed is a bronze axe, Iron Age, 1000-600 BC, from Luristan, Iran [NM48.244].

46: UMAC and University Museums in the 21st Century

Episode 46

Friday, August 25, 2023 • Duration 37:39

As the Chau Chak Wing Museum gets set to host the UMAC2023 conference, for this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by UMAC President and Chau Chak Wing Museum Research Fellow Dr Andrew Simpson.

UMAC University Museums and Collections, an International Committee of ICOM (International Council of Museums) was founded in 2001 to advocate for university museums and teaching and research collections for museums around the globe.

In this discussion, Craig and Andrew talk about the role of museums on a campus from a global perspective, UMAC as an organisation and the aims and ambitions of the 2023 iteration of the annual conference. They also speak at length about Andrew's new book, The Museums and Collections of Higher Education (Routledge 2023).

Guest: Dr Andrew Simpson is President of UMAC University Museums and Collections and has extensive experience in higher education, heritage, museums and galleries . Andrew has a science back and he began his museum career as a curator at the University of Queensland. At Macquarie University he introduced and developed Australia's first undergraduate degree program in Museum Studies followed by named postgraduate degree programs. These programs were delivered by the Science Faculty and designed as an alternative to the usual art history / cultural heritage study to career path. It produced graduates for the sector with an enhanced understanding of science in museum practice. His research interests are the history, role and functions of museums in society, in particular, university museums, museum education, natural history and the public understanding of science, as well as his own scientific interests. , Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow on Twitter and Instagram.

45: Carte-de-visite; photograph of the bird 'Didunculus strigirostris'

Episode 45

Friday, August 18, 2023 • Duration 35:04

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Jan Brazier, the Curator of History Collections. Together they discuss a carte-de-visite featuring a photograph of a bird taken by Sydney studio photographer Thomas Skelton Glaister in 1863. Not any bird, this is the first ever photograph of the endangered Didunculus strigirostris or tooth-billed pigeon.
Jan leads us on a journey into the research she has undertaken about this image, tracking from Samoa to Sydney to London an meeting influential figures in 19th century natural history, and providing the story as to this remarkable bird's significance.

Read more on the research into the three copies of the carte-de-visite.
Brazier, Jan (2019). A rare bird - The tooth-billed pigeon Didunculus strigirostris. Muse: Art, Culture, Antiquities, Natural History. (23), pp. 4-5

Guest: Jan Brazier is curator of the History Collections, which comprise of the Historic Photographs Collection and the Science Collection. Previously, she was the archivist at the Australian Museum. Jan's earlier career was as a research assistant in the area of Australian history for the Department of History, Australian National University, and then for Professor Ken Inglis on his major histories of the ABC and war memorials in the Australian landscape. , Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow on Twitter and Instagram.Carte-de-visite; photograph of the bird 'Didunculus strigirostris', the tooth-billed pigeon from Samoa where it is known as manu mea; photographer T Glaister,1863.Donated by John Pearson Ramsay 1996 [] See also and both donated as part of the Ramsey Collection in 1974.

44: Tracey Hands Up, by Michael Riley (1986)

Episode 44

Monday, July 31, 2023 • Duration 38:51

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Julian Woods, the museum's Public Engagement Co-ordinator.

Julian discusses a photograph in the collection, acquired from the University of Sydney Union art collection in 2019, which Julian had previously featured in an exhibition he co-curated. The photography by Michael Riley (1960-2004) is a portrait of artist Tracey Moffatt taken in the mid-1980s. They discuss the work of both Riley and Moffatt, photography in Australia and the significance of the photograph within the context of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Co-operative.

Guest: Julian Woods is Public Engagement Co-ordinator for the Chau Chak Wing Museum. In this role he assists with the development of public programs, education, and other outreach activities. Before joining the Museum, he worked at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in audience engagement and curatorial. He has over 10 years experience working and volunteering in the arts and cultural sector and completed a BA at the University of Sydney with Honours in Art History and a Major in History, focusing on Australian art and Australian history. Follow him on @julianwoods92

Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.

Objects details:Tracey (Moffatt) hands up, Michael Riley, 1986, positive print – gelatin silver.Donated by University of Sydney Union 2019, University Art Collection []

43: Two early x-ray tubes made by Harry W Cox

Episode 43

Sunday, June 25, 2023 • Duration 31:49

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Kelsey McMorrow, who is curatorial assistant, science collections.
Kelsey discusses two x-ray tubes made in the early twentieth century. Together they discuss the importance of science collections and presenting science history in museums. The cover the discovery and the development of x-rays in the late 19th century, the early use of x-rays and the gradual realisation of the health implications of unsafe x-ray usage. They also cover the fascinating story of x-ray pioneer Harry W. Cox, who's firm manufactured the two x-ray tubes in the collection discussed.

Guest: Kelsey McMorrow is Curatorial Assistant, Science Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum. In this role Kelsey assists in the curation, research and management of the Museum’s science collections, working most closely with the Macleay Collection of scientific instruments and apparatus. Kelsey is also passionate about museum accessibility and is a member of the Museum’s Accessibility and Inclusion Working Group. Kelsey completed her BA/BSc at UNSW, studying history and psychology. She also completed her Master of Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Sydney.
Hear Kelsey interviewed for the UMAC Futures series on global early career university museum employees.

Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow on Twitter and Instagram.Electromagnetic instrument; Cox's x-ray tube, 1909-10917, Harry W Cox Ltd, London. Transferred to the collection in 1972 [] Electromagnetic instrument; gas x-ray tube, 1896-1910, Harry W Cox Ltd, London. Donated by Mr John Robinson 2021 [] (pictured)

Object Matters – Details, episodes & analysis

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Object Matters – Details, episodes & analysis

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