Transcript - Radio Interview - 6PR Mornings - Monday, 1 June 2020
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR MORNINGS
MONDAY, 1 JUNE 2020
SUBJECTS: Bicentenary of Perth; National Indigenous Art and Culture Museum; Reconciliation.
GARETH PARKER, HOST: Now we're going to talk about a project that's been sort of kicked around, mooted and theorised but hasn't really gone anywhere for some years. What about this? I think it's a terrific idea. A world-class Aboriginal art and culture museum on the banks of the Swan River at the doorstep of our city at Elizabeth Quay. The Federal Labor Member for Perth is Patrick Gorman. Patrick, hello.
PATRICK GORMAN, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH: Hello Gareth.
PARKER: Tell me about this plan, this concept, as I say it's been kicked around for a while. Who's responsible for it? Is there a proposal? What are we talking about?
GORMAN: It has been kicked around for a while. The thing I've thought to do over the WA Day long weekend is try and give us a bit of a deadline. In 2029, Western Australia or Perth will celebrate our bicentenary - that's nine years from now. I think that is a good deadline to say we want to do something big, visionary, and get this nationally significant thing here in WA, that gives us a reason to ask for it, it gives us a deadline which we can very easily meet and I think, and I hope, that we can be successful in convincing some of those who hold collections and indeed, decision makers across the country, that Western Australia would be a good location for such a museum.
PARKER: Where would you put it?
GORMAN: I have been cautious to not lock myself into a particular location. I know there is some landmarks as you mentioned that Elizabeth Quay. I think there is a range of different places you can put it. I think it would be a shame if it didn't end up somewhere on the Swan River and I'd plonk it right in the heart of my electorate of Perth. I've also heard suggestions that you could put it on the South Perth foreshore - so there are a few different options kicking around.
PARKER: I mean when Colin Barnett did the plan for Elizabeth Quay, there was a site earmarked for a project like this, wasn't there?
GORMAN: Yeah there was and like many things with Elizabeth Quay it hasn't, because it all hasn't happened as quickly as we thought. The thing that has encouraged me in terms of this possibly getting some more momentum that it has had in the past is that Infrastructure Australia earlier this year, highlighted a series, they suggested a series, of national cultural museums recognising indigenous art and culture as a national infrastructure priority. Now normally Infrastructure Australia sticks to the bread and butter of the roads, bridges, train lines et cetera. But this time they actually said, no we need to have some more cultural infrastructure. So hopefully that means that we might be able to, with some co-operation, get some federal funds on the table recognise this is not just a WA priority but actually a national one.
PARKER: When you say nationally significant, can you put some flesh on the bones of that?
GORMAN: The thing I look at is what they did in the United States of America about a decade ago now, is they committed themselves to a National Museum of African-American Culture and History. That was a huge project - a half a billion dollar museum. It is now one of the most popular Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC, indeed one of the most popular Smithsonian Museums anywhere in the country. And that has just been a runaway success. So it is about telling our story and I think this bicentenary, it's not really the same as the one we celebrate in the 1980s, when we celebrated Sydney's bicentenary. I think people are going to recognise that we are going to spend a lot more time focusing on the difficult parts of our history and some of those conversations. Hopefully we can find something, I think this might be the thing to kind of celebrate the good, acknowledge the pain and kind of help people walk together for the next 200 years.
PARKER: It's Reconciliation Day today, amid Reconciliation Week which began with Sorry Day last week. So I guess it's appropriate timing that we talk about it. I'd love people to weigh in on this 9221 1882. I mean I just have this vision for just totally changing several conversations Patrick - changing the conversation about relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal West Australians; changing perceptions of Perth both its physical geography - imagine if you know and I'm using this as an example of other parts of the world, but like a Getty Museum or you know Frank Lloyd Wright in other parts of the world where things have been so visually striking - even a Sydney Opera House in our own context. If you do something that’s not a copy of those things, it's its own thing and it's very much informed by the collection that it houses which is all about Aboriginal art and culture. But you do something that's really distinctive and fascinating and you put it at the front of doorstep of our city on Derbarl Yerrigan, Swan River, you could change a whole bunch of conversations all at once.
GORMAN: And I think it would, in and of itself, it would spark and say, what we know is international tourists one of the top things they say is they want to have a genuine Indigenous experience and if we can say “if that's what you want, come here to Perth”, then that puts us in a whole new world in our tourism marketing. This is a tourism priority. The Tourism Council and the WA Indigenous Tourism Operators Council have both highlighted something like this would be a priority and I'm going to dive in before you sort of start asking me where does the money come from because I agree with you, it's got to be big. It's got to be visionary. It's got to be something that you can't see anywhere else.
PARKER: Right.
GORMAN: When you look at what happened for the bicentenary of Sydney in 1988, the Federal Government kicked in $200 million - in today's money that's $473 million. So I think it is reasonable that when you celebrate the bicentenary of the western capital, you find some money to actually do something big and do something that also gives a place and a home for so much of the art and culture, which a lot of it is in private collections or not even not on display at all.
PARKER: Do you think that you could pull together all the parties and find the money and get it built by 2029?
GORMAN: I think 2029 is a really useful deadline to kind of drive a conversation. This is one of those things that's going to span prime ministers and premiers and that needs a lot of buy-in on a lot of different levels. But I'm optimistic. I think the bicentenary is a good deadline to set for ourselves. They built the Eiffel Tower in two years. If we want to build something big, we can we can do it in that time frame.
PARKER: It's just a Meccano set though. You know that Patrick.
GORMAN: I'm not that good with Meccano.
PARKER: Fair enough.
GORMAN: I'm sure that we will find ... we've got a lot world class engineers in Perth and I'm sure we'll find...
PARKER: No, we can do better than the Eiffel Tower, I reckon.
GORMAN: I agree.
PARKER: It's a fascinating idea. Before I let you go. Do you have any idea why the old Endeavour replica form work is apparently sitting on the side of the road near Cleaver Street in Perth?
GORMAN: I have no idea at all. I wouldn't even know ... I'd like to say I'm going to go make some enquiries and come back to you. I wouldn't even know where to start. I think one of your listeners is going to call in with an answer as to what's going on there and I look forward to finding out.
PARKER: All right. We'll keep pursuing it. Good on you mate. Thank for your time.
GORMAN: Thank you.
PARKER: Patrick Gorman, the Labor Member for Perth.
ENDS