Matthew Flinders and Bungaree by Helen Tiernan from her series ‘Heroes of Colonial Encounters’. ANMM Collection 00055144 and 00055142.

Blog

Curious about what goes on at the museum? These blogs give you an inside peek.

Discover stories behind the latest exhibitions, fascinating explorations into maritime science and archaeology, and the surprising details of what happens inside (and outside) a modern working museum.

kimanmm

Kim Tao

Kim is the curator of post-Federation immigration at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Clear all options
Mona Hussain with her daughter Aisha Duncan, 2020. Photography by Andrew Frolows

A leap of faith

16 Dec 2020

In 2001, Mona Hussain (born 1969) left her family, friends and a successful career in London to begin a new life in Australia with her American-born husband Mark (Dexter) Duncan. 

Read more
Empathy Museum's 'A Mile in My Shoes' at The Migration Museum London, 2018. Reproduced courtesy Empathy Museum

A Mile in my Shoes

15 Dec 2020

Since the Empathy Museum was founded by Roman Krznaric in 2015, its inaugural project A Mile in my Shoes has travelled to more than 35 locations across the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as New York, Denver, São Paulo, Perth and Melbourne. Now it is Sydney’s turn to host the pop-up storytelling exhibition that allows visitors to step into someone else’s shoes and discover their story.

Read more
Gina Sinozich, We are sailing the Suez Canal on our way to Australia, 2003. ANMM Collection Gift from Gina Sinozich 00037916

Sail, steam and Suez views

17 Nov 2020

This week marks the 151st anniversary of a great historic coincidence – the opening of the Suez Canal and the launch of the British tea clipper Cutty Sark.

Read more
Coming and Going, the Sydney memorial to British child migrants by Sasha Reid, located outside the museum in Darling Harbour

Reflecting on the child migrant apology

16 Nov 2020

Eleven years ago today, the Australian government made a long-awaited national apology to the thousands of former child migrants whose lives were impacted by government-sponsored child migration schemes.

Read more
Left to right: Monga Khan AUSSIE and Gladys Sym Choon AUSSIE posters by Peter Drew, 2020. National Maritime Collection, reproduced courtesy the artist

The art of making: New immigration acquisitions

12 Oct 2020

There are more than 10,000 objects in the museum’s collection relating to Australia’s rich immigration history. But the museum is also committed to contemporary collecting about immigration. Curator Kim Tao discusses three new acquisitions that explore the art of making through activism and sustainable socially engaged design.  

Read more
Henry Lippmann (centre, with hand on chin) during a lesson at the Jewish ORT school in Berlin, Germany, c 1939. ANMM Collection ANMS0219[007], gift from Henry Lippmann

Behind barbed wire: Remembering the Dunera boys

07 Sep 2020

Yesterday marked 80 years since the hired military transport Dunera sailed into Pyrmont, Sydney. To mark the 80th anniversary, we look at the story of the late Henry Lippmann OAM and his journey on this infamous voyage. 

Read more
One of the Las Balsas rafts at sea, with the other two rafts in the background, 1973. Photograph by John Carnemolla. Image reproduced courtesy Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum

Las Balsas: The world's longest raft journey

16 Jul 2020

Twelve men, seven nationalities, three rafts, six months and one epic 14,000-kilometre trans-Pacific voyage. Curator Kim Tao interviews Luis Guevara from the 1973 Las Balsas expedition, which completed a record-breaking crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador to Australia on three balsa-wood rafts.

Read more
June and Herbert Edelman

Love and migration

24 Feb 2020

Explore the relationship between love and migration through the stories of Japanese and Australian war brides.

Read more