LAUSR

If you were out and about in Sydney in summer, you would have likely encountered the profiles of an Aboriginal man, two white men, and a white woman across the city. Beneath their faces lay the words: My Story, Our History. Although these portraits spearheaded the advertising campaign for the new, eighteen million-dollar, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, this publicity material relied on well-worn convict tropes. The tagline, My Story, Our History, seemed tired considering that the connection between convict experience and national history has long been interrogated by historians and the public. Moreover, the expressions of the men and woman on the advertising material were either defiant or despairing, the black and white palette adding to the sense that this was a history of hardship, even trauma. From outward appearances, it appeared that the museum would provide an expensive new gloss over an enduring national mythology: that convicts were ‘more sinned against than sinning’, and that their history was simply one of violence and oppression. Unfortunately, the museum does not diverge greatly from this marketing campaign. However, there are advances in interpretation. The Hyde Park Barracks Museum pairs new technologies with historical artefacts and advances in convict historiography to create an immersive experience for its visitors. This is apparent the moment that the visitor steps through the threshold into the Barracks’ complex. The area surrounding the Barracks has been transformed byWiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. Using red and white gravel sourced on Wiradjuri country, Jones emblazoned the 2,500 square metre courtyard with symbols that drew on both Aboriginal emu footprints and English broad arrows for inspiration. The contrast between the white and red remains stark in some areas, while in others it blurs as red and white intermingle and the design is worn away by the tread of visitors’ feet (Figure 1). While this art installation was a temporary addition to the site, the connection between Aboriginal and European histories is one of Hyde Park Barracks’ notable strengths. Rather than relegating Aboriginal people to a tokenistic, pre-contact zone at the beginning of the museum, the interwoven nature of Aboriginal and European histories is a feature of the site. Several rooms are dedicated to postcontact Aboriginal history, with frontier violence explored in depth and descendants’ oral histories and opinions a recurring feature of the museum. In line with contemporary scholarship, there is recognition that people indigenous to other