CULTURE UP LATE: AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM: MARDI GRAS EDITION

Dinos at night? I’m in!  Australian Museum’s Culture Up Late events are themed and spread throughout the year.  Valentine’s Day got a gong but tonight it was Mardi Gras at the Museum.

Lots of extra things to do or just wander around enjoying the displays, the Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age exhibition is included in the very reasonable entry price. 

According to one of our hosts, Sheldon, there are 18 million objects in the Australian Museum.  Just one of the extraordinary people we were to meet during our afterhours wanderings, Sheldon is a conservator and his project on display was a huge peacock.  He was surrounded by tiny, precise tools of the trade and some fascinating objects.  Such as tiny teeny testicles belonging to some kind of teeny tiny mammal.  Out of my experience but my male companion had a huge laugh at the animal’s expense.

With the music of Lady Sings It Better (Fiona Pearson and Libby Wood) echoing somewhat too loudly around the space we heard a bit of gay trivia about Lorikeets, who apparently are known to live in same relationships.  Not uncommon, Sheldon says of our avian friends, especially water birds, to parent in same sex families.  Amazing, I had heard the stories about penguins and, easily distracted, wandered over towards them.

On the way having a look at Sam Leighton-Dore, illustrator (and award-winning filmmaker and writer) creating an artwork for the occasion.  It included the polyamorous penguins in front of whom he was set up but also the bisexual bison standing near.

That was the preserve of the wonderfully energetic and knowledgeable Jackson whose ‘Mating in the Wild’ tour was just so entertaining.  Jackson took us through some very intimate details of animal coupling.

After spending time in Jackson’s spot tour I am amazed at the gaiety of animals’ sex lives.  The number of species where the males engage in “penetrative sex” with other males and some that just rub together, avoiding the messy stuff! Who knew?   And I think I will leave undeciphered my notes about handjobs and semen eating!  I can’t help myself, that would be the Bonobo Chimpanzees. But I am going to keep to myself the information about which female creatures are the only known species to be exclusively homosexual and reproduce by parthenogenesis.  Big sigh … one day…

But if we think human evolution is slow, wait till we get Mel Murray .  Before that we wander past some Conservatorium students with brilliant, echoey, avant-garde original music compositions and are further distracted by a huge squid in formaldehyde.   Eventually we get to Mel who is an amazing resource about resources. Minerals in particular, I now know so much about luminance and my personal favourite … diamonds.  The ages involved is staggering.

Time then to head home after a charming evening of Museum going.  We didn’t see it all but heading out into the night past the dinosaurs was great fun.

.  The next in the Culture Up Late series is 7th  March for Oceania Connections bringing the museum’s Pacifica collections to life through storytelling, creative arts, performance and sharing of knowledge.  After that is 14 March barrabugu (For Tomorrow) where Aboriginal guests examine how First Nations knowledge may be the key to a better shared future for all.