Culture denatured or nature decultured

The Australian Museum is a museum of both natural science and cultural heritage. As an institution we find this quite a challenge, both in our communication with our audiences and in our internal debates about who and what we are. In the area of natural science we feel quite confident in our adopted role in the community. With our vast collections of specimens and reputation for scholarly research, the Australian Museum assumes what Ellen Futter, President ofthe American Museum of Natural History, NY, describes as 'a stewardship of the natural world' (Futter, 1997, p40). Our mission explicitly states an intention to engage in and influence public debate. We feel this mission with a certain sense ofurgency based on our knowledge of what is happening to the natural world. We acknowledge our role in bringing about a change of attitude in our visitors, and have generally sought to do this by presenting to our audiences the objective and value-free 'science' of nature while simultaneously using that science to support a point of view.