The Powerhouse & Blak Collections: Sitting with Trouble and Standing Up for Truth

  • Tammi Gissell Collections Coordinator, First Nations, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37683/asa.v53.11091
Keywords: Museum, archive, decolonise, Blak, Indigenous

Abstract

The Tandanya-Adelaide Declaration came to the Powerhouse Museum in late 2019 and has underpinned sincere positive transformation of collection care standards ever since. Enacting its commitments allowed unprecedented Indigenous accesses and advances through the historic Powerhouse Collection Digitisation and Relocation Project, which further informed the founding of the Powerhouse First Nations Directorate in 2021. Since then, many profound improvements are being enabled by fulfilling the assertions and commitments offered in the Tandanya-Adelaide Declaration. This article is presented as a firsthand account of how it has informed positive developments in documentation, storage, handling and access as well as towards correct recognitions, protocol adherences and approaches to acquisition all of which affirm the rights of Indigenous people over their cultural heritage that the Powerhouse is safeguarding.

Author Biography

Tammi Gissell, Collections Coordinator, First Nations, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia

Tammi Gissell is a long-time horizon hunter descended from Murruwarri & Wiradjuri peoples in north western NSW, Australia. She is a freshwater woman from stone Country with cultural responsibility to the Baaka River and Mt. Gundabooka. Since 2020, she’s applied her understanding of Indigenous knowledge systems to the development of culturally appropriate caring as collections coordinator, First Nations at the Powerhouse, Sydney. Tammi has previously written for the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), QLD Art Gallery of Modern Art, Australian New Zealand Arts Journal, Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities, Critical Path Institute, Performance Paradigm and Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum.

Published
2026-09-14
How to Cite
Gissell , T. (2026) “The Powerhouse & Blak Collections: Sitting with Trouble and Standing Up for Truth”, Archives & Manuscripts, 53(1), pp. 39-59. doi: 10.37683/asa.v53.11091.
Issue
Vol 53 No 1 (2025): The Tandanya-Adelaide Declaration: From Declaration to Implementation
Section
Special Issue

Copyright (c) 2026 Tammi Gissell

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