Virtual Representations and Imagined Reconstructions of one of Australia’s most significant Bark Painting Collections

Abstract. Repatriation of museum materials to their originating cultures and communities remains an ongoing process, often marred by controversy but also the limited resources of communities to house vast collections of often fragile cultural heritage. Using photogrammetry and other digitisation methods to make museum materials remotely available does not replace repatriation but these digital simulacra can become the anchors for immersive and interactive virtual reality environments to provide communities with alternative and powerful platforms for cultural engagement. The ease with which large collections of museum materials can be digitised with photogrammetry and the growing capabilities of standalone virtual reality headsets to render complex models and environments enables immersive experiences of museum collections to be brought directly to remote communities like Gunbalanya in Australia’s tropical north. Trials of these virtual experiences in Gunbalanya based on a more than one hundred-year-old bark painting collection at the Melbourne Museum have demonstrated the strong emotional reactions immersive and interactive cultural virtual reality experiences can produce, bringing about both fun and nostalgic reflection. Constructing these virtual experiences also challenges conceptions of scientific authenticity in archaeological digital reconstructions of the past, particularly where inclusion of Indigenous ontologies is necessary to produce a truly authentic cultural experience.