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  1. Homepage
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  3. Cultural collections
  4. World Cultures Collection

World Cultures Collection

Explore seven continents, four millenia and the material cultures of peoples from around the world in our World Cultures Collection.

  • Main Contact
    Vanessa Finney
  • Updated
    11/10/24


Close-up of textile

Indonesian Textiles Collection

Discover cultural material and objects in our Indonesian Textiles Collection. The Australian Museum holds a collection of about 300 Indonesian textiles. Many textiles reflect the traditional methods of production, design and use.

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Balinese art

Almost 1000 Balinese artefacts including nearly 200 Kamasan-style paintings, 100 Modernist paintings, over 100 musical instruments and 170 dance costumes and accessories.

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Model of a Funerary Boat

Ancient Egyptian Collection

The Australian Museum’s Egyptian Collection includes over one thousand objects and is one of the largest public collections of Egyptian antiquities in Australia.

Ancient Egyptian Timeline
Glossary of terms
Egyptian art
Find out more

African Mask E76274

African Collection

In 1884, the Museum acquired nearly 100 cultural objects of the Zulu people, South Africa. Learn more about the collection material originally from Africa.

Zulu shields
Stone Hand Axes from Somalia
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Chinese Collection

A small collection from a cultural giant, discover the objects from China held in the Australian Museum's World Cultural Collection.

Chinese scroll painting
Bronze objects
Nestorian Stele
Learn more

Totem pole from Canada

Kwa-guilth Pole: British Columbia, Canada

Western Red Cedar pole of the Kwa-guilth people from British Colombia.

Find out more

Peruvian Pottery: E18348

Chimu Pottery from Cayalti, Peru

In 1910 the Australian Museum purchased 54 Peruvian pots from Mr Thomas Colston.

Discover more

Mask - Sri Lanka: E19295

Daha Ata Sanniya Masks

Ancient dance ritual in Sinhalese culture of Sri Lanka.

Discover more

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Inuit Art collected by Andrew and Chris Perry

Inuit People in numerous local groups inhabit the Arctic and subarctic regions of Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Alaska and Greenland.

Discover more

Capturing Nature book

Museum Archives and Research Library

The Museum Archives and Research Library cares for the Museum’s institutional memory and its historic natural history book and journal collections dating from 1836.

History of the Museum
Archives
Rare books
Photography
Explore our history

Research Library May 2015

Journals & Publications

Since 1827, studies on Australian Museum collections, or studies that more generally lead to a better understanding of the unique natural and cultural history of Australia and the Pacific, have been published by the Museum.

Scientific journals
Staff publications
Museum publications
Read More

Entomology Collection Area 2018

Australian Museum collections

The Australian Museum has spent more than 190 years building a vast collection of over 21.9 million objects and specimens alongside an enviable reputation for world-leading science.

Natural Sciences
Cultural collections
Museum Archives
Learn more


You may also be interested in...

You may also be interested in...

Illustration of a butterfly

The Scott Sisters Collection

With their collecting boxes, notebooks and paintbrushes, Harriet and Helena Scott entered the masculine world of science and became two of 19th-century Australia’s most prominent natural history illustrators.

History
Art of Science app
Explore the collection

Marine Invertebrates Collection Area 2018

Marine Invertebrates

The Marine Invertebrates Collection is active in research on a variety of taxa, such as annelids, cnidarians and crustaceans, and holds extensive collections of most marine phyla.

Crustaceans
Polychaetes
Learn more

Glass marine model

Blaschka glass models

The 19th century was a time of great scientific endeavour. In 1879 the Australian Museum actively sought to share these wonderful discoveries with the public by ordering specimens and models from Europe so that it could display all the common European vertebrates and invertebrates.

Glass models of sea anemones
Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
Discover more

Capturing Climate Change

Capturing Climate Change

What are you seeing of our climate-changed corner of the world? #CapturingClimateChange is part of the Australian Museum's commitment to pursuing climate change solutions.

Online photographic exhibition
Curated Instagram galleries
Discover more

Asaro Mud Men in the museum

Asaro collection from Papua New Guinea

Explore the culture surrounding the Mud Men of Asaro, from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Holosa (ghost) Mud Masks
Performances
Learn more

Illustration of pacific objects

The Sarah Stone Collection

A fascinating collection of original watercolours by a talented female natural history artist.

Illustrations of objects from Captain Cook’s voyages
View collection

3D scanning of fish fossils

Collection objects in 3D

See some of our rare and unique natural science and cultural collection objects in 3D.

Egyptian collection
Fish and fossils
Extinct mammals
Learn more

The birds of Great Britain. By John Gould, F.R.S., &c. ...

John Gould

With the obsession of a collector and an eye for artistic talent, John Gould succeeded in creating one of the most recognisable and long-lasting brand names in natural history.

Legendary 'bird man'
Discover more

Egyptian Mummy

Yellow coffin from Akhmim

A mummy, well wrapped in bandages in a painted coffin without a lid from Thebes in Egypt, was gifted to the Museum in 1912 by brewer, politician, and philanthropist, Robert Lucas-Tooth.

18 October 2022
Read more

Light Microscopy - Mark McGrouther

Science of life

Learn about biodiversity, the scientific study of life and organisms, and the story of human evolution.

Stages of Decomposition
The Human story
Virtual Autopsy
Learn more

The AMRI Herpetology Collection. These are general shots of the Collection specimens and Collection areas for the AM website redevelopment in 2018.  Shots taken in the Herpetology Collection with Techinical Officer Stephen Mahony.

Herpetology

Herpetology is the study of amphibians, including frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians, and reptiles, including lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles.

Amphibians
Reptiles
Find out more

ACWG DNA Labs 2015

Frozen Tissue collection

Our extensive collections are a valuable resource for the investigation of biodiversity, population genetics, phylogenetics and more.

Tissue samples of species
Contain DNA
DNA Lab
Find out more

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Photo of two painted shields

The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands.

Image credit: gadigal yilimung (shield) made by Uncle Charles Chicka Madden