NETS Australia: First Nations Engagement in Exhibition Touring

A consultation guide from NETS Australia to encourage First Nations-led cultural safety, collaboration, co-creation and employment connected to touring exhibitions.

Exhibition touring in Australia is inseparable from First Nations Country. Every tour travels across lands with living cultural, spiritual, and governance relationships that have endured for tens of thousands of years. Many exhibitions carry First Nations stories, objects, images, and knowledge and even those that do not are still arriving on Country.

This guidance is for tour organisers and host venues alike. It is designed to be a starting point and complimentary to existing frameworks and strategies. First Nations peoples, cultures, and communities are not a monolith, meaning good practice in one place may look different in another. We encourage you to build on what is here in conversation with the First Nations peoples connected to your work, your place, and your project. This guidance does not replace your organisation’s Reconciliation Action Plan, First Nations engagement strategy, or the advice of First Nations people you work with.