EXPERIENCE | The Storytellers Exhibition @ Museum of Brisbane
By: Monique Sheldrake
Tags: History, Literature, Brisbane, Museums, Art

The author respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Brisbane and surrounding areas.

It’s scorching hot and humid on the concrete wasteland that is King George Square but upstairs, inside the Museum of Brisbane, an air-conditioned literary wonderland awaits.

Over the decades, Brisbane has played host to conflict, celebration, scandal, disaster, ceremony and transformative moments. Through fact and fiction, The Storytellers reveals the layers of Brisbane’s history, providing different perspectives and a deeper, human interpretation of our city.

- Museum of Brisbane

I’ve been a Brisbanite for several years now but I can readily admit that I know very little about its history — much less its scandals. One side of my family is made up of Brisbane-dwellers and so I’ve gleaned snippets here and there but my visit to The Storytellers exhibit was my first real exposure to Brisbane’s past.

The first thing you’ll notice — and a large part of what drew me to visit in the first place — is the format of the exhibition. The walls and furniture are painted in a loose, inviting black and white comic aesthetic. The entire exhibition has been given a soft and cheerful appearance while remaining sharp enough to draw the eye to each of the props and exhibits, encouraging visitors to take a closer look.

In addition to photography as shown above, I was amused and delighted to see charming relics that showed how much my city had changed over the years, well before I ever called it home.

Did you know that there used to be palm trees outside Brisbane City Hall?

Were you around to see King George Square before it became the searing grey slab that it is in 2021?

Years before I was born, Brisbane even had its own monorail — specially constructed to fling guests around the attractions of Expo ‘88.

My favourite of the historical exhibits were the old newspaper pages from the 30s, 40s and 50s.

Photo: Monique Sheldrake

The newspaper on the left, dated Monday 26 April 1937, features an interesting — ahem — “Oriental” recipe. It calls for combining Arnott’s Sao biscuits, cucumber, dates and shredded carrot with a little lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Ah, Australia. Truly a bastion of multiculturalism and haute cuisine.

You may need to bring a magnifying glass to read the bulk of the articles but I highly recommend reading as much of the newspaper pages as you can. Nothing else will give you as pure of a glance into Brisbane’s past and all the linguistic and visual differences therein.

Photo: Monique Sheldrake

Eagle-eyed readers will note that in addition to the charming illustrations adorning every wall and prop in the exhibition, there is a novel’s worth of writing splashed over the walls. There are retellings of Brisbane’s history, Brisbanites’ experiences growing up in the city and the suburbs, poems, snippets of novels, or simply interesting facts.

Do you know how Fortitude Valley got its name? I do, now.

My companion and I spent around two hours in The Storytellers and the vast majority of that was standing quietly by the walls and soaking in the stories.

Photo: Monique Sheldrake

While I enjoyed everything I read in the exhibition, I highly encourage visitors to spend some time in the main hall of the exhibition, painted black in stark contrast with the rest of the bright white rooms, tangled in drawings of Poinsiana roots, branches and flowers.

Here you’ll find Matthew Condon’s multi-part story Delonix regia — the scientific name for the Poinsiana tree — a uniquely delicious blend of descriptive narrative and cold hard facts about Brisbane’s seamy underbelly. It was within the walls of his feature in the exhibiton that I first learned of the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing, something I never would have expected to come out of Australia, let alone Brisbane.

I had never heard of Matthew Condon before my visit to The Storytellers, which is a crying shame as he has a simultaneously sharp and punchy yet silky-smooth writing style. You can catch me at the bookshop or library in the months to come where I will be checking out his three-part biography of corrupt former Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis.

Photo: Monique Sheldrake

There’s so much more to see in The Storytellers than I’ve covered here. Visitors can physically collect the scattered pieces of the tale of When Lani Scrub Stole The Lungfish, listen to the recorded readings of some of the stories on the walls, enjoy the augmented reality experience lovingly created by the Artists in Residence, Helena Papageorgiou and Kellie O’Dempsey, and so much more.

The Storytellers is a treat for the eyes, ears and the brain. Best of all, you can stay cool while doing it.

Price: Free (book online for timed tickets)

Location: Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane City Hall, Level 3

When: Until late January 2021