Tuesday, July 28, 2026

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Across the world, museums and herbaria house many millions of specimens collected from the natural world. In 2023, it was estimated that museums hold over 1.1 billion specimens, with another 390 million specimens of plants, algae and fungi held in herbaria. These specimens have been collected over five centuries, often on the lands of Indigenous peoples as part of colonial efforts to name and describe the flora and fauna of colonised lands. The imperial scientific mindset fundamentally saw colonised lands as blank canvases of ‘unknown’ flora and fauna. Specimens were physically removed from the Country where they were gathered and housed in colonial collecting institutions both within Australia and overseas, where they awaited classification within systems of non-Indigenous science. Although Indigenous Knowledge (IK) was usually unrecognised or ignored in the collecting process, some collectors recognised Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and recorded IK when collecting specimens. Museums and herbaria have started to address their colonial origins and are taking steps to reconnect specimens and IK with their Indigenous knowledge authority; to respect that cultural authority; and to seek advice on how to manage this information in culturally appropriate ways in line with principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights. Even when IK has not been explicitly recorded with the specimens, reconnecting specimens to Country – and improving access and findability to enable communities to connect with those specimens – are important steps in supporting IDSovs. Presentations in this session will explore some of the possibilities for reconnecting specimens to Country and discuss projects where this work is happening. During discussion time, we hope to touch on how this work can contribute to language and cultural revitalisation, reinvigorate biocultural knowledge and provide benefits to communities.