THE National Museum of Australia and the National Australia Day Council today (December 20) launched their annual exhibition of significant objects chosen by the eight 2022 Australian of the Year state and territory recipients.

The exhibition places focus on the objects, which tell us something about recipients’ lives, aspirations and experiences.

National Museum director Mathew Trinca said after a year of immense challenges, the state and territory recipients had selected objects that brought a sense of hope for the future, while National Australia Day Council CEO, Karlie Brand, said the objects had moved beyond being ordinary possessions and were now extraordinarily significant.

Curator of the show, Lily Withycombe, was inclined to agree, saying: “I love this exhibition. These unexpected, personal objects give the background story to such extraordinary Australians and help everyone connect with their life journeys. It makes their achievements all the more inspiring.”

On a walk through this morning, Withycombe told “CityNews” that, in her view, the objects on show were exceptionally strong this year.

She explained some of the difficulties in getting items. For instance, basketballer Patty Mills is overseas,  but then in other instances, there were very definite choices such as the tiles made from re-recycled and textile recycled ceramics and textiles that illustrated Professor Veena Sahajwalla’s career.

Poignant choices were the  facsimile of footprints taken from  the murdered daughter of the Brisbane recipients, anti-violence advocates,  Sue and Lloyd Clarke, while WA Australian of the Year Paul Litherland chose an object of very personal significance to him, the only remaining recording by his mother, a gifted singer whose abusive husband destroyed her records and suppressed her art.

Here are the recipients:

• ACT Australian of the Year, Patrick (Patty) Mills, basketball champion, is in the middle of the NBA season in the US, so had no chance to choose an object for display, so the NMA has displayed an object from the Museum’s collection – the singlet Danny Morseu wore at the 1980 Moscow Olympics – in the expectation that Mills will contribute an object later.
• NSW, Prof Veena Sahajwalla, best known for her invention of “green steel” technology, has selected coloured tiles created from recycled timber, textiles and glass and designed for use in domestic and commercial buildings.
• NT, Arrernte woman Leanne Liddle, was a young officer with SA Police when she found some handcuffs in an antique shop that would have been attached to leg and neck chains and used to imprison First Nations people. Despite her distress, Leanne felt compelled to buy them to teach future generations about Australia’s history.
• Queensland, Sue and Lloyd Clarke, hope to empower victims of violence to speak up, help family members to be aware of those who may be in an unsafe environment.
• SA, Prof Helen Marshall. Specialising in vaccinology, public health and infectious diseases, she chose a photo and football belonging to a family friend, 18-year-old Jack Klemich, who died suddenly of meningococcal disease.

• Tasmania, environmental documentary filmmaker Craig Leeson, chose the camera he used to film “A Plastic Ocean”. It was the first of the ultra-definition cinematic cameras, and captured underwater sequences and interviews with his hero, Sir David Attenborough.
• Victoria, Dylan Alcott, who won an Olympic gold medal in wheelchair basketball before switching to tennis and winning three more Paralympic golds, also winning 23 quad wheelchair Grand Slam titles and a Newcombe Medal, recently became the first male in any form of tennis to win the Golden Slam, so chose the ”gold” tennis racquet he used for this achievement.
• WA, Paul Litherland, while working as a police officer, became aware of how vulnerable children are on the internet and began conducting cyber-safety presentations at schools, and chose a 78rpm record, on which 15-year-old Patricia, to become his mother, sings an old Scottish hymn.

The 2022 Australian of the Year exhibition will be on display at the National Museum in Canberra until February 14 and will then tour nationally. Free exhibition.