SA Museum ‘downgrading scientific discovery’ says former researcher
A parliamentary inquiry into the SA Museum has been told that a significant donation to the North Terrace institution was “grossly mishandled”, as a former specialist staffer warns that scientific research is being devalued.
Former SA Museum mammologist Catherine Kemper told the hearing of the Statutory Authorities Review Committee’s Inquiry into the SA Museum and Art Gallery of SA that she was “deeply disturbed by the devaluing of original science and knowledge in the last few years”.
The SARC inquiry was set up in May in response to staff and community opposition to planned reforms, including the proposed axing of all 27 positions in the museum’s research and collections division, to be replaced by 22 new roles focusing on curatorial research.
The backlash and a rally against the plans prompted Premier Peter Mailnauskas to stop the process pending the outcome of a Premier’s Review into the restructure.
“To add to my written statement today may I add that knowledge is very powerful – powerful not just for the individual but for the institution that the individual works with and for the state. To do away with that is really quite disturbing,” Kemper told the inquiry yesterday.
Kemper said there should be an increase in the number of scientists at the museum and that it had become harder to study natural museum collections in the past 30 years because fewer scientists were employed.
“University researchers don’t do the same kind of research that a museum researcher does, and I think this is not really understood by the present management at the museum that there is a dichotomy between university and museum-type research,” she said.
You might like
“Museum scientists usually study the basics of natural history – for example, describing a species’ anatomy, their evolution, et cetera – which provide the core information for all other studies on those animals.”
Kemper said the current museum management does not fully understand the contribution that scientists made but that she would like to return as an honorary researcher if “there is a return to valuing science, knowledge and research”.
“I believe that research and collections at the South Australian Museum will be permanently damaged if the present board and management continue on their path of downgrading scientific discovery,” she said.
“This will be a tragedy not only for the museum but for South Australia and the country as a whole.”
Speaking previously to InDaily, SA Museum CEO Dr David Gaimster said academic research undertaken at the museum is currently inaccessible to the public.
“We’ve basically got a research museum and a public museum, but there’s very little connection between the two. So, we’re not seeing the outcome of that work for our audiences,” he said.
Stay informed, daily
“We’re rethinking that model of operation so that we can better connect our research with the public museum and enable our audiences to discover that new content and those discoveries that research both on-site and online going forward.”
The second witness at the parliamentary hearing was Mary Lou Simpson OAM, who is also founder and chair of the Flinders Ranges Ediacara Foundation.
Simpson said that a “substantial donation” made to the SA Museum by her husband Antony to hire a critical minerals scientist had been “grossly mishandled” and that it might be “necessary for the gift to be redirected to an institution that will use it for the designated scientific research”.
Reading a statement on behalf of her husband, Simpson said a critical minerals researcher had been appointed in October 2022, only to discover in January 2023 that the position would no longer proceed.
“I personally feel very let down, as the SA Museum has been a highly favoured institution of myself and my family, and it would be most regrettable to see it transformed from one of the most significant South Australian scientific institutions to a mere repository of collections, the enormous significance and value of which will be diminished by the proposed total absence of true scientific research,” Antony Simpson said in his statement.
In a statement to InDaily, SA Museum CEO Dr David Gaimster said “any funds associated with the donation will be deployed in consultation with the donor”.
“The South Australian Museum has been in discussion with Mr Simpson about his donation and we are working together closely on a new project,” he said.
“The museum has recently made a major mineralogy acquisition. Some of the donation will support documentation and research into this new collection, which is of major scientific interest.
“The South Australian Museum does not comment publicly on internal staffing matters.”
Premier Malinauskas said it was the “prerogative” of donors to withhold their money if they are unhappy with the museum’s direction.
“I think generous donors to causes like the museum have an interest in the museum’s future, as does the state government,” he said.
“We’ve heard some of those concerns and that’s certainly going to be reflected in the review panel’s work which we hope to have out there in the public realm in the next three, four weeks.”
