New touring exhibition highlights how Australians achieve social change

Media Release
2 September 2024

Australia is the home of the ‘fair go’. Who are the ordinary and extraordinary people who have made our nation what it is today? And how can we learn from their actions?

The National Archives of Australia asks these questions in a new free touring exhibition ‘Disrupt, persist, invent: Australians in an ever-changing world’.

Opening this Friday 6 September at the State Library and Archives of Tasmania, 91 Murray Street Hobart, the exhibition profiles the many different and sometimes unexpected ways people have pushed for change in Australia.

Exhibition curator, Ms Catriona Donnelly explains, ‘The catalyst for social change might arise from a significant event or through likeminded people campaigning for a common cause. They are passionate, determined and often prepared to put their bodies on the line to achieve their objectives.’

Disrupt, persist, invent highlights stories illustrating how change has impacted our society. This exhibition’s most compelling message is that change takes a tremendous investment of time and energy, and the sustained actions by people over time can really make a difference.

‘The exhibition is arranged not by the cause or campaign, but by how the change was effected. This could be through noisy protests or by quiet persistence. Themes, such as women’s rights, environmental campaigns, First Nations rights and equality run as undercurrents, however the focus is on how the change was achieved,’ said Ms Donnelly.

National Archives Director-General Simon Froude said, ‘This exhibition calls upon many records held by National Archives, records that help to tell the important stories that have shaped our nation. If there is one takeaway from this exhibition, it is that the simplest of acts really can inspire others. It is often the stories of quiet persistence, innovation and creativity that resonate just as loudly as public protests.’

Disrupt, persist, invent: Australians in an ever-changing world is a free exhibition at the State Library and Archives of Tasmania from 6 September 2024 and showing until 27 January 2025.

The exhibition is developed by the National Archives of Australia and supported by Visions of Australia and the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program.