The Virtual Museum of the Pacific

The Australian Museum’s ethnographic collection consists of 110,000 objects from Indigenous Australia (33%); Pacific (50%) and Asia, Africa and the Americas (17%). The Pacific islands collection comprises approximately 60,000 objects and is the largest collection in an Australian public museum. This Collection is of international importance to several communities with complementary interests:•Indigenous communities have a specific interest in preserving and strengthening their cultural heritage both in the host countries and wherever the communities have migrated to. •For anthropologists access to collections, regardless of location, is key to the understanding and preservation of artefacts of many geographically dispersed collections. •The general public can learn from and contribute to the body of knowledge which will develop from having an active online community