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INTRODUCTION
Red Shouldered Parroquet

'So that the air ... should be populous
with vocal and musical creatures.'


Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837)
From James Thomson (trans.) and Bertram Dobell (ed.), Essays, Dialogues and Thoughts (Operette Morali and Pensieri) of Giacomo Leopardi, London: George Routledge, [18-].

Birds-the only creatures of our earth with the gifts of both flight and song-were flying and singing across the great southern continent (only recently called Australia) for millions of years before humans heard them. Potent symbols of the natural world, their flight and endurance also make them symbols of the human spirit. Their lives seem to us numinous and eternal, but they are dangerously threatened by our activities.

Sarah Stone (1761/621844)
Red Shouldered Parroquet c.1790
National Library of Australia R11204

This exhibition is about birds that fly and sing in the Australian imagination. Its images may vividly remind us of the birds that live in the world around us, but they also trace our changing attitudes to birds and our practical, scientific and artistic uses of birds. Even ornithological illustration is only illustration. While it reminds us of birds we recognise, it equally reveals passing artistic values and a 'scientific' way of seeing which contrasts strikingly, for instance, with Aboriginal bird drawings. Even today, a 'bird in the hand' is often held to be 'worth two in the bush', but the 'hand' of this exhibition is more that of the artist than of the shooter, collector, taxidermist or more recent bird bander.

Elizabeth Lawson
Curator
January 1999

Lyrebird of Australia
John William Lewin (17701819)
Lyrebird of Australia Maenura superba c.1810
Rex Nan Kivell Collection
National Library of Australia
T3234 NK3820

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A selection of images from BIRDS!
National Library of Australia.
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Copyright: © National Library of Australia 1999