C O N S E R V ATIO N A N D C AR E O F C U LT U RAL C OLL E C TIO N S : A U S TRALIA , I N DO N E S IA A N D TI M OR – L E S T E P ART N E R S H I P S – TAASA Review December 2010

Kristin Phillips and Sandra Yee T he day-to-day challenges facing museum conservation departments in Indonesia and Timor-Leste are often unimaginable for their Australian peers sitting in the climatecontrolled comfort of laboratories fullyequipped with state-of-the-art computer technology, professional-grade materials and generous operational budgets.

This is a world apart from the Indonesian and Timor-Leste reality where there is no formal training available in either conservation or collection management practices and museum staff continuously grapple with limited access to relevant expertise and resources. Kristin Phillips (centre) and workshop participants work as a disaster response team' torecover’ a wet textile, as part of the Disaster Preparedness Workshop held at the Sonobudoyo Museum in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, in 2009.

Photo Joanna Barrkman Altruism can lie behind the sharing of skills and knowledge by Australian museum staff with colleagues in Indonesia and Timor-Leste...