The time travellers

• Main Author: Otto, Ton
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Chukchi; Kamchatka; Siberia
• Online Access: https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/7/51265%20Otto%202015_1.jpg; https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/1/51265%20Otto%202015_2.jpg; https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/3/51265%20Otto%202015_3.jpg; https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/4/51265%20Otto%202015_4.jpg; https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/6/51265%20Otto%202015_5.jpg; https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/5/51265%20Otto%202015_6.jpg; https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/51265/2/51265%20Otto%202015_7.jpg

When ascending the stairway towards the ethnographic exhibition at Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, visitors meet the sculptures of three contemporary people – all from very different cultures and societies: Paul Gurrumuruwuy – an aboriginal of the Yolngu in Australia. Galina Ainatgual – a Chukchi from the northern Kamchatka in Siberia. Stephen Hawking – an internationally acclaimed theoretical physicist from Britain. The three people appear to be in discussion with each other and words flowing down a projected stream of water form spoken sentences that present their cultural perspectives on human origin: where are we as humans from and where are we going? Their perspectives are an obvious starting point for the ethnographic exhibition as ethnography is about people, culture and societies all over the World. By encountering various perspectives from different cultures, we may see the World in a new light and context – The World of others, as well as our own. In three recorded video interviews the audience can learn more about the three interlocutors' views on the flow of time. The key idea is to show how a universal given is culturally refracted and enacted. While sharing the same time, the three contemporary individuals have starkly different ways to conceptualise how past, present and future are connected. The text on the wall provides some background: The passage of time affects all human beings. But people understand and experience time very differently. Here on the stairs, three contemporary individuals discuss their ideas about time on the basis of very different cultural traditions: modern science, ancestral lore, and shamanistic ritual. They address the big questions that engage human beings all over the world: Where do we come from and where are we going?