CAMD Curated is our new series for the curious mind. Each edition, leaders and future leaders from across our network share what they’re reading, watching, listening to, imagining, and learning; opening new sources of inspiration for our wider community.
Kim McKay AO / Director and CEO / Chair
Australian Museum / CAMD
I’m reading The Shortest History of Australia by Mark McKenna, a short, succinct book with a lot of important First Nations history and perspectives woven through it.I’ve also just finished Patricia A. O’Brien’s biography of Errol Flynn, Errol Flynn: The True Story of Australia’s Hollywood Icon, which is extraordinary. Flynn had museum links himself: his father, a scientist, worked in Tasmania at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and worked for a time as a visiting scientist at the Australian Museum. Flynn looks handsome on the cover, but he was a ‘wicked’ man and if he were alive today, he’d well and truly have been cancelled. I’m also reading the third draft of the Australian Museum’s 200-year history book launching in March 2027.
LISTENING TO:
I’m obsessed with The Rest is Politics, with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, which is great for keeping up with global politics from a British perspective. I also love The Rest is History, with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. Both wonderful, both very different podcasts.
VISITING:
I’ve been in Sydney almost the whole time these past few months, so I’ve made the most of it: the Art Gallery of NSW for the Avatar: Forms of Vishnu exhibition, and the MCA for Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir and Primavera 2026. I think the programming is first-rate under the new director, Suzanne Cotter.
IMAGINING:
I’m hoping for a white Christmas with a trip to France and Italy in December. I’m also heading to Barcelona in October for our Sharks exhibition opening.
LEARNING:
With the Australian Museum’s 200th anniversary next year, I’ve been deep in its history, reviewing our one-hour documentary on the museum’s story. After twelve years here, I thought I knew it well, but this has let me go much deeper. The film really captures the essence of the Australian Museum.
You’ve been Chair of CAMD since the start of the year, alongside twelve years as Director and CEO of the Australian Museum. What are you working on at the moment?
One major project has been the repatriation of ancestral remains to Rapa Nui. The Australian Museum holds hundreds of ancestral remains in its collection, some First Nations Australians, and some from the Pacific.
The Rapa Nui Ancestors was our largest repatriation yet: seventeen ancestral remains, carried out in close partnership with the Rapa Nui community, who visited us twice during the process. It was a remarkable effort by our team, particularly Melissa Malu (Head of Pasifika Collections and Engagement) and Dr Nick Skilton (Senior Restricted Collections and Repatriation Officer) who coordinated it.
We’re also deep in planning for the 200th anniversary next March, announcing the program in October, with a few surprises in store, and I’m looking forward to having CAMD colleagues join us for some of those activities.
Has your approach to fundraising or sponsorship shifted in recent years?
Only in that, like every museum, we now need to raise more than ever from external sources. 35% of our annual budget comes from external sources in addition to government funding. The bicentenary has given us a natural reason to go back to partners and ask for support for some larger initiatives. The last time I ran a campaign like this was for our one hundred and ninetieth anniversary, everyone laughed and asked why I’d celebrate a “one-ninety.” My answer: why not? It’s a reason to engage donors and partners and coalesce around a common goal.
What’s exciting you in the museum sector right now?
Digital integration, not just in exhibitions, but in how we work day-to-day: AI in museums, a sharper visitor focus, and growing visitation across school groups and international visitors, who now make up about thirty-four percent of our annual numbers. We’re investing in creating digital content for the future and very focused on data analytics.
About Kim McKay AO
Kim McKay is Director and CEO of the Australian Museum. She became the first woman appointed to the role in the AM’s 190+ year history in 2014, and has led a broad transformation program including the $57.5m Project Discover renovation, overseeing a collection of over 22 million natural science specimens and cultural objects.
With a background in marketing and communications, she previously held senior roles in US non-fiction television for Discovery Channel and National Geographic, co-founded the Clean Up Australia and Clean Up the World campaigns in the 1990s with UNEP, and co-authored five True Green books.
Kim holds a BA Communications from UTS, where she now serves on Council, and Honorary Doctorates of Science from the University of Wollongong (2022) and UTS (2023). She also chaired the NSW Government’s Museums and History Art Form Board for four years and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2008 for her service to the environment and the community.