Collecting changes in women’s sport

Research Projects | Updated 5 months ago

A group of sportspeople on a sporting field performing various training activities
Conditioning training for talented female footballers in Geraldton aims to avoid injuries and maximise performance.
WA Museum

This pilot contemporary collecting project seeks to capture experiences unique to women playing Australian rules football, cricket and basketball through object donations and interviews.

Many elite women’s sporting careers are represented in the Museum, but there are key gaps in the collection, particularly in the reflection of sports that have developed since the 1990s. Recent attention to women’s sport has prompted the Museum to ensure its collection reflects the longevity of women’s sport and recent developments.

In this two-pronged approach, curators are interviewing people involved in elite and community women’s sport, in addition to collecting relevant historical items.

While collecting from successful sportspeople is important, the Museum wants to go beyond hero stories to collect personal and team objects that will enable the Museum to explore challenges, developments and changes facing women in sport. This could include uniforms, shoes, equipment, training schedules, photographs or even medical devices such as knee braces.

The interviews and objects will become a part of the Museum’s collection, to be viewed online and to be a resource for future exhibitions and research.

This project is made possible by a Foundation for the WA Museum Minderoo Grant funded from the Foundation’s Discovery Endowment Fund.