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SG: What an exciting treasure hunt your
life must be!
NB: I don’t like this expression “treasure
hunt”. I am not a hunter. I do not
plunder. I do not sell what I find. I am not
a collector. I see myself as a guardian
of the history of humanity. A guide for
future generations. Everything I find
is documented. The precise details of
where the object was found are noted
in a book and then the object is sent
to a museum. It is then unveiled at an
exhibition. Each object is touched as
little as possible so as not to damage it.
We use gloves and a great deal of care.SG: In Australia, what was your first
amazing discovery?
NB: Recently, the Maritime Museum
of Fremantle asked me to organise an
exhibition called “French Connection”.
Being French, I suppose it was a logical
decision. For a long time, we have
known that much of the Australian
coastline had been explored by French
adventurers, geologists, archaeologists
and geographers. It was traversed by
people like the explorer Jules Dumont
D’Urville, the cartographer Nicolas
Baudin, and of course the famous
Louis de Freycinet, the first person to
map the Australian continent exactly 200
years ago in September 2018.
To celebrate this bicentenary,
I am putting on an exhibition at the
Maritime Museum of Perth in Western
Australia. In doing the research for this
exhibition, I will also be retracing my
grandfather’s history.LEFT Nicolas Bigourdan at
work, Great Barrier ReefBELOW LEFT
Jules Dumont D’Urville
(French Explorer)
BELOW MIDDLE
Nicolas Baudin
(French explorer,
cartographer, naturalist
and hydrographer)
BELOW RIGHT
Louis de Freycinet
(Published the first map to
show a full outline of the
coastline of Australia)