Macquarie University Library Friends Foundation
The Macquarie University Library Friends Foundation provides a focus, both professional and social, for all those interested in the University Library and its future. It includes a wide range of individuals with a commitment to scholarly investigation, bibliographic interests - book-collectors, publishers, booksellers, scholars - as well as people who simply appreciate fine books.
Members meet throughout the year for a range of activities: hearing guest speakers on a variety of topics, viewing exhibitions and displays based on the Library's holdings, and visiting places of interest. Members receive a newsletter keeping them informed of Friends' activities and events in the Library. Membership is open to individuals and institutions. A special membership rate is offered for students of Macquarie University and life membership is also available.
If you would like to participate in these activities and join in lending support to the Library, please complete the form to become a member of Macquarie University Library Friends Foundation.
Newsletters 2008: April | July
Presentations: 2008
King Teti and his Vizier Mereruka: recent work by Macquarie University at Saqqara, Egypt.
Professor Naguib Kanawati
Macquarie University, Department of Ancient History
- Tuesday 23 September 2008
6 pm - 7 pm
Mollie Thomson Room
Macquarie University Library (Level 5)
Free public lecture.
Light refreshments will be served at 5.30 pm for 6 pm start.
Professor Kanawati will discuss his recent archaeological investigations at the Mastaba of Mereruka. This site is the largest tomb complex at Saqqara, Egypt, with 32 rooms. Mereruka was the vizier to Teti, who was pharaoh during the VI Dynasty [c. 2345-2181 BCE]. He was also married to Teti's daughter, Hert-watet-khet. She is buried in the mastaba as well as their son, Meriteti. The position of vizier made the officeholder the second most powerful person in pharaonic Egypt, as both Prime Minister and Chief Justice.
The mastaba of Mereruka is situated in the north-east sector of the necropolis of Saqqara, not far from the edge of the plateau, and just to the north of the pyramid of Teti, the first pharaoh of the Old Kingdom 6th Dynasty. There are two mastabas located here next to each other: that of the vizier Mereruka, and that of Kagemni, his predecessor. Mereruka's is by far the more complex construction and is located to the west of the other, although it is not given over totally to Mereruka. The south west quarter was designed as being a separate set of chambers for his wife, Watetkhethor; and the main structure was later extended at the north for his son, Meryteti.
Mereruka's mastaba is a highly complex structure, with considerable historical and archaeological significance. It is the largest, by chamber count, in Egypt containing no less than 31 upper chambers (which include both actual rooms and large passageways, but not the small interconnecting sections between chambers). From these, 21 are devoted to Mereruka himself, 5 are designated to his wife Watetkhethor, and 5 added for his son Meryteti. In addition to these, there are 3 well shafts and their associated burial chambers. Of Mereruka's 21 chambers, 10 were fully decorated from floor to ceiling. Although these walls have not survived to their full height, what remains is usually well preserved.
Professor Kanawati's presentation will include photographic representations of the site as well as offer the opportunity for questions and further discussion of his work.
Professor Kanawati came to Macquarie University in 1980 as Lecturer in Egyptology and in 1990 was appointed to a Personal Chair in Egyptology. In 1981 he established the Rundle Foundation for Egyptian Archaeology (now with 600 members) and in 1989 he established the Australian Centre for Egyptology and remains its Director. In 1997 he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and in 2003 he received the Centenary Medal "for services to the Australian society and the humanities in the study of archaeology." In 2007 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.
In more recent years Professor Kanawati has worked at Giza and the Unis Cemetery at Saqqara, and is currently excavating and studying the Teti Cemetery at Saqqara. Professor Kanawati has published 38 books and numerous articles and book reviews. His findings in relation to Mereruka, his wife Hert-watet-khet, his son Meriteti as well as his father-in-law, King Teti, were first published in: Kanawati, N. and Abder-Raziq, M., Mereruka and His Family (Part 1) Oxford: Aris and Phillips, 2004 and will soon be supplemented with additional persepectives in a second part (currently in press): Mereruka and His Family: The Tomb of Seshsehet.
Earlier Presentations: 2008
Bennelong's River
Keith Vincent Smith
- Thursday 24 July 2008
11 am - 1 pm
Mollie Thomson Room
Macquarie University Library (Level 5)
Free public lecture.
Light refreshments will be served at 10.30 am for an 11 am start.
Macquarie University stands in what was once the country of the Wallumedegal a name derived from wallumai, the snapper fish and matta, a word used to describe a water place. Today, many of us live, work and study in this region.
Woollarawarre Bennelong, who sailed from Sydney to England in 1792 with Governor Arthur Phillip, was born a Wangal on the south bank of the Parramatta River, and is buried in Wallumedegal territory on its north side at Ryde.
For the past two decades Keith Vincent Smith, curator, historian, and Macquarie University postdoctoral student, has devoted himself to researching colonial Indigenous/European contact history.
Keith has published major biographical studies on the indigenous leaders Bennelong [Bennelong: the coming in of the Eora: Sydney Cove 1788-1792. publ. 2001], and Bungaree [King Bungaree: a Sydney Aborigine meets the great South Pacific explorers, 1799-1830. publ. 1992], as well as local area studies [Wallumedegal: an Aboriginal history of Ryde. publ. 2005]. In 2006 Keith curated a major exhibition at the State Library of NSW entitled Eora: mapping Aboriginal Sydney, 1770-1850. This will be followed by another major exhibition in 2009. Now Keith Vincent Smith will present some of his latest findings, with a focus upon the historical links between Bennelong, the Parramatta River and the Ryde district.
This Library Friends Foundation presentation will coincide with a joint exhibition entitled Bennelong's River to Darug Insights that will be held in Macquarie University Library and Macquarie University Art Gallery: 15 July - 23 August 2008. The exhibition has been prepared by Keith Vincent Smith, in collaboration with photographer Effy Alexakis, and art curator Rhonda Davis, from Macquarie University Art Gallery.
Illustration:
'Ben-nil-long' by James Neagle (1760-1822). From David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. London: Cadell & Davies, 1798.
Annual General Meeting & Guest Speaker:
Peter Leunig, Executive Director, Office of Institutional Advancement, Macquarie University.
Tuesday 1 April 2008
Eoin H. Wilkinson Memorial Appeal
(.pdf document) [File size: 2.8 Mb]The Macquarie University Library Friends Foundation has launched a Memorial Appeal to mark the first anniversary of the death of Eoin Howitt Wilkinson on 15 April 2004. The appeal is being made to alumni and to past and present staff of the University and to Eoin's library colleagues.
Eoin was the University's second Librarian, serving from 1971 to 1987. He is particularly remembered for his innovative approach to developing library services and facilities, his professionalism, and his great humanity. Eoin also had an abiding passion for building the Library's collections, particularly in the areas of Australian cultural and natural history, Australian literature, and the study of comparative religion.
The Library Friends have launched the Memorial Appeal to honour Eoin and his achievements and have set a fund-raising target of $25,000 to continue to build the collections in Eoin's main areas of interest. Your support for the Appeal in memory of Eoin would be much appreciated.
Previous Presentations: 2004 - 2007
Application for Membership
Background
Macquarie University was established by the Macquarie University Act in 1964 and teaching began in 1967. The name "Macquarie" commemorates Major-General Lachlan Macquarie (1761 - 1824), Governor of the Colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, whose concept of the future of the colony led to the first considerable developments in education, commerce, inland exploration and settlement, architecture and public buildings and patronage of the arts.
Macquarie University serves a large geographical area, and the Library, with a collection of over one million volumes, maps and audiovisual materials, and a brief to provide optimal access to information resources regardless of format or location, is by far the largest north of the Harbour.
The association of Governor Macquarie with the University which bears his name is commemorated in several ways:
- the acquisition by the University Library of books and pictorial works focussing on Macquarie's term of office in New South Wales (1810-21).
- the arms of Macquarie University are based on a drawing of the Macquarie Lighthouse tower at South Head, Sydney
- the Chancellor's Chair, used at every Macquarie University graduation ceremony from 1970-2006, was made by convict artisans for Governor Macquarie in c.1820-21
- The Lachlan Macquarie Room in the Library contains the original timber panelling from the parlour room of Macquarie's house on the Isle of Mull in Scotland.
- a permanent exhibition recording Macquarie's life and times, the history of his house, as well as a display of Macquarie-related memorabilia
- a replica of the colours of Macquarie's regiment, the 73rd Regiment of Foot.
The first Librarian of Macquarie University, Barry Scott, believed that the Library should become an important educational and cultural resource not only for the University but for the community at large. Nowhere is this more visible than in the fine display of Australian paintings in the Library, the most significant public collection in northern Sydney.
From the outset, Barry Scott (1965-70) and his successors as University Librarian, Eoin Wilkinson (1971-1987), Barrie Mitcheson (1988-1996), Neil McLean (1996-2001), Penny Carnaby (2002) and Maxine Brodie (2003-) have inspired others with their vision for the Library.
The Library was fortunate in the support which it received at an early stage from friends and benefactors. Over the years many donors have continued to support the Library actively and this assistance has been particularly important in building up the special collections in areas beyond the natural range of normal Library funding. Naturally, gifts have varied in size and scope, but all have been most welcome. The Joan McIlrath collection of items relating to the Australian Aboriginal, for example, and the Marjorie Keesing gifts were the first major donations to the Library. Small gifts, well considered, have filled gaps throughout the range of holdings. Most recently, the very significant Margaret Donaldson bequest has been of immense value to the Library. Major donors are recorded in the annual reports of the Library and of the University.
The Macquarie University Library Friends was formed in 1986. The response to the initial appeal was very pleasing and through the generosity of its foundation members in particular, a sound basis has been established for the Friends to provide ongoing support to the Library. Annual membership contributions and donations also finance additions to the Library's collections. These include items which could not be acquired from the Library's normal grants but which are important in a collection concerned to extend its cultural resources for the benefit of both the University and the community.