Zoe Rimmer

Zoe Rimmer is a pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) community member from a large extended family from Flinders and Cape Barren Island, with Ancestral connections to the north east coast of lutruwita Tasmania. Zoe has grown up connected to Community, Country and culture, and has learnt the cultural skills of basket making and shell stringing from her Elders.

Zoe has worked in the museum and cultural heritage management sector over the past 17 years and is currently the Senior Curator of First Peoples Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). She is a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania investigating how Aboriginal political activism and repatriation and has shaped museums practice both within Australia and internationally, through a Senior Indigenous Research Scholarship. Zoe is an alumni of the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) Indigenous Arts Leadership Program and is a current member of the National Museum of Australia’s Indigenous Reference Group. She has previously had a role as Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for Indigenous Repatriation (ACIR) and as a member of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Heritage Council.

Zoe is passionate about decolonising collecting institutions through utilising collections and archives to maintain, revive and elaborate cultural practices. In 2013/14, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore different directions, methodologies and outcomes in museum engagement with Indigenous peoples. Zoe was the lead curator of the award winning, national touring exhibition kanalaritja; An Unbroken String, with associated publication and documentary film.