Objects, places and landscapes have the power to focus our emotions, shape our views and tell us about ourselves—what we disagree over, what we care about, and who we are.

This book examines how we define ourselves through our concern with the past, and especially the idiosyncratic ways we engage with the material world. Controversies over our tangible heritage—such as Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music site, Mawson’s Huts in Antarctica, and the search for the Endeavour —form the ‘object lessons’ of this collection, demonstrating how these debates about the past shape contemporary understandings of an Australian identity.