CANBERRA might be one of the world's youngest cities but in Phil Brown it has a custodian of the world's oldest living culture.
During the week, Brown, 41, recorded two Dreamtime stories, one about a bunyip and the other about the rainbow serpent, for the National Museum presention Circa.
Brown, who comes from the Kangaroo tribe in Central Queensland, grew up in Cairns.
He said that although he was the fairest of his family, older relatives singled him out for his good memory to carry on their stories.
"I'm fair brown but all my brothers are black," he said. "It doesn't work on the skin colour, it's on strength. While all the other kids were playing at the back, I was allowed to stay and listen to the old folks telling stories."
He also had to negotiate a series of initiations, including a kind of dodge ball with boomerangs "if they hit you you'll know about" and diving to catch turtles. Brown has now lived in Canberra for 10 years.
His association with the National Museum goes back four years, when he began reading Dreamtime stories for the museum's storytelling program.
The museum's curator, Jenny Wilson, said Brown's stories would form part of the new audio-visual experience, Circa, which welcomes visitors.
Prominent parts of the stories would be featured in the multi-screen presentation, which offered a broad chronology of Australia history as told through objects in the museum's collection.
Ms Wilson said the museum valued Brown's contributions.
"A way of understanding Australian indigenous heritage is through oral history, as it's handed down from generation to generation. That's certainly the way Phil tells his stories, the way they were told to him. That's a way for us and for our audience to connect to that history."
Brown said the Rudd Government's apology to the Stolen Generations made him think of his grandfather, who was forcibly taken from Fraser Island to be used as "a slave", pearl-diving from a ship. He later became head stockman at a cattle station in Cooktown, where as an outsider who couldn't speak the local language he spent a lot of time alone.
"There was a lot of heartache. He died young, an alcoholic," Brown said.
Reconciliation is something Brown has been doing in his own quiet way for many years. "I'm a doer, not a talker," he said.
He leads cultural awareness workshops at Reid TAFE, where his wife also works, and is involved in the reconciliation efforts of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, in Barton. As well as his work for the museum he presents a regular show on Canberra Multicultural Service, a local community radio station.
Brown said as an urban indigenous man he was conscious of the need for indigenous youth to maintain their connection with their culture in the absence of traditional initiation ceremonies.
He established Corroborree College, which offers courses in traditional stories, dance, music and art.
As an accomplished didgeridoo player and boomerang thrower he often performs for school groups and at official occasions.
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