Tyama was created in collaboration with First People's knowledge holders from Gunditjmara country near Warrnambool. Their language group, Keerray Woorroong, inspired the name Tyama, which means a deeper sense of knowing with your whole body instead of just your mind.  

“Tyama is actually a world-first experience in that we are using First People's knowledge and museum collections in order to create a story with this technology,” Museums Victoria Experience Developer Miriam Capper explains. 

“It's almost like walking into a playable video game and this has never been done before at this scale, internationally or in Australia. 

“It's not just for the sake of entertainment, it's beautiful and you can sit back and look at projections. You can also play and create your own stories of nature within these environments based on Victoria.” 

The public has responded with great enthusiasm. According to Museums Victoria figures the exhibition is enjoying sold-out weekends with 90,000 tickets sold in the first three months. Now at the halfway mark, Ms Capper hopes momentum remains strong for the next three.  

“We've had a massive response to the exhibition – way more than we expected,” she says.  

“We're really excited to keep it strong for the last three months and hopefully inspire more audiences in Melbourne. 

“It's going to be like walking inside a 360-degree projected space where you get to control the world around you. You have beautiful visuals and you get to hear stories of First Peoples and the ways that they connect with the environment around us. 

“It's nothing like it has been made before. It's quite a new experience for people.”  

Ms Capper says the most important aspect of Tyama’s success has been the link with the Gunditjmara knowledge holders whose stories inspired the exhibition. 

“People keep talking about the way embodied learning works as if it's this big new special exciting thing, which it is. But First Peoples have been doing it for millennia, they're painting these creatures and moving like them and telling stories in that way. 

“So working with First Peoples on this means we have not just uniquely Victorian stories but uniquely Australian ways of engaging with nature. It's not just the cognitive knowing of the species and the environment, it's a new way of connecting to and belonging to country as well.  

“We're hoping that people really get a sense of belonging in the environment and are able to approach the way that they see the world in a whole new way once they've been to the exhibition.”