Alan Villiers & the Sons of Sindbad

Alan villiers & the sons of Sinbad is the Australian National Maritime Museum’s travelling photographic exhibition first foray into the Middle East. The exhibition is organised in cooperation with the Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait’s National Council for Art, Culture and Letters.

The exhibition coincides with Kuwait’s Annual Cultural Season and National Day on 25 February - marking the day in 1950 when Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah ascended to the throne.

Alan Villiers was a noted maritime adventurer, journalist, novelist, sailor and photographer who devoted most of his life to the sea and the ships that harnessed the power of the winds.
He travelled to Arabia because he was certain that he was living through the last days of sail, and was determined to record as much of them as he was able. The images provide an unforgettably vivid memorial of the life and skills of Kuwait’s dhow sailor, of the ports along the route, of Kuwait itself, and of the pearl divers of the Gulf.

The exhibition highlights Villiers’s November 1938 voyage aboard the Sheikh Mansur from Aden, one of the busiest ports in the world, to bustling Jizan (Gizan) on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. His second voyage was on the Triumph of Righteousness. He donated his photographic and film archive to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London prior to his death in 1982, and his diaries are held by the National Library of Australia.

1 December 2019 - January 27 | Amricani Cultural Centre, Kuwait City
1 February 2020 - March 31 | Kuwait National Assembly