An upcoming free exhibition of historic photographs at the University of Sydney's Macleay Museum offers a fascinating look at life in the Pacific during the early colonial period.

Dating from the late 1850s the images on display are drawn exclusively from the Macleay Museum's extensive historic photograph collection. The show includes photographs taken by missionaries, anthropologists, tourists, and early government expeditions. They offer intriguing insights into the history of some of Australia's nearest neighbours.

Points of Focus features images of the British proclamation of a protectorate in Papua in 1884, colonial and civil war in Samoa in the late 19th century, and Douglas Mawson's first scientific expedition - to Vanuatu in 1903. The personal side of colonial service is shown in the family photos of Sir Hubert Murray (Australian Lieutenant-Governor of Papua for over thirty years, up until 1940). Detailed and intimate glimpses of Solomon Islanders' every day and ceremonial life are seen in the images captured by anthropologists working in the region in the early 20th century. There are five themes to the exhibition: community, sea & land, governance, spirituality and the market.

"We wanted to depict people, places and times that don't receive a lot of attention in history books but have an important historical and ongoing relationship with Australia," says exhibition curator Rebecca Conway.

Rebecca developed Points of Focus after researching Pacific collections in Britain, France and the Netherlands.

"There are some similarities between our holdings and significant overseas collections - for the exhibition we have selected a really interesting cross-section of unique and commonly seen images. The exhibition tracks the changing idea and visual conception of the Pacific and Pacific Islanders from the late 19th and into the 20th century from a diversity of perspectives. Working with these photographs was like travelling back in time, seeing both dramatic moments of Pacific history, such as the 1937 volcanic eruption that swallowed Rabaul, and the closer, more detailed views of individuals, the daily lives of Pacific Islanders and the foreigners who they met with."

Exhibition details:What: Points of Focus: historic photographs from the Pacific When: 1 March until September Opening hours: 10am-4.30pm weekdays, 12-4pm on the first Saturday of each month Where:The Macleay Museum, Gosper Lane, off Science Road, University of Sydney Camperdown campus. Contact: Macleay Museum, 02 9036 5253, macleay.museum@sydney.edu.au

Phone: 02 935

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Free photographic exhibition traces Pacific history

Lean in and step touch? Before Sheryl Sandberg empowered corporate women with her feminist manifesto, she empowered Harvard students trying to stave off the freshman 15. Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks brings up Sandberg's stint as an undergraduate aerobics instructor as proof that the Facebook COO has always been at war with idleness. Brooks thinks it may be ruining life for the rest of us. She wrote in the Washington Post:

Did we know Sheryl Sandberg? I asked my friend Suzanne, who was also in my college class.

She gave me a funny look. Well, I knew her. Dont you know if you knew her?

I cant remember.

If you knew her, you would remember, said Suzanne. She was one of those people you would definitely remember. I used to go to an aerobics class she taught.

That explained it. Some college students, like my friend Suzanne, take aerobics classes. Some college students, like Sheryl Sandberg, teach aerobics classes. Other college students, like myself, lie around the dorm reading novels. Sheryl Sandberg was already busy leaning in. I was busy leaning back on my sofa, with a good book and a nice cup of cocoa.

Read more about Brooks's counter-manifesto ("Women of the world, recline!") at the Washington Post. A former Defense Department advisor and Los Angeles Times columnist, Brooks appears to have done okay for herself in spite of the cocoa.

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Sheryl Sandberg Taught Aerobics at Harvard