Immigration Museum and Cultural Diversity in Australia - Report Example

Immigration Museum Name Course Lecture Date Introduction The immigration museum started in Melbourne’s old customs house in the year 1998. It may seem easy to take for granted the presence of migration histories in most of the Australian museums. After all, a great number of Australians are immigrants. In regard to this, the cultural diversity of Australians is usually celebrated as being a national strength. Museums have a duty of representing and at the same time, explaining the diversity so as to narrate stories of the country's past. However, it was until recently that the experiences of migration have become subject to exhibitions and collections in all museums in Australia. The existence of migrant heritage such as personal objects that had been cared for and preserved by families and communities offers essential materials for museum exhibitions so as to tell the migration history. Most initiatives are made possible by volunteers who offer personal memories, possessions as well as passion for telling their stories. This essay will mainly focus on one museum that is the immigration museum and how it presents the history of cultural diversity in Australia. How the Immigration Museum presents the history of cultural diversity in Australia? One of the major ways in which immigration museum presents the history of cultural diversity in Australia is through cultural diversity week quest exhibitions. The search usually encourages students to celebrate their cultural diversity, and this is mainly through artworks in a broad range of media. The presentations by the students often reflect their individual investigations of the cultural diversity within their respective community and school, and they also entail personal migration stories and multimedia presentations (Gillespie 2001). On May 2011, the museum made an addition to its permanent exhibitions and added Identity: Yours, Mine and Ours. This exhibition explores the various ways in which everyday Australians imagine of their individual personalities and the manner in which they define other people’s identities. Based on the lead curator Moya McFadzean the new exhibition symbolizes a novel step by the museum. The museum is no longer just a provider of the museum content or just a facilitator of the multiple voices. Through the exhibition, it asserts itself as being an agent of change that is likely to occur in the contemporary society (McFadzean 2012). The exhibition marks the radical shift from the precedent approach adopted by migration museums of displacing the movement understanding from being the central idea of the story. As an alternative, the museum embraces the notion of belonging so as to bring up interesting topics such as cultural relativism, difference, and racism. The method of display used incorporates contemporary artworks, traditional object and other multimedia elements such as films and touchable online content. All these materials depict the everyday incidents of intolerance on a Melbourne tram. A major implication of the approach has been the inclusion of modern Aboriginal identity narratives. During the exhibition, the indigenous Victorians narrate their tales, expressing their professional, personal; group and family’s identities (Gillespie 2001). They are essentially element of the modern Australian society as compared to being on the edge of an immigration nation. In addition to the above exhibitions, there was another exhibition termed as the getting in and it replaced the impacts gallery. The exhibition started their operations in 2003, and it traced the history of Victoria as well as that of Australian immigration policies. It asks questions of how the policies have in a way contributed to a sense of national identity among the Australians (Petersen 2010). In this exhibition, visitors are also allowed to assume the role of immigration officials. They are tasked with the duty of making decisions related on videos of the interview with probable migrants in three diverse historical periods namely in the 1920s, the 1950s as well as in present day (Young 1999). Based on McFadzean, the experience offers the visitors with a human face on what ought to be considered as bureaucratic and it also evokes an intellectual and emotional response. The immigration museum also makes use of educational programs and resources to present the cultural diversity. Learners from all walks of life are usually invited to embark on journeys that set to explore immigration themes, cultural diversity, as well as Australian identity. In relation to these, the immigration museum usually offers various activities for students and also teaching resources for all ages (Witcomb 2009). The resources are also grouped based on the major topic such as immigration, history, design, drama and media. Additional the educational resources are also grouped based on the students age for example resources for the young children, teenagers, and adults. Through the education programs and resources, students can accept the cultural diversity of their country and thus live in harmony together. The cultural diversity can also be depicted through immigrant stories. Immigration is termed as being an aspect for those who were already in the country and those who came at later dates. The stories depict that settling down in a new country has never been simple. The immigrants were forced to adapt slowly to the unfamiliar lifestyles and the environment while at the same time maintaining some of the aspects of their previous ways of life and culture. Based on the stories a great number of the newcomers spent a considerable amount of their lives in limbo. They spend some months in impermanent migrant accommodation, and some were committed to individual labor contracts (Petersen 2010). The other small percentage saw settlement as being the easier way out since they were able to speak English, and the ruling government had offered them with home schemes or land (Young 1999). All the generations of immigrants had to adapt to a new landscape, new climate, the new currency, new language as well as the new lifestyle and most especially those who had settled in the rural areas. Based on information available at the Museum, each of the immigrants had their unique stories to tell. While some found it difficult to cope, majority of them were able to stabilize. There are also personal stories closely linked to journeys to Australia. Immigrations are seen as being a vital feature when it comes to the history and national identity in Australia. As early as 1788, millions of people had journeyed to Australia seeking opportunity, fortune, and freedom. Some came by steamers, clippers, and liners and at a much later date when aeroplane was seen as being the only means of transport to travel long distances (Witcomb 2009). Based on the personal stories the journeys were accompanied by various feelings such as excitement, sadness, hope, and fear. The museum shows and celebrates the journeys that changed Australia forever. Through the museum, people can explore the journeys that the immigrants made. The museum shows the changing traveling condition and routes that were experienced over the years. Another way, in which the museum presents the cultural diversity of Australians, is through thematic gallery structure. The gallery structure showed a progression from when the immigrants left their homes to when they settled this was later followed by the journeys and their impacts (Witcomb 2003). In the leaving home category items that belong to the diverse eras of the immigration history are usually displayed next to each other, and emphasis were made on the commonalities associated with the migration experiences over some period. The settling sections include a comprehensive timeline of the immigration pattern in Australia; these are underscored by the constant impacts brought about by the migration of the indigenous people. The display cases focused more of various individual spotlights coupled with stories and objects that are carefully selected for them to be representative as doable. In the journey's section, the interiors of some of the three major migrant ships chosen from different periods were recreated inside a massive boat structure. This picture encouraged people who visited the museum to imagine that they were embarking on life changing missions. The impact section has been interwoven different stories and objects together so as to explore the various contributions made by the immigrants to the country (Petersen 2010). It also presents stories that are clearly linked to cultural adaptation and survival from the perspective of indigenous Australians. Conclusion A significant number of heritage sites such as the immigration museum show the ongoing and continued use of immigrant’s story. They use it as a means through which people can be able to integrate with their respective family histories into Australian history. In most of the exhibitions, the story of the nation of immigrants has in the past been tangled with the challenge to the already dominant understanding of the country’s past. In the earlier days, the notion of migrations museums was a radical one as compared to museum of diverse ethnic culture. The museum has been able to present the cultural diversity of Australians history through exhibitions, thematic gallery structures, immigrant stories, education programs, and resources. All these will go a long way in maintaining the history and cultural diversity in Australia. References Gillespie, R 2001, ‘The Immigration Museum', in C. Rasmussen with 46 contributors, A Museum for the People: A History of Museum Victoria and its Predecessors, 1854 – 2000, pp. 363–366. McFadzean, M 2012, ‘Going Public: Negotiating Controversy’, Melbourne Historical Journal, vol. 40, pp. 5–20. Petersen, J 2010, ‘Though This be Madness: Heritage Methods for Working in Culturally Diverse Communities’, Public History Review, vo. 17, pp. 34–51. Witcomb, A 2003, Re-Imagining the Museum: Beyond the Mausoleum, Routledge, New York. Witcomb, A 2009, ‘Migration, Social Cohesion and Cultural Diversity: can Museums Move beyond Pluralism?’, Humanities Research, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 49–66. Young, L 1999, ‘Immigration Museum’ (exhibition review), Museum National, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 31. Read More