How the Immigration Museum Presents the History of Cultural Diversity in Australia - Term Paper Example

SOCIOLOGY By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Abstract The Immigration Museum is helpful in placing the ancestors of the Australians in their historical perspective. The Museum gathers and exhibit materials that exemplify the Australia’s cultural diversity as well as settlement impact on native Australians. Notably, the Museum is chronologically arranged, in order to allow the visitors to research the occurrences during the time of their ancestors. With the Museum support, the local communities are tasked with creating the community exhibitions. The museum offers monetary, promotional, as well as marketing support in order that the communities may generate quality exhibitions about the culture and past histories. The report seeks to provide insight on how the Immigration Museum presents the history of cultural diversity in Australia. Table of Contents How the Immigration Museum Present the History of Cultural Diversity in Australia Introduction Basically, the cultural diversity of Australia is celebrated as a nationwide gift, and the Immigration Museum has for years represented and explained this diversity so as to tell stories of the country’s past, (Immigration Museum, 2014). For years, Immigration Museum has turned out to be the centre of exhibitions, collections, and has been presenting the past cultural diversity of the nation. The politics concerning the notions representation of Australian community in museums as well as heritage sites have mostly concentrated on tensions surrounding the immigration history representation. For, at the core of opposing models of immigration history are distinct knowledge of national citizenship and identity (Witcomb, 2012). This is so considering the fact that Australia is a settler culture, where at first; it was born of the British Empire and then of worldwide history accompanied with its patterns of massive movements of the population and wars (Witcomb, 2012). The arrival of Immigration Museum was crucial, since it presents settlement and immigration history and also reflects on multiculturalism, which are crucial for understanding Australia’s cultural diversity (Szekeres, 2011). The exhibits at the Immigration Museum contain both the political and collective histories that moulded the Australian immigration whilst assimilating a personal experience of all Australians, by means of the current partnership between the immigrant communities and actors of the museum. Immigration Museum Overview The Immigration Museum was first launched in 1998 in Melbourne's Old Customs House, and its goal was to exhibit an existence of immigration experience in family or life history of every non-Aboriginal Australian. The Museum activities as well as facilities consist of a community gallery, discovery center, educational and public programs, as well as touring exhibitions, in addition to activities like community exhibitions, festivals as well as scores of community engagement activities (Immigration Museum, 2014). Besides that, permanent exhibitions enable the visitor to understand the immigration history of Victoria through immigrants’ drives for leaving their motherland, individual immigrants’ stories from different nations, and the journey of ship over time, in addition to a history of immigration processes and policies. The recent launched exhibition in the Museum explores the intricacies of individual identity as well as how past cultural diversity enlightens Australian society in addition to the present and past experiences of not belonging and belonging. Each of the above-mentioned subjects is presented numerous ways, such as audio-visual presentations, image and object-based displays, interactive theatre, immersive experiences, and on-site outlets through computer information (Immigration Museum, 2014). The Museum’s Exhibitions presents lots of objects from the collections of Museum associated with immigration, transport technology, cultural diversity, isolation and customs, as well as popular culture. The collections in the Museum include more than 6,000 objects documenting the Victorians immigration experiences from 1830s and, subsequently, the lengthy cultural diversity history of the wider Australian population. Multiculturalism Representation Immigration museum as mentioned by Szekeres (2011) signalled a change in the national agenda for multiculturalism as well as museums. First, it was state government’s recognition through the continuing financial support, which verifies that the culture and history of immigrants was worth gathering and preserving. Secondly, it offered control to a self-governing institution devoid of an interest in certain ethnic culture. Even as there was community and local support for the notion of the Immigration Museum, there was a particular amount of cynicism among ethnic communities in the local area as to whether the Museum will function and the political line it may pursue (Szekeres, 2011). However, the cultural as well as social capital sourcing from the government support as well as the verity that the state government never interfered with the functions of the Museum has allowed the museum to overcome the challenges of ethnic politics, increase its audience, and preserves its momentum and independence. So, the Melbourne based Immigration Museum intends to explore and introduce the immigrants’ history not just in Victoria but in the broader Australia. Discovery Center which is featured in the Museum enables visitors not just to share their stories about their origin and culture, but as well to access a database on Victoria’s immigrant communities. On the other hand, the permanent exhibition presents the immigration history since the time the settlers arrived, the destiny of Indigenous populaces, the various immigration policies and the key historic waves of immigrants, as well as new arrivals’ integration into the hosting society, with the intent of embodying all stories (Boumankhar, 2014, p.64). At the Museum, there are different objects that exemplify the permanent exhibition, by way of working tools, cultural products, family reminiscences, old-style arts, embellished items or routine items like accessories, shoes, clothing, and so forth (Boumankhar, 2014, p.64). All objects are placed under a window marking the different migration waves as well as the newcomers’ diversity and enlighten visitors on what immigration connotes. Diversity and Immigration Without a doubt, Australia is a great nation, a delightful country to work, live as well as bring up a family. Thanks to Australia’s rich cultural diversity, thousands of immigrants still come to the country every year. As exemplified by the Museum, Australia’s economic prosperity and strength are founded on the permutation of what all Australians have in common as well as what makes all of them different. So cultural diversity is not new in Australia, actually it has at all times been an essential facet of the Australian identity considering its origins and the union of Aboriginal peoples, as well as immigrants from all corners of the world (Witcomb, 2012). The Australian immigration history goes together with integration history. Australia experience as exhibited in the Museum demonstrates that integration should not come to the detriment of diverse identities. Furthermore, diverse identities generate a mosaic and enthusiasm, which assists in defining Australia. Diversity and immigration as evidenced by the exhibitions at Immigration Museum should not be feared, but instead rejoiced considering that it is the country’s basis of strength and multiculturalism in Australia is exceeding unique. Yes, Australia is not a perfect country, but it is the global model in terms of cultural diversity. Nowadays, immigrants to Australia are sourcing from various countries as compared to the historical times, and these immigration patterns as exhibited at the Museum, represent diversity in various manner and provide evidence that the global demographics are changing. Numerous scholarly works, such as Henrich (2013, p.2) argue that architects of Immigration exhibitions have continually transferred a tension between stories of sustaining and inclusive country of immigrants as well as the more challenging histories of exclusion, difference and conflict that depict the history of immigration in Australia. Curatorial methods to this tension continue to be molded by shifting political climates, people attitudes towards multiculturalism and immigrants, as well as demands of the community for representation in the Museum (Witcomb, 2012). Museological proceedings like the launching of the Immigration Museum in Melbourne in 1998 have been important in helping Australian understand not just their cultural roots, but also the significance of multiculturalism. When positioned in such political, social and institutional contexts, Henrich (2013) posits that immigration history exhibitions in Australia may be comprehended through overlapping as well as broad phases. In the first phase, the first exhibitions, starting towards late 1980s, intended to assimilate experiences of minority migrant into a multicultural national narrative so as to upturn past mono-cultural stories of national becoming, writes Henrich (2013). Another exhibitions’ phase from 1990s, openly democratized the immigration story so as to charm the Anglo-Celtic Australians who were in no way related to multiculturalism (Henrich, 2013, p.2). Whereas the essentials of both approaches still remain, Australian museums including Immigration Museum have started to look further than immigrations and towards global networks exploration as well as the impression of diversity. Conclusion In conclusion, aside from offering a personal and minority immigrant perception into the experience of immigrants, the Immigration Museum also presents an emotional, entertaining, and engaging experience that cheer up the sanities and results to a greater comprehension of Australia’s cultural diversity as well as history. The Immigration Museum as argued in the report engages with organisations, communities, and individuals from different cultural backgrounds so as to develop its exhibitions and collections. This way, the Immigration Museum seeks to represent lots of individual voices as well as personal stories so as to present factual experiences, which are thought-infuriating, touching, vicarious and all the time pertinent. The Museum seeks to enlighten people in Victoria and broad Australia about the diverse cultures that were brought by the immigrants. So the Immigration Museum is the place to understand the various identities of people living in Victoria through the stories of communities as well as individuals. References Boumankhar, I., 2014. Immigrant Communities, Cultural Institutions and Political Space: The Success of the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Australia. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge,vol. 9, no. 4, pp.61-92. Henrich, E., 2013. Museums, History and Migration in Australia. History Compass, vol. 10, no. 11, pp.1-18. Immigration Museum, 2014. About Us. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/about-us/community-engagement/" http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/about-us/community-engagement/ [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Szekeres, V., 2011. Museums and multiculturalism: too vague to understand, too important to ignore. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://nma.gov.au/research/understanding-museums/VSzekeres_2011.html" http://nma.gov.au/research/understanding-museums/VSzekeres_2011.html [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Witcomb, A., 2012. Migration, social cohesion and cultural diversity. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://press.anu.edu.au/hrj/2009_02/mobile_devices/ch05.html" http://press.anu.edu.au/hrj/2009_02/mobile_devices/ch05.html [Accessed 15 Jannuary 2015]. Read More