Suitcases, keys and handkerchiefs: how are objects being used to collect and tell migrant stories in Australian museums?

ABSTRACT

This article examines the particular challenges that are associated with collecting and exhibiting objects to represent immigrant narratives. Everyday objects play a crucial role in migration history and curators need to capitalise on the representational possibilities offered by these seemingly banal objects when conceiving exhibitions. This analysis concentrates on strategies used by Australian museums – from large federal institutions to state-based organisations as well as smaller community-based and council-run museums – as migration history is core to the settler history of Australia. In critically examining how objects are collected, this article discusses what it means for museums to engage with and tell stories of migration today and into the future. The study reveals the diversity of approaches at play and what lessons can be learnt from the study of how curators and institutions themselves are striving to engage with a diverse audience in their collections and exhibitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• museum
• collecting
• exhibitions
• Australia
• diversity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Chiara O’Reilly is an academic in the Museum and Heritage Studies program at the University of Sydney. Her research looks at ideas of display, the history and theory of museums and galleries, collection history and aspects of visual culture and exhibitions.

Dr Nina Parish works in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath, UK. She is an expert on the interaction between text and image in the field of modern and contemporary French Studies. She has published widely on this subject, in particular, on the poet and visual artist, Henri Michaux. More recently she has been working on representations of the migrant experience and multilingualism within the museum space. She is part of the EU-funded H2020 team working on innovative memory practices in sites of trauma including war museums and mass graves (www.unrest.eu).

Notes

1 Susan Pearce’s work on material culture has influenced much of the literature on objects in museums. See also Museum Materialities. Objects, Engagement, Interpretations, ed. by Dudley (2009).

2 Interview with Kim Tao, ANMM (17/07/2012).

3 The story and objects of the Lederer family featured in the ANMM celebration of its 20-year anniversary. K. Tao, “Door to freedom,” in 100 Stories from the Australian National Maritime Museum, 73–74.

4 Interview with Tao (17/07/2012).

5 See the UNHCR 2016 Global report http://reporting.unhcr.org/publications#tab-global_report&_ga=2.23740537.2125460715.1503463941-518915006.1503463941 (last accessed 23/8/ 2017).

6 Waves of Migration, designed by Electric Canvas, ANMM, ran for three years: 26 Jan–28 Feb 2013; 26 Jan–13 Feb 2014 and 26 Jan – 8 Feb 2015. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiuR-oDvxeE (last accessed 23/8/2017).

7 Anderson (1991), “Selling the past: History in museums in the 1990s,” Australian Historical Studies, 24, 130–141. For a broader understanding of the Australian context, see S. Macintyre and A. Clark, The History Wars (2003).

8 Interview with John Petersen, MHC (19/07/2012).

9 Interview with Dr Moya McFadzean, MV (26/07/2013).

10 Interview with Petersen, MHC (19/07/2012).

11 Interview with Anni Turnbull, MAAS (19/07/2012).

12 See https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/247157 (last accessed 23/8/2017).

13 This is an aspect recognized by Szekeres in “The problems of collecting and interpreting our multicultural heritage” (1989).

14 Interview with Tao (17/07/2012).

15 Interview with McFadzean (26/07/2013).

16 Interview with Gemma Beswick, Hurstville City Museum Library and Gallery (18/07/2012).

17 “About us,” Migration Heritage Centre, New South Wales, http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/uncategorized/about/ (last accessed 23/8/2017).

18 For listings of the engagement, see http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/featured-research/index.html (last accessed 23/8/2017).

19 See recent works by the Australian artist Ben Quilty for example his painting Leo Seemanpillai, 2017 (last accessed 23/8/2017) or Ai Weiwei’s installation, Soleil levant, 2017 See http://kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk/en/frontpage/ (last accessed 23/8/2017).

20 Interview with Szekeres, former Director of the Migration Museum, SA (18/07/2013). See V. Szekeres, 2011), “The past is a dangerous place,” Curating difficult knowledge, 41–54.

21 http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/belongings-home/ (last accessed 23/8/2017).

22 http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime-history/about-objects-through-time/ (last accessed 23/8/2017).

23 Interview with Petersen (19/07/2012).

24 See http://www.flickr.com/commons and http://www.europeana.eu/portal/ (last accessed 23/8/2017).

25 We are writing this article at a time when immigration remains a contentious topic globally and one that museums need to be engaged with to collect this history.