Whose stories are we telling? Exhibitions of migration history in Australian museums 1984-2001

Abstract

Since the introduction of multiculturalism as a public policy in 1973, the peopling of Australia by migrants from many different countries has become a celebrated national narrative. One place where this story has been told is in the nation's museums. Yet the aims and content of Australia's early migration exhibitions, which were among the first in the world, remain unrepresented in the relevant literature. They also remain disconnected from later exhibitions and museums of migration, when in fact they had a profound influence on them. This thesis asks: whose stories were told in Australian exhibitions of immigration history? And how did they change?

To explore these questions, this thesis weaves a history of key exhibitions across institutions. A combination of archival research and interviews with museum curators reveals the complex ideas, decisions and circumstances that shaped these displays. The broader historical and political developments surrounding the opening of the Migration Museum in 1986, the Powerhouse Museum in 1988, the Australian National Maritime Museum in 1991, the Immigration Museum in 1998 and the long gestation of the National Museum of Australia from 1980 until 2001 provide the vital context for the exhibition analyses. A survey of the literature relating to multiculturalism, migration history and museums in Australia locates the chosen exhibitions within wider debates about ethnicity, identity, concepts of heritage and the role of national museums.

I argue that we can understand museum exhibitions about migration in Australia between 1984 and 2001 as operating within two broad and internally variable phases. The first phase, "inventing the nation of immigrants", was characterised by a radical, revisionist and unashamedly multicultural challenge to standard national narratives; the second, "democratising the nation of immigrants", by a more conservative and inclusive approach that, in an attempt to include all Australians in the migration story, distanced itself from political controversy. The findings bring into question assumptions about the 'multicultural era' in Australian history, and reveal that museums, as sites of public history, as disseminators and reflectors of ideas, education and debate, richly repay the attention of historians long after their exhibitions have been dismantled.