Visiting "Identity" at the Immigration Museum
The AiR project participants went to visit Melbourne Immigration Museum's permanent exhibit "Identity" on Friday. The Identity exhibit focused mainly on ethnicity and cultures of immigrants who have settled in Australia and the issues that arise from living in a different society. These cultural heritages, languages, beliefs, and family connections influence self-perception and perceptions of other people.
The exhibit
The exhibit starts out with a video of different groups of people reacting to seeing newcomers. Some are schoolchildren, some are families, some are friends, all are of different racial and cultural backgrounds. Their emotional expressions ranged from happiness and joy to suspicion and exclusion. Upon entering the exhibit, there are a series of video screens where the visitor can select to hear stories from people. The first series of videos entice the visitor to see if they can find connections and similiarities to the people in the video, as well as to challenge perceptions of what they thought about the person.
In addition to these videos, there were set ups displaying ways one may present their ethnic and cultural identity, such as through language, food, appearance and dress, and past historical events/memorabilia. To dig deeper into ways people represent their identities, there were another series of interactive videos to listen to stories of different people across Australia about how they carry their cultural identity with them through their music, food, ceremonies, etc.
Walking past this section, the visitor can then go through a passport test to see if they can be an Australian citizen. Visitors can rate the questions given on this test and choose their favorite or least favorite. Further past this is the more controversial area where the more negative aspects of ethnicity and cultural clashes were displayed. There was a timeline of immigration laws in the Western world to exclude those of non-Caucasian background. On the far side, there was a video simulating a real life situation of subtle racism occurring on the tram, prompting the visitor to think about what they'd do in the same situation (simply watching it happen or intervening). In addition, there were displays of various pop culture references with racist tints, such as Creole Crackers and slanty eyed Asian puppets.
Comments from the museum curator
The topic of the exhibit was a risky one for the museum, mainly because race is such a political topic
Their focus on "belonging and not belonging" as a theme, while mainly for ethnic communities, also took them to look at other forms of community, such as soccer teams
Only one of the artists who participated in the exhibit engaged the community as participants in the art form; the rest mostly engaged through forums
The museum took 2 years to prepare for the exhibit, doing research and interviewing the participants for the videos. The research was to narrow down the focus on ethnicity and ways in which ethnicity is experienced and shared (language, belief, dress, food, etc)
The project was initated through the immigration museum itself. Preparation included doing the field research, getting the funding, conceptualizing the theme, tailoring the exhibit to school age visitors, fitting it into school curriculums (target audience of museum being school kids)
Museum actively works with primary and secondary schools
Theme of Immigration Museum is the journey that immigrants take from their home country all the way to Australia. "Identity" focused more on the journey that takes place after arrival - what issues arise from living in contemporary Australia as a multicultural person
Question that arose: Will there still be the need to talk about belonging and not belonging in 10 years (the length of time the exhibit stays up)? Curator believes yes
Question of whether society (as whole) can mature to point where unknown is no longer an issue
My own thoughts on "Identity"
I liked the different stories that come from people claiming their own identities and the different creative ways they find to express their identity. I believe that one's own identity is a very empowering thing and it was great to hear how people express theirs. The interactiveness of the exhibit (videos, audio, etc) was great as well. I wish I got to see the tram video (it was unfortunately not working when I got there), but it seemed like something that was particularly relevant to most people. In general, I would have liked the exhibit to focus more on the controversial aspects of ethnic and cultural identity and the ways that we might as a society deal with the clashes that come with it. The tram scene is an excellent example of subtle racism that occurs and the prompts in that section were great. The pop culture references were interesting, but I would have liked to see more prompts with them as well as a background context (did the people who created those ethnic puppets go in with good intentions?). Positive stereotyping (think model minorities) is another issue that wasn't much addressed - even if it's positive, the labelling still limits people's perceptions of others.
The exhibit
The exhibit starts out with a video of different groups of people reacting to seeing newcomers. Some are schoolchildren, some are families, some are friends, all are of different racial and cultural backgrounds. Their emotional expressions ranged from happiness and joy to suspicion and exclusion. Upon entering the exhibit, there are a series of video screens where the visitor can select to hear stories from people. The first series of videos entice the visitor to see if they can find connections and similiarities to the people in the video, as well as to challenge perceptions of what they thought about the person.
In addition to these videos, there were set ups displaying ways one may present their ethnic and cultural identity, such as through language, food, appearance and dress, and past historical events/memorabilia. To dig deeper into ways people represent their identities, there were another series of interactive videos to listen to stories of different people across Australia about how they carry their cultural identity with them through their music, food, ceremonies, etc.
Walking past this section, the visitor can then go through a passport test to see if they can be an Australian citizen. Visitors can rate the questions given on this test and choose their favorite or least favorite. Further past this is the more controversial area where the more negative aspects of ethnicity and cultural clashes were displayed. There was a timeline of immigration laws in the Western world to exclude those of non-Caucasian background. On the far side, there was a video simulating a real life situation of subtle racism occurring on the tram, prompting the visitor to think about what they'd do in the same situation (simply watching it happen or intervening). In addition, there were displays of various pop culture references with racist tints, such as Creole Crackers and slanty eyed Asian puppets.
Comments from the museum curator
My own thoughts on "Identity"
I liked the different stories that come from people claiming their own identities and the different creative ways they find to express their identity. I believe that one's own identity is a very empowering thing and it was great to hear how people express theirs. The interactiveness of the exhibit (videos, audio, etc) was great as well. I wish I got to see the tram video (it was unfortunately not working when I got there), but it seemed like something that was particularly relevant to most people. In general, I would have liked the exhibit to focus more on the controversial aspects of ethnic and cultural identity and the ways that we might as a society deal with the clashes that come with it. The tram scene is an excellent example of subtle racism that occurs and the prompts in that section were great. The pop culture references were interesting, but I would have liked to see more prompts with them as well as a background context (did the people who created those ethnic puppets go in with good intentions?). Positive stereotyping (think model minorities) is another issue that wasn't much addressed - even if it's positive, the labelling still limits people's perceptions of others.