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Mapping Museums in New Zealand: The Representation of Place Identity in the Permanent Exhibition at the Puhoi Bohemian Museum

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Mapping Migration, Identity, and Space

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Abstract

Sommer offers a new perspective on the musealization of immigration in settler societies, focusing not on institutions of national significance but instead on a small volunteer-based museum located in Puhoi, New Zealand. Employing multimodal analysis of the permanent exhibition—presenting the exploits of a group of Bohemian immigrants—and qualitative interviews with staff and visitors, he shows that dominant multicultural narratives on a national level are not readily embraced by smaller institutions; rather, the focus lies on creating hybrid identities and fostering of local ethnic narratives. Faced with representing an immigration story touched by expulsion and conflict with indigenous groups, the museum employs a nonalignment strategy and shows the potential and pitfalls of community representation in a nonprofessional environment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Heller, Bohemians, 48.

  2. 2.

    Puhoi Historical Society, “Puhoi Bohemian Museum.”

  3. 3.

    Baur, Musealisierung der Migration, 66.

  4. 4.

    Dölling, Neuseeland.

  5. 5.

    Paglinawan, “Immigration policies.”

  6. 6.

    New Zealand Human Rights commission, Race Relations.

  7. 7.

    Bell, Inventing New Zealand, 58.

  8. 8.

    Ibid. 58.

  9. 9.

    Ibid. 64.

  10. 10.

    Ibid. 79.

  11. 11.

    Henare, Museums, 250

  12. 12.

    Ibid. 251.

  13. 13.

    Goodnow, Media and Refugees, 36–42.

  14. 14.

    Sommer, “Representation of Immigration.”

  15. 15.

    Schollum, interview.

  16. 16.

    Jewitt and Oyama, “Visual meaning,” 147ff.

  17. 17.

    Jewitt,”Multimodality,” 14.

  18. 18.

    Buschmann, „Erzähltheorie,“ 2010, Scholze, Medium Ausstellung.

  19. 19.

    Geertz, Dichte Beschreibung.

  20. 20.

    Patton, Qualitative Research, 230.

  21. 21.

    PHS, “Rules,” 1.

  22. 22.

    Heller, Bohemians, 47.

  23. 23.

    Ibid. 50.

  24. 24.

    Buckton, Bohemian Journey, 84ff.

  25. 25.

    Hahn and Hahn, Vertreibung, 672ff.

  26. 26.

    Ibid. 686ff.

  27. 27.

    Procházková, “Bohemians.”

  28. 28.

    Mooney, Story of Puhoi, 5ff.

  29. 29.

    Silk, History of Puhoi, 16–17.

  30. 30.

    Lochore, Europe to New Zealand, 69.

  31. 31.

    Felgentreff, Egerländer, 15.

  32. 32.

    PHS, “Bohemia House,” 1.

  33. 33.

    Fischer, “Minutes,” 2.

  34. 34.

    PHS, “Records Room,” 2.

  35. 35.

    Bund der Eghalanda Gmoin e. V., “Satzung,” 1.

  36. 36.

    Wild, “Zielgruppenproblematik,“ 120–122.

  37. 37.

    All letters and numbers refer to the layout provided in Fig. 4.1.

  38. 38.

    Buckton, Bohemian Journey, 99

  39. 39.

    Permanent exhibition, PBM, 2010.

  40. 40.

    Buckton, Bohemian Journey.

  41. 41.

    Visitor 2, interview.

  42. 42.

    Visitor 8, interview.

  43. 43.

    Visitor 3, interview.

  44. 44.

    Visitors 9 and 10, interview.

  45. 45.

    Visitor 4, interview.

  46. 46.

    Visitors 5, 6, and 7, interview.

  47. 47.

    Auckland Star, “The Puhoi Settlers,” 6.

  48. 48.

    Permanent exhibition, PBM, 2014.

  49. 49.

    Schmidt, Settlement of Puhoi, 17.

  50. 50.

    Goldsmith, Rise and Fall, 50.

  51. 51.

    Ibid. 40.

  52. 52.

    Schmidt, Settlement of Puhoi, 17.

  53. 53.

    Procházková, “Bohemians,” 23.

  54. 54.

    Visitors 6 and 7, interview.

  55. 55.

    Visitor 8, interview.

  56. 56.

    Visitors 9 and 10, interview.

  57. 57.

    Visitor 8, interview.

  58. 58.

    Bell, Inventing New Zealand, 82.

  59. 59.

    Permanent exhibition, PBM, 2014.

  60. 60.

    Visitor 5, interview.

  61. 61.

    Visitors 2 and 3, interview.

  62. 62.

    Visitors 6, 7, 9, and 10, interview.

  63. 63.

    Stewart, On Longing, 69.

  64. 64.

    Permanent exhibition, PBM, 2014.

  65. 65.

    Visitors 4 and 8, interview.

  66. 66.

    Bell, Inventing New Zealand, 55.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Christopher Sommer

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  1. Christopher Sommer
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Correspondence to Christopher Sommer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Tabea Linhard

  2. Department of History, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Timothy H. Parsons

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Sommer, C. (2019). Mapping Museums in New Zealand: The Representation of Place Identity in the Permanent Exhibition at the Puhoi Bohemian Museum. In: Linhard, T., Parsons, T.H. (eds) Mapping Migration, Identity, and Space. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77956-0_4

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