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Oral History and First-Person Narratives in Migration Exhibitions: Tracking Relations Between “Us” and “Them”

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Remembering Migration

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

Abstract

This chapter analyses the various ways in which oral history has been used in exhibitions about migration, from a tool to providing a personal layer of interpretation over objects to prioritizing personal stories as the key mechanism for developing narrative in exhibitions. The chapter examines these narratives in ways that ask questions about the use of this first-person narrative voice to shape different kinds of relations between “us” and “them,” drawing out the differences between what the author terms a pedagogy of listening and a pedagogy of feeling. At the same time, the chapter also explores how these uses of oral history have shaped collective forms of remembering.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I thank the Australian Research Council for its support of DP 120100594, “Collecting Institutions: Cultural Diversity and the Making of Australian Citizenship Since the 1970s,” the fieldwork for which underpins this chapter.

  2. 2.

    Andrea Witcomb, “Curating Relations Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The Changing Roles of Migration Museums in Australia,” in Conal McCarthy and Philipp Schorch eds, Curatopia: Museums and the Future of Curatorship (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018), 262–278.

  3. 3.

    Helen Clark, “The People’s Story,” Museum Management and Curatorship 10, no. 1 (1991): 37–44; Annette Day, “Listening Galleries: Putting Oral History on Display,” Oral History 27, no. 1 (Migration, Spring 1999): 91–96; Stuart Frost, “Secret Museums: Hidden Histories of Sex and Sexuality,” Museums and Social Issues 3, no. 1 (2008): 29–40; Sian Jones and Carl Major, “Reaching the Public: Oral History as a Survival Strategy for Museums,” Oral History 14, no. 2 (Museums and Oral History, Autumn 1986): 31–38; Campbell McMurray, “Oral History and Museums: An Overview and Critique,” Oral History 14, no. 2 (Museums and Oral History, Autumn 1986): 26–30; April Whincop, “Using Oral History in Museum Displays,” Oral History, 14, no. 2 (Museums and Oral History, Autumn 1986): 46–50.

  4. 4.

    Whincop, “Using Oral History in Museum Displays,” 46–50.

  5. 5.

    Brenda Factor, “Making an Exhibition of Yourself: Museums and Oral History,” Oral History Association of Australia Journal 13 (1991): 44–48; Tony Kushner, “Oral History at the Extremes of Human Experience: Holocaust Testimony in a Museum Setting,” Oral History 29, no. 2 (Hidden Histories, Autumn 2001): 83–94.

  6. 6.

    Robert Perks, “The Power of Oral History,” Museum Practice 25 (Spring 2004): 44–47. https://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-practice/9215.

  7. 7.

    Perks, “The Power of Oral History.”

  8. 8.

    Perks, “The Power of Oral History.”

  9. 9.

    Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, “Making Histories: Introduction,” in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson eds, The Oral History Reader, 2nd edition (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 336–37.

  10. 10.

    Stuart Davies, “Falling on Deaf Ears? Oral History and Strategy in Museums,” Oral History 22, no. 2 (25th Anniversary Issue, Autumn 1994): 74–84; Anna Green, “The Exhibition that Speaks for Itself: Oral History and Museums,” in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson eds, The Oral History Reader, 2nd edition, 416–24 (London and New York: Routledge, 2006); Donald Hyslop, “From Oral Historians to Community Historians: Some Ways Forward for the Use and Development of Oral Testimony in Public Institutions,” Oral History Association of Australia Journal 17 (1995): 8; Whincop, “Using Oral History in Museum Displays.”

  11. 11.

    Davies, “Falling on Deaf Ears?,” 81.

  12. 12.

    Ian McShane, “Museology and Public Policy: Rereading the Development of the National Museum of Australia’s Collection,” Recollections 2, no. 2 (2007). http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_2_no2/papers/museology_and_public_policy.

  13. 13.

    Chiara O’Reilly and Nina Parish, “Suitcases, Keys and Handkerchiefs: How are Objects Being Used to Collect and Tell Migrant Stories in Australian Museums?,” Museums and Social Issues 12, no. 2 (2017): 99–114.

  14. 14.

    Migration Museum, n.d., “A Keeping Place: The Migration Museum and Cultural Diversity,” Migration Museum, Adelaide, 1.

  15. 15.

    Kate Walsh, Letter to Sam Makeas, 18 July 1995, Ref. E36/Kw in File Gallery 8 Chops and Changes Working File for D.I.Y. Dairy Olive Oil Fish/Poultry Rice Pulses Fruit & Veg, ’95–’97. Migration Museum, History Trust of South Australia.

  16. 16.

    Notes accompanying Letter to Sam Makeas, page 2.

  17. 17.

    Copy of label in letter to Sam Makeas.

  18. 18.

    This label in Chops and Changes Gallery 8 Bread Sweets Meat Towers Folder, ’95–’97, Migration Museum, History Trust of South Australia.

  19. 19.

    Description developed from a photograph of the display sent to author by Anne Delroy, former Head of the History Department that developed the exhibition at the Western Australian Museum.

  20. 20.

    Panel 19 “Tent Camps—Hopes Shattered,” page 10 of final copy of labels for Gallery 17 of the Fremantle History Museum, a branch of the Western Australian Museum. Electronic copy provided to author by Anne Delroy, former Head of the History Department, Western Australian Museum on 7 November 2016 via email.

  21. 21.

    Bonegilla Interviews—31/5/05 Mara’s thoughts in Permanent Exhibition Resource Material 8c Bonegilla—Looking Back, Albury City, New Library Museum 2007, Folder.

  22. 22.

    List of interviewer questions and instructions for Oral History project for Crossing Places exhibition in Permanent Exhibition Resource Material 8c Bonegilla—Looking Back, Albury City, New Library Museum 2007, Folder.

  23. 23.

    Individual display under the First Impressions of Bonegilla display within the Crossing Placesexhibition at the Albury City Museum, as seen on 9 February 2017.

  24. 24.

    Paula Hamilton, “Speak, Memory: Issues in Oral and Public History,” in Paul Ashton and Alex Trapeznik eds, What is Public History Globally? Working with the Past in the Present (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2019), 214.

  25. 25.

    See Witcomb, “Curating Relations Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them.’”

  26. 26.

    Frisch, A Shared Authority; Portelli, The Order Has Been Carried.

  27. 27.

    Witcomb, “Xenophobia: Museums, Refugees and Fear of the Other,” 74–87.

Bibliography

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Andrea Witcomb

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  1. Andrea Witcomb
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Correspondence to Andrea Witcomb .

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  1. University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia

    Kate Darian-Smith

  2. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Paula Hamilton

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Witcomb, A. (2019). Oral History and First-Person Narratives in Migration Exhibitions: Tracking Relations Between “Us” and “Them”. In: Darian-Smith, K., Hamilton, P. (eds) Remembering Migration. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17751-5_14

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