Adele Chynoweth, National Museum of Australia
19
Plenary: Agents of Social Change Hall A, MECC Chair: Jo Besley Dr Adele Chynoweth Curator (ATSIP Team), National Museum of Australia Developing the exhibition, Inside: Life in Children's Homes
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Dr Adele Chynoweth, Curator (ATSIP Team), National Museum of Australia presented at the M&GSQ State Conference 2011 on "Developing the exhibition, Inside: Life in Children's Homes".
Transcript of Adele Chynoweth, National Museum of Australia
Plenary: Agents of Social Change
Hall A, MECC
Chair: Jo Besley
Dr Adele Chynoweth
Curator (ATSIP Team), National Museum of Australia
Developing the exhibition, Inside: Life in Children's Homes
Inside: Life in Children’s HomesOpens November 16, 2011
Informed by three reports:1. Bringing them Home (Australian Human
Rights Commission, 1997)
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Informed by three reports:2. Lost Innocents (Senate Community Affairs References Committee, 2001)
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Informed by three reports:
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Informed by three reports:3. Forgotten Australians (Senate Community Affairs References Committee, 2004)
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Children at Silky Oaks (Home founded by Open Brethren),
Brisbane, QLD
Informed by three reports:
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
St Vincent’s Orphanage, Nudgee, QLD
Statistics
• 50,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, some of whom belong to the Stolen Generations
• 7,000 Child Migrants
• 500,000 Forgotten Australians
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Who are Forgotten Australians?
• Aged 30s to elderly• (some were) state wards • divorce, drunkenness, disease, desertion,
death, domestic violence• No single parents’ support pension
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
What did they experience?• Separation from and
loss of family
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Nun from the order of Sister of the Good Shepherd escorting a girl, Children's Court Albion Street, Sydney, 25 October, 1963
What did they experience?• Deception• Neglect and exploitation
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
1956, Boys building the swimming pool Clontarf Boys’ Town, Perth, Western Australia
What did they experience?• Assault• Poor health care
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
1946, Examination Room, Parramatta Girls’ Home, Sydney
What did they experience?• Lack of education
• Loss of identity
• Medical testing
• No post-care support
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Challenges
• Australian Government directive• Philosophical:o Consensus history
US historian Richard Hofstadter (1948) o Postcolonialism/interculturalism > hierarchy of
discourses
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Challenges
• no collection
• small exhibition space
• disavowal
• living memory
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Our responses
• Consultative Forum (FaHCSIA)• design• stakeholder support • education package• website:http://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Website
• personal narrativeshttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2011/02/16/the-argonaut
/• poetryhttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2011/01/10/ill-be-your-mate
/• songshttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2011/06/07/on-eagles-wings
/
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Website
• visual arthttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2010/03/31/
depression/• objectshttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2011/04/16/
my-ireland/• reunionshttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2011/05/27/
winlaton-reunion/
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
Website
• protestshttp://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2010/12/14/
the-first-anniversary-2/
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes
