REPRESENTATIONS OF HISTORY AND NATION IN MUSEUMS

This book examines museum development in the two post-colonial settler societies of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, investigating the evolution of new histories as museums seek to aid the construction of post-colonial national identities.Drawing on a wide body of evidence on an under-researched topic, the book is in two parts.The first presents a survey of how traditional images of national identity have been created,sustained and recently challenged during the histories of Australia and New Zealand illustrating that the question of non-indigenous national identity is a problematic one.The second part focuses on the new National Museum of Australia in Canberra and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.Both museums have opened recently,at a time when national museums around the world are confronted with an increasingly prominent and challenging political and social role in society.Primarily focused on non-indigenous history and identity, this book questions the relevance of traditional representations of national identity,and asks how museums, both in the past and today, have constructed identities for their non-indigenous populations.

Autorentext

James Gore''s research explores the history and development of museums in post-colonial settler societies; the ways they have developed to portray histories and identities. He pursued this through his doctoral degree at the University of Melbourne and while an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Rhodes University in South Africa