Refugee Objects

The Old Treasury Building is widely regarded as one of the finest 19th century buildings in Melbourne. The museum houses exhibitions showcasing the history of Melbourne and Victoria.

Old Treasury Building

Discover a passion for objects in this new Seminar Series from Australian Catholic University and Old Treasury!

We are excited to announce a new Seminar Series from Australian Catholic University and Old Treasury! ‘Material Histories’ will present new scholarship from a wide range of speakers, all united by their passion for objects! Our first seminar will be: ‘Refugee Objects’.First speaker: Crafting Absence: how art gives voice to absent storiesRecent acquisitions in Museum Victoria&#x27;s migration-related collections demonstrate the importance of creative practice in the representation of refugee experiences and how this is made manifest through material culture. In particular, the Museum is seeking to give space to the stories of people who have actively tried to seek refuge in Australia - some who have been prevented from doing so.These ‘absent stories’ are nevertheless Australian stories and it is extremely challenging to represent them through material culture. This activity also raises ethical questions about how to enable refugees and asylum seekers to give voice to their own stories, while ‘safely’ sharing publicly the stories of vulnerable people.Dr Moya McFadzean is Senior Curator, Migration &amp; Cultural Diversity at Museums Victoria. Her curatorial work develops collections and exhibitions which consider Australian migration, refugee and asylum seeker narratives, and themes of identity, belonging and diversity. She is interested in the role of museums as sites of social activism and their potential for developing relationships of genuine engagement and reciprocity with communities. Image (left): &#x27;Refugee Journey&#x27;, drawing by Zahra Jafari, Indonesia, 2015. Museums Victoria CollectionSecond Speaker:Photo Album Woven Cover: Connecting family, documenting work, and depicting Displaced People in Germany after WWIIPhoto albums can be fascinating objects of material culture, and are more than the sum of the images that fill their pages. I will focus on one such album, created by Esma Banner (1910-2001), who was a keen amateur photographer and was a post-WII reconstruction worker in Germany. This album, in Museum Victoria’s collection, was a 1946 Christmas gift sent to her sister. Through it, we can see how familial relationships were maintained, how Esma valued the professional relief work she did, alongside partial insights into the experiences of the refugees who were the focus of her work and photographs. Dr Mary Tomsic is a Research Fellow in the Research Centre for Refugees, Migration and Humanitarian Studies at Australian Catholic University. She is cultural historian whose research focuses on visual representations of child refugees, children’s cultural expression in histories of migration and how these circulate in the public realm. I﻿mage (right): Copyright <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1924184" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Museums Victoria</a> / CC BY

Refugee Objects

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