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Minority views of national museums
Leicester
Aegean
Tartu
6 European Museums
Who were the minority groups?
Russian - speakers
Refugee
Mixed cultural roots Free choice
Roma
Economic migrants
Museum Minority group Participants
National Museum of Scotland
British Minority Ethnic (BME)
7
National Museum of Ireland
Minority Ethnic and economic migrants
5
National History Museum, Athens
Roma 5
Estonian National Museum
Russian-language speakers
5
4 Focus groups
Focus group profile
• 22 participants • 16 women, 6 men• Age range 16-65 years• 16 participants 31-65years• 13 born in Europe ( 8 nationals Estonia&
Greece)• 9 born outside Europe – Pakistan, Senegal,
Nigeria, Taiwan, Canada, Russia
Category of minority Examples MuseumPan-European minority Roma Greece
Historical legacy of a prior occupying regime
Russian speakers Estonia
Economic migrants Those who choose to move for economic reasons
IrelandScotland
Displaced Refugee – forced to flee Scotland
Mixed cultural roots Parents with different roots or national heritage
Ireland
Free choice People who have moved to a country through free choice to study or to work
ScotlandIreland
Different experiences
I’m very much against minority groups in any country. I think they tend to be overpowering and I think the locals resent that… Well they’re probably very important at a moment in time [but] I think it would be a mistake to suddenly focus on the latest group of migrants
Majority views
Museum visitor, Scotland
Minority Issues• Minority groups:– Do not expect to be represented in the national
museum– Are not regarded as “missing” by visitors
• Personal and national identity is especially complex and important to minorities because they are constantly negotiating their relationship with a dominant culture
Different experiences of national identity
I am proud to say that I’m an Irish, because I look at it from the point of view “a home away from home” and I think by now I am a person of two homes… I try to fit in and I look at other good things that would have happened to me, my family and my friends, in Ireland. And I say, “You know what? This is my home”
Assimilation
Peter, Nigerian, living in Ireland
Racism
Racism is encouraged by adults… Within this context, we cannot talk about either national identity, or integration to society
Kostas, Roma
Difference
Why am I different?
Barbara, aged 18-30, Roma
People don’t allow me that… whenever anybody questioned me about Irish-ness, I kind of go well okay my mum is from Trinidad. And I felt I was partly Trinidadian. When I went to Trinidad I realised I’m absolutely not Trinidadian. Everyone looked at me on the street. I was as different as a wealthy Westerner. And that made me go, okay, well what the hell am I, you know, neither of you groups actually completely accept me?
Brina, living in Ireland
Living between two worlds
Minorities in the National Museum
• Excluded• Absent• Silent• Mis-represented• Tokenistic
Ireland is a multicultural community now. [However] you can drive round the whole of Ireland and you would not see anything to suggest that, because there’s no symbols, there are nothing that would say that this country is no longer what it used to be… It is because of the system. The system is not telling you that you belong here… We don’t have that spirit, not through the relationship. So it’s a big problem
Peter, National Museum of Ireland
Minority Issues
• National museums could provide recognition and representation
• Participants wanted to be represented for who they are and be recognised for the contribution they make to the nation
• The challenge is for national museums to consider how they can re-interpret the notion of national identity, and national history, so that everyone is represented
A ‘conventional’ view of nation?• National museums do not challenge their visitors• Visitors (generally) seem happy with a conventional
perspective of the nation• But this approach excludes minority groups… is this
right?
A call to action!
• National museums could be….–More inclusive–More conscious of unheard voices and
experiences–More dynamic–More actively engaged–More dialogue