REPRESENTATIONS OF HISTORY AND NATION IN MUSEUMS IN AUSTRALIA AND AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND – THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA AND THE MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA. James Michael Gore Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. March 2002 Department of History The University of Melbourne ABSTRACT This thesis 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 thesis is arranged in two parts. The first presents a survey of how traditional images of national identity have been created, sustained and more recently challenged during the histories of Australia and New Zealand – illustrating that the question of non-indigenous national identity is a problematic one. It then provides a historical narrative of museums in both countries. Highlighting the differences and similarities between the two countries and focusing on the development of historical collections, it explores how museums have perpetuated traditional interpretations of nation, and how in recent decades various factors have combined to challenge conventional museum practice, making the role and function of museums at the beginning of the twenty-first century particularly complex. The second part focuses on the new National Museum of Australia in Canberra and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. It combines an examination of their history with an analysis of how they attempt to convey ideas of nation and national identity. 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, and an especially difficult, perhaps impossible, task of representing all the different histories that constitute the ‘nation’. Primarily focused on non-indigenous history and identity, this thesis 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. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been lucky in receiving tremendous support from many people and institutions whilst completing this work. I have acknowledged many of these debts of assistance in notes to the text. However, here I wish to ascribe special appreciation for this support. I am beholden to my benefactors, without whose financial assistance this thesis would not have been possible. A significant part of my funding originated from the University of Melbourne, and particularly the Department of History, and it is to these I thus record my gratitude. I thank the University and Department for a Melbourne International Research Scholarship, and the History Department for a Lloyd Robson Memorial Award in 2000 to carry out inter-state research, as well as annual travel budget allocations. Finally, thanks to both the University for a Melbourne Abroad Postgraduate Travelling Scholarship and the Faculty of Arts for funding in 2000 – enabling me to carry out research in New Zealand. I have benefited a great deal from the collections in the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne, the State Library of Victoria, the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, and the research libraries at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa). Thanks to all these institutions and their friendly and helpful staff, especially Julie Philips at the NMA, and Manuela Angelo and Eamonn Bolger at Te Papa. Many people have discussed aspects of my work with me and offered helpful advice, as well as information on and access to sources. In this respect, it is difficult to make an exhaustive list, but I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to a number of those who were willing to spare some of their valuable time. At the NMA, particular thanks to the Director Dawn Casey, and curators Guy Hansen, Mike Smith and Sophie Jensen, as well as former curator Ian McShane. Also in Australia, I am grateful to Paul Walker at Melbourne University, fellow doctoral candidates Kirsten Wehner and Ben Dibley, and Gaye Sculthorpe, the Director of the Indigenous Cultures Program at Museum Victoria. In New Zealand, sincere thanks to Jock Phillips, the Government’s Chief Historian at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Rodney Wilson, the Director of Auckland Museum, Jenny Harper, the Head of Art History at Victoria University in Wellington, Wayne Marriott, General Manager of Museums Aotearoa, Michael Fitzgerald and Ian Wedde at Te Papa, and the Rt. Hon. Jonathon Hunt MP, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. Special thanks to David Butts and Susan Abasa at Massey University, for reading draft chapters of my work and clarifying some of the issues surrounding museums in New Zealand. I am especially indebted to my fantastic supervisors, Kate Darian-Smith and David Goodman, for their invaluable knowledge, and constant support and guidance throughout the life of this thesis and my time in Australia. Even during my moments of greatest self-doubt, their encouragement and interest in the topic ensured I remained focused and determined to the end. As the principal supervisor, I must extend particular gratitude to Kate Darian-Smith, for her insight to the topic and penetrating feedback on drafts – challenging me to constantly reflect on and re-think my approach. Thanks also to my long-suffering friends in Melbourne, especially Tania, who took on the task of proof-reading the thesis, and to Shaun, Dominique, Bob, Kate and Hideki, for putting up with my dark moments and taking an interest in my progress. Finally, to my parents back in Britain, for your unswerving support and faith in me – thank you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS page Abstract i Declaration ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv Introduction – Museums and Nation. 1 Part One History and Identity in Museums. 1 – The Identity Question. 29 2 – The Development of Museums in Australia & New Zealand, 69 1800 – c.1975. 3 – The Development of Museums in Australia & New Zealand, 101 since c.1975. Part Two The National Museums. 4 – The Challenge for a National Museum of Australia, c.1820 – 1998. 161 5 – The National Museum of New Zealand: A Brief History, 1865 – 1992. 202 6 – The National Museum of Australia and the Museum of New Zealand 230 Te Papa Tongarewa – Design and Outcomes, Success and Failure. 7 – Non-Indigenous History and Identity in the National Museum of 270 Australia and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Conclusion – A Challenging Future. 303 Bibliography 306 iv 1 INTRODUCTION Museums and Nation We are celebrating the opening of a treasure house of material drawn from our national heritage. Material that is precious and irreplaceable. That records the development of our nation and provides us with an understanding of what makes us Australian. – Peter McGauran, Minister for the Arts and the Centenary of Federation, at the opening of the National Museum of Australia, 11th March 2001.1 Te Papa makes a significant contribution toward the key Government goal to Strengthen National Identity and Uphold the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi … Te Papa provides a national forum where New Zealanders can explore and reflect on their cultural identity and natural heritage through stories and objects. – Dr Roderick S. Deane, Chairman of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2000.2 In recent years, museums around the world have undergone dramatic changes in terms of their composition, roles and interpretation: forced to adapt to new pressures and priorities, and to become more representative of the communities in which they exist, whether they be local, regional, national or global. In particular, diverse groups, including indigenous people, women and ethnic minorities, increasingly challenge traditional images of mainstream national identity. Changing historical scholarship has contributed to these debates and subsequently compelled museums to interpret and include new histories that have traditionally been excluded from their representations of the historical past. Alongside a growing recognition of the potential of museums as a positive social force,3 through being more actively involved with their publics and 1 P. McGauran, Minister for the Arts and the Centenary of Federation, Official opening of the National Museum of Australia, Press Release, 11th March 2001. Available at the Australian Parliamentary website, www.aph.gov.au. 2 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Annual Report 1999 – 2000, p.2. Available online at the Te Papa website, www.tepapa.govt.nz/who_we_are/annual_report.html. 3 See N. Merriman, Beyond the Glass Case: The Past, The Heritage and the Public in Britain, Leicester, 1991, esp. pp.1-18. 2 more representative of them, this has created a museum environment markedly different from that which existed two decades ago. This thesis is about national identity. It examines museum development in the former settler societies of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, investigating how major museums, especially those established in the nineteenth century, seek to aid the construction of post-colonial national identities. Focusing on non-indigenous national identity, which has become increasingly problematic, the thesis is approached in two parts. Firstly, it provides a detailed narrative tracing changing images of national identity, and the overall history of museums in both countries. In particular, it examines the development of collections relating to human history, and the links between these and national identity. The thesis then moves to an examination of the national museums of Australia and New Zealand, both of which have recently undergone massive developments, and the specific ways in which they attempt to explore notions of national identity. There has been a growing recognition of the role of museums in interpreting the past in order to aid the formation of these identities.