ICOM International Council of Museums - Museo Estancia Jesuitica ...

Harris: The Museum is not transparent
difficult issues and, indeed, reconsidered some of the myths of history, for example in
“The Massacre of Pinjarra”, one of the overall meaning effects of Katta Dijoong is that
the museum has not examined its own role in the production of history and, indeed,
has pushed responsibility for history away from itself.
As laudable as it is to have consulted Aboriginal people on the topics of the exhibition
and to have included their voices on each topic, it appears that the museum has simply
changed one interpretation of history to another - from a version which favoured the
technological and cultural achievements of European ideas to one which focuses on
the suffering of dispossession. One interpretation thus replaces another without
interrogating the museological effects of the change.
Conclusion
Many museums have rethought their approaches to history in the light of the New
Museology and this is reflected in changing exhibition styles and content, however, an
institution never achieves a complex, sophisticated understanding of itself without selfanalysis.
Examination of a small part of Katta Djinoong reveals on-going problems of
curatorial articulation as the dramatic changes of dealing with different versions of
history seem to stand in for all necessary museum change. In the context of vigorous
debate in Australia about the colonising process, Katta Djinoong makes a significant
contribution by reassessing many aspects of previously hegemonic history, especially
an episode such as “The Massacre of Pinjarra” which was presented to generations of
Western Australian school children as a necessary event in the achievement of a
secure society. The retelling of this clash at the museum must be very confronting for
older European Australians.
The next task for museums is to examine the history, morality and politics of their
collecting and exhibiting processes in order to reveal their own roles in history.
Bibliography
BENNETT, Tony, Out of Which Past?: Critical Reflections on Australian Museum and
Heritage Policy, Brisbane, Institute for Cultural Policy Studies, Griffith University, 1988
HABERMAS, Jurgen, ‘Concerning the public use of history’, New German Critique,
pp.40-50, 1988
GRIFFITHS, Tom, Hunters and Collectors: The Antiquarian Imagination in Australia,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996
HOOPER-GREENHILL, Eilean, Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge, London and
New York, Routledge, 1992
HORNE, Donald The Great Museum: The Re-Presentation of History, London Pluto,
1984
MACINTYRE, Stuart and Anna Clark, The History Wars, Melbourne, Melbourne
University Press, 2003
Reunion des Musees Nationaux, Dominique-Vivant Denon: L’oeil de Napoleon, Paris,
Editions de la Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1999
RIEGEL, Henrietta, ‘Into the heart of irony: ethnographnic exhibitions and the politics of
difference’, in Macdonald, Sharon and Gordon Fyfe, (eds) Theorizing Museums,
Oxford, Blackwell, 1996
VERGO, Peter (ed.) The New Museology, London, Reaktion Books, 1989
Jennifer Harris: Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia
jennifer.harris@amnet.net.au
et montre le façon que ça fonction.
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