Transformations:
Asia Pacific Museums in the Twenty First Century

Conference Report

Venue

Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University

Dates

5-6 February 2004

HRC in conjunction National Museum of Australia and the Graduate Studies in Sustainable Heritage Development, RSPAS, ANU.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Chen Xiejun, Director, Shanghai Museum on the Shanghai Museum’s programs;
Ms Corazon Alvina, Director National Museum of the Philippines on issues in the Philippines;
Professor Jyotindra Jain, Dean, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi on the Crafts Museum and tribal art in India;
Professor Amareswar Galla, Director Sustainable Heritage Development Program, RSPAS will speak on “Museum Representations on Migration”.

This conference, coinciding with Asia-Pacific week at the Australian National University, is part of an ARC linkages grant between the ANU and the National Museum of Australia underway since 2002. It also draws on issues from the Sustainable Heritage Development Program in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the ANU website: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/heritage/

The Conference focuses on transformations in Asia-Pacific museums, although museums elsewhere will also be included.

A number of sessions will deal with cross-cultural themes and representations of minority and indigenous groups in museums in the region. One of the most complex and challenging issues in the world today is the culture of “the Other”. As Indian scholar, Dr Geeta Kapur, has noted, the problem of identity has been taken to be axiomatic in a nation in the making. Yet this issue of identity has often been associated with concepts of an homogenous society and culture within nations, and with a concentration on such homogeneity in national museums. Identity has also been linked with ethnographic representations of minority cultures, which often are seen as ignoring contemporary and changing living cultures. This conference will examine the way some museums in the Asia-Pacific are leading the way in dealing with indigenous, tribal, minority and “subaltern” cultures and with the challenges of multiculturalism through innovative cross-cultural displays and exhibitions.

Conveners