1. Minority views of national museums

2. 6 European Museums
Leicester
Aegean
Tartu

3. Who were the minority groups?
Economic
migrants
Mixed cultural roots
Free choice
Russian - speakers
Refugee
Roma

4. 4 Focus groups
Museum
Minority group
Participants
National Museum of
Scotland
British Minority Ethnic
(BME)
7
National Museum of
Ireland
National History
Museum, Athens
Minority Ethnic and
economic migrants
Roma
5
Estonian National
Museum
Russian-language
speakers
5
5

5. 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

6. Different experiences
Category of minority
Pan-European minority
Examples
Roma
Museum
Greece
Historical legacy of a prior
occupying regime
Russian speakers
Estonia
Economic migrants
Those who choose to move for
economic reasons
Ireland
Scotland
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
Scotland
Ireland

7. Majority views
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
Museum visitor, Scotland

8. 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

9. Different experiences of national
identity

10. Assimilation
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”
Peter, Nigerian, living in Ireland

11. Racism
Racism is encouraged by
adults… Within this context,
we cannot talk about either
national identity, or
integration to society
Kostas, Roma

12. Difference
Why am I
different?
Barbara, aged 18-30, Roma

13. Living between two worlds
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

14. Minorities in the National Museum
•
•
•
•
•
Excluded
Absent
Silent
Mis-represented
Tokenistic

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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?

18. A call to action!
• National museums could be….
–More inclusive
–More conscious of unheard voices and
experiences
–More dynamic
–More actively engaged
–More dialogue