Maintaining Aboriginal engagement in Australian museums: two models of inclusion

Abstract

Recent decades have seen efforts by museums to become more inclusive and to open up space for the sharing of different voices and different perspectives. Such efforts have been driven by broader social and political changes in support of these inclusive practices. In Australia, where the political context has shifted away from policies of Aboriginal self-determination, a potential gap has opened between museum and government priorities with regard to Aboriginal engagement, putting efforts toward inclusion at risk. It is therefore vital to consider how museums have enacted practices of inclusion and to consider their vulnerabilities to changing social and political contexts. To illustrate such consequences, this paper considers Aboriginal inclusion within two Australian state museums, the Australian Museum and Museum Victoria, and argues that inclusionary practices need to enter institutional structures in order to have sustained meaning despite broader political change.