Cosmopolitan nationalism in Australian social history museums : assembling histories, negotiating the past

Abstract

Cosmopolitan nationalism in the Australian context is a form of national identity whereby to 'be Australian' is to engage with other cultures and peoples. Positioning cosmopolitan nationalism as a localised set of practices that people participate in as part of their performance of national identity, this thesis examines how social history museums in Australia are responding to the shifting expectations of their visitors to produce histories that focus on transnational patterns of connection, cross-cultural encounters, and the cultures and practices of First Nations peoples. Bringing research in national identity and public history into the museum studies field, this thesis examines how museums engage with national metanarratives, social history objects, and cross-cultural narratives to inform/enable their visitors' practice of national identity. First, I examine the touring exhibition Art of Science: Baudin's Voyagers 1800-1804 at the National Museum of Australia and the Western Australian Maritime Museum (WAMM), comparing each institution's efforts to frame cosmopolitan histories in the exhibition space as well as visitor reception of these narratives. Second, through an examination of the temporary exhibition of Cook and the Pacific at the National Library of Australia, I explore efforts to reorient the metanarrative of James Cook's 'discovery' of Australia to focus on cross-cultural encounters between Cook's three voyages and First Nations peoples of the Pacific. The thesis accepts that cosmopolitan nationalism is a default values position for Australia's social history museums, but the way individual museums present it in their histories shifts with their institutional identities. Visitors to the exhibitions at each of the museums expected to engage with traditional markers of Australian nationhood. International visitors identified banal markers of Australian national identity that were often absently considered by Australian audiences. Australian visitors used local and national markers, from flora and fauna to geographical features, to solidify both their local and national identities. All visitors also practised cosmopolitan values through the consumption of histories that featured interactions between Europeans and First Nations peoples. Visitors expressed an increased awareness of the cultural practices and beliefs of the Other, commented on local and global environmental issues, and raised concerns for present/future relationships between settler-Australians and First Nations peoples. A key finding is that both cosmopolitan or traditional markers and metanarratives of Australia are never fixed within the museum space. As museums, objects, and visitors construct, and engage with, cosmopolitan nationalism in the context of the exhibition space, they continually negotiate the terms of national identity and belonging in Australia.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English