Migration Museum

The Migration Museum works towards the preservation, understanding and enjoyment of South Australia’s diverse cultures. It is a place to discover the many identities of the people of South Australia through the stories of individuals and communities.

You can follow the Migration Museum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. To find more information about the Migration Museum, visit the website.

Image: crowd of people in front of stone building hung with colourful banners

Going Back: How the Migration Museum Began

Today migration museums are dotted all over the world – from Buenos Aires to Bremerhaven, New York to Norway. Rewind just thirty years and this particular breed of museum was...

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Detecting the past

I thought it would be interesting to share some of the joys – and hurdles – of researching the lives of people from our past. While working on ‘In this...

Image: Woman with pink hair and glasses leaning on sign

Introducing Nikki

Nikki is a curator at the Migration Museum. I don’t think I ever really decided that I wanted to be a curator, but a few years ago I did decide that I wanted to work in the GLAM sector [Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums] and so completed a Graduate Diploma...

Image: head and shoulder shot of woman in front of stone wall

Introducing Corinne

Corinne works as a curator at the Migration Museum. After uni I worked in the book trade for 15 years, first in London and then Adelaide, but decided in my 30s to retrain to indulge my lifelong passion for history. I’d always been a keen museum visitor, and thought it would...

In this place – building stories of the Destitute Asylum site

The buildings that now house the Migration Museum were once part of Adelaide’s Destitute Asylum. This site, which had been Kaurna land for millennia, was occupied by Europeans from the...

Image: woman sitting in front of bronze statue of family with suitcase

Introducing Madelena

Madelena Bendo is the Education Officer at the Migration Museum. The role is managed through Outreach Education, part of the Department for Education and Child Development (DECD). I really enjoy working with young people. I relish their freshness and their openness to knowledge. As a child of a migrant, I...

costumes on display - Hazara, Vietnamese and Uyighur

Building our community: Refugee Week at the Migration Museum

Earlier this week we launched our new exhibition in the Migration Museum’s community access gallery, the Forum. The exhibition has been put together by staff and students from Thebarton Senior College. Thebarton has a large program for English language students, most of whom are recent arrivals to Australia, and many...

image: two costumes. one yellow shirt and purple pants, one red robe and hat with beard

Beloved tradition, racist stereotype or both? Zwarte Piet in the 21st century

In 2013 the Migration Museum unveiled a small display about the Dutch in South Australia, which featured costumes used in the 1960s and 1970s at a Dutch cultural club in Adelaide. To generations of Dutch people around the world Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas, who has a red robe and big white...

A Meaningful Experience

On Sunday 27 September the Migration Museum hosted The Bosnian Way, a CultureSpace event co-created with the Bosnian Community in South Australia.