Getting Started

You are about to embark on a discovery mission—you are going to act as a curator in a museum and research an object in your family that has an immigration story to tell. You will also act as a conservator, learning how to best look after your object.

A curator collects objects for the museum's collections and displays. The curator also researches and records the stories and facts connected to the objects.

A conservator looks after the objects, preserving our cultural heritage. Conservators check and restore objects, and organise their storage and transfer, keeping careful records.

Objects can tell us about our past and present lives. All non-indigenous Australians have an immigration story in their family history, and an object can be an interesting way of linking to this story.

Australia's immigration history is evident in many places—not least of which is the family home. The more common the object, the more light it often sheds for us.

By looking at an object's physical features, construction, function, design and value, we can deduce many things. Add this to an oral history or story and we have a rich, multi-layered study. That is the point of this project.