Abstract

In the early 1990s, out of an era of cultural policy activity and a growing awareness of the culturally diverse nature of Australia, the Council of Australian Museum Associations commenced development of a policy document focussed on the modes of interaction between Australian museums and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In 1993 it released Previous Possessions New Obligations: Policies for Museums in Australia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in order to ‘help forge new partnerships in Australia between museums and the first peoples of Australia’ (CAMA 1993: 1).

Since its release, Previous Possessions New Obligations has developed a degree of prominence as an important document within the Australian museum sector. It has also, through the activities of Museums Australia Inc., been reviewed, re-framed and given continuity as a symbol of the association’s prioritisation of positive development in museum practices relating to indigenous cultural heritage.

This article reflects on the fact that while Previous Possessions New Obligations can be linked to significant changes in large museums throughout Australia, it has had a more limited impact in smaller, community based museums. Primary research was conducted in a cross-section of community museums in Western Australia. Six museums’ workers were selected for interview based on their representativeness of workers in the sector. Formal interviews were conducted with workers from:

- two local museums with an exclusively volunteer work force. Both were located in the great southern region of Western Australia and came from two different towns;

- two local museums with a paid curator. These were both metropolitan based local authority operated museums whose origin was as volunteer operated community museums;

- two regional branches of the Western Australian Museum in very different regional centres. They were interviewed both in terms of their own practices, their links to the State museum and their general knowledge of the museum community in their region.

From an analysis of primary research collected from these community museums in Western Australia this article suggests reasons for the policy’s limited impact in community museums, and how repetition of this scenario can be avoided in future policy developments for the Australian museum sector.

Date published: May 2001