Projects

Completed July 2003

Who's involved

The Migration Heritage Centre in collaboration with Wollondilly Heritage Centre, The Oaks (WHC), with assistance from the Museums and Galleries Foundation of NSW.

When and where

Project location: Wollondilly Shire, outer SW Sydney
Project status: Completed project
Date of completion: July 2003

Project description

The partnership project examined the contribution of a number of migrant communities to a core industry in the Wollondilly area - the poultry industry.

Through the project, a series of three workshops were developed and run involving the WHC; a number of migrant communities in the Wollondilly area; and representatives of key, local organisations, such as the local council, Chamber of Commerce, museums, galleries and libraries.

The workshops were run according to the model developed for the MHC's Migration Heritage Toolkit. This project offered the MHC the first chance to actively test this model since the original pilot phases.

From the workshops, the project made a series of recommendations on future products or activities that the WHC can develop. Examples include a new display on the industry and communities' involvement; strategies for the collection or provenance of movable heritage identified in the course of the project (if the objects are to be housed in the WHC); preparing a Register of Items (if these are to be maintained in the community); or preparing to submit an item for lodgement on the State Heritage Register or Local Environment Plan.

What did the project achieve?

The project:

encouraged a small, volunteer-run museum to engage with local migrant and refugee communities;
generated awareness amongst WHC's volunteers, visitors and the wider community about the area's significant migration histories;
generated awareness amongst local migrant communities of the WHC and its role as a forum to share their heritage with the wider community;
encouraged the participating migrant communities to identify, assess and protect their heritage from their own cultural perspectives; and
strengthened the relationships between the WHC and local organisations, for example, the local council and museums, galleries and libraries in the surrounding area.
Working in partnership with the Wollondilly Heritage Centre was a major component of the overall cultureworks project, an initiative of the Migration Heritage Centre.


Project contact

John Petersen - Manager
Migration Heritage Centre

Phone +61 2 9217 0625
Fax +61 2 9217 0628

Email johnp@phm.gov.au

Address:
PO Box K346
Haymarket NSW 1238
AUSTRALIA

Website
www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au