Manager’s Message
 John Petersen, Manager, NSW Migration Heritage Centre |
Migrants have journeyed to Australia and settled in the State of New South Wales both willingly and unwillingly, legally and illegally, as convicts, prisoners of war, as free or assisted immigrants or as refugees. Migrants have also been refused entry, deported, interned and detained – on and off-shore. Australia’s history of migration can be understood in the context of domestic and world history, and British colonial and Australian Federal Government policies.
We live in a multicultural society and the story of migration is both one of struggle and enterprise, and it highlights the importance of family and mutual support.
Unless we are Aboriginal people, we are all migrants or descendants of migrants. Today, four out of ten people in New South Wales are migrants, former migrants or their children. They were born in over 200 countries. As former migrants age, it is vital their stories and cultures are recorded.
The NSW Migration Heritage Centre at the Powerhouse Museum is a New South Wales Government initiative supported by the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW.
The Centre is a virtual immigration museum. Our research program is almost completely decentralised outside of the city of Sydney and produced in partnership with Local Government and community organisations across New South Wales. Our research projects typically run for two to three years and are based at the locations where communities live. Their histories and heritage legacies are showcased in our joint and shared exhibitions, located in Western Sydney, rural and regional museums and libraries, where the communities gather and meet.
Our exhibitions are later centralised and made accessible to the rest of the State – and the world - as online exhibition and educational resources hosted on our website. They are particularly popular with primary and secondary school students and teachers.
By sharing our migration memories, belongings and places, we are helping students of history understand their place in the world.
John Petersen
Manager
NSW Migration Heritage Centre
