As a new Education Officer at the National Museum of Australia I am currently working on a Meet the People program. This is a short presentation for visiting students that provides an overview of what’s in the National Museum – with the focus on the personal story of a particular person.
Beyond the technical aspects of AV set-up, thumb drives and PowerPoints is the more profound question of just who should these students actually be ‘meeting’?
So far I have been presenting a pre-existing story involving a green suitcase and the journey it made with a Latvian family to Australia. It has been really well received and is an excellent opportunity for students to share some of their own migration stories and to think about what sorts of objects they might have in their families, such as letters and photos, that they can start to value as genuine pieces of living history.
But I do want to write my own presentation.
Tania Verstak, Miss Australia, 1961
To that end, I have been working on the story of Tania Verstak which is a lovely and positive story about Australian immigration. Tania, with stunning gowns and gleaming crowns, is a shiny example of an immigrant breaking through barriers and preconceptions to win the title of Miss Australia and then Miss Universe. I am looking forward to sharing this positive role model with students and am debating about wearing a tiara on my head while I present it!
A question
There is another story I also want to tell. It is the story of a Holocaust survivor which touches on a spectrum of human emotions – utter tragedy but also the triumph of survival and the recreation of a shattered life. But so far I am holding back on this because a question keeps nagging me – are students ready for this story? They arrive at the Museum in a state of heightened excitement, eager to absorb our collection. It is wonderful to give them a happy positive experience. Would a story that involves death, torture and unfathomable suffering be too negative an experience on a class excursion? I do think that it would need to be pitched to a certain age group, perhaps college students who have already been exposed to some of the inhumanities of World War Two in the classroom.
And there are certainly positive aspects to focus on in this story – the recreation of a shattered human being in to a successful business woman who above all kept on living. I think this could be a powerful message for young people. Who, however, gets to really determine what children should and shouldn’t be exposed to in relation to something like this? Is it ever too early to learn the stories of inhumanity which pervade any nation’s history? Perhaps for some students it is.
I will keep working on this story – but whether or not it will be presented is yet to be determined!
I think kids are ready for weighty stories. As a mother myself, I’d prefer that my daughter has deep experiences at museums – there are plenty of opportunities for fluff! This page on the Shoah memorial in Paris provides some good feedback on how children respond to Holocaust stories.
In short, YGG!