In Week 7, the students of the year 2 neighbourhood went on an excursion to the Immigration Museum. Our big questions to the students were “Why do people leave their country?”, “Why would people come to Australia” and “What aspects of culture do people bring into countries when they migrate?”.
The students started their session with Pat, a museum educator. She encouraged the students to think about their family history and where their family originated from. The kids were able to share the abundance of countries their families originated from.
The students continued their sessions with a story told by Pat. Pat told us a story of Cuc and Min Lam, two Vietnamese migrants who fled their country and ended up in Australia. The story captured the students interest and they were able to recount it days later.
Here is Cuc’s story
The students were asked questions and contributed ideas in regards to how they would feel and react to leaving their country and embarking on a journey such as Cuc and Min.
The students were then given an opportunity to talk around the museum in small groups and view the artefacts on display.
The first gallery was ‘Leaving Home’, where students were shown the different reasons that people leave their countries.
Next was the “Immigrant Stories and Timelines”. This gallery was the showing the beginning of Victoria’s stories – exploring why people have migrated to Victoria, where they settled and how they started a new life here.
The students moved into undoubtedly the favourite room – ‘Journeys of a Lifetime’. The idea behind this gallery is that all immigrants are linked by the common. The experience of journey.
The students enjoyed looking through the ship
The Getting in Gallery showed students about the immigration policies and processes of migrating to Australia. Photographs, historical objects, and personal stories showed the effects of these policies on cultural diversity in Victoria
Students came upon interesting questions which we have started to investigate and discuss in the neighbourhood.
The final gallery that we went into was the ‘Community Gallery’. The exhibition currently on is ‘From Robe to Chinese Fortunes’. The mid 1850’s saw a surge of Chinese men and women coming to Australia in search for gold. This gallery showed their story.
We will continue our investigation and discussions into people migrating to Australia and what wonderful parts of their culture they bring in and share with us.