1. How does the museum tell stories about current events?

Case Study of Bushfire collection 2009 

The 2009 Bushfire collection provides a good example of how museums collect objects and tell stories about contemporary events.  

The following activities will help you to understand the process of research and collection in museums. 

 Watch Liza Dale Hallett talk about her role as a curator and how she plans, researches and builds her collection. 

The curator's role

 Investigating natural disasters

Museum collection

Starting research

We have selected 4 short videos however you may want to watch the entire collection of 8. 

Brainstorm 

• Make a list of possible stories to tell. 
• What would you put in a museum of staying at home? 
• Write down as many ideas that come to mind. 
• Hint:  Will the story be the story of your experience only or will it be the story of :
  • your family
  • your street
  • your community
  • your class
  • your school 

Plan

• What do you need to tell your story?  
• Who do you need to talk with?  
• What do you need to collect?  
• Make a list and add to it as you complete each of the following activities. 

Keep a Diary as part of your planning:   

If you are in Melbourne or the Mitchell shire document your life in lockdown as it is happening now.  If you have returned to school this week use a notebook to recall what was happening during lockdown in term 2. See if you can recall what you were doing while you were staying home.  

If you are in lockdown now write down everything you do each day in your diary. If you are at school see if you can remember what you were doing each day of the week while you were at home. This will give you lots of information about how you will write your labels down the track.  

Make sure you include lots of detail.  

• What are/were you doing? 
• What are/were you eating? 
• Who are/were you talking to? 
• What objects are/were you using? 
• What are/were you looking at? 
• What’s missing? 
• What are/were you doing more?   
• What are/were you doing less?   

If you already have a diary that you have been keeping, think about your early observations.  

• What has changed last weeks and months? 
• Do you have any other evidence of what you have been doing since Victoria was placed into Lockdown on 23 March? 
• Have you taken any photographs? 
• How has your family been keeping track of the different things they have been doing during this time? How can you use any of this in your planning? 
• How did it feel coming out of lockdown? How does it feel going into a second round of lockdown?

Add any ideas you have thought of to your list.

 Your plan is beginning to take shape.  

---

 

Ready to start the next activity?