Year 11 History Museum Exhibition

For Ancient History, we created a museum exhibit to demonstrate our knowledge of the complexities associated with the issue of ownership for many artefacts in museums around the world. The question of “who owns the past” is contentious, and, by attempting to answer it, we learnt much about the issues and aspects of the representation and commemoration of history in museums. Creating the museum display itself was an enjoyable cooperative experience, involving the combination of different skill sets to form one cohesive work. Discussing ideas, formulating plans, and eventually constructing the exhibition were all good fun, and helped improve our teamwork. The exhibition of the displays by both the Modern History and Ancient History cohorts was a rousing success. There was a high turnout of museum-goers, and there was high participation and engagement. Being able to present the fruits of our labours to a curious audience is definitely an experience that far surpasses writing essays. Our museum display on the Benin Bronzes incorporated ideas and inspiration from our excursion to the Chau Chak Wing museum, which informed us of the factors and careful thought that went into each meticulously arranged exhibit. Lighting, accessibility, clarity and even height needed to be taken into account to cater to all audiences, and this inspired some components of our exhibit, such as the raised artefacts and lifted plaques. In addition, the museum helped answer questions pertaining to the ownership of artefacts, giving a glimpse into the repatriation of stolen artefacts through its exhibit on the Gweagal Spears. So, back to the question; “Who owns the past?” You’ll have to choose Ancient History to find out. Thank you to the teachers that made the exhibition possible, and thank you to the people who chose our display for the People’s Choice Award.

Thanks,

Caiyuan, Anna and Aimee

For our modern history museum, we researched J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the Atomic Bomb. Throughout the process, we developed our research, presentation and teamwork skills. First, we divided the task and assigned a role to each member, then tried to consistently spend small amounts of time working on the research. We all enjoyed designing the museum, using both our creative and scientific skills to create artefacts or models. Overall, this project was a fun and educational experience for us, and we were really proud of how we were received.

– Clara, Hyejeong Erin, Lara, and Sophia

A note from Ms Wark

The museum exhibition is a huge task and I wanted to thank all the Modern and Ancient History students for their hard work and enthusiasm with which they approached the museum exhibit. Special congratulations go to the winners of the hotly contested People’s Choice Awards: Aimee, Anna and Caiyuan (Ancient) and Sophia, Lara, Hyejeong Erin and Clara.